Alex Leece

Innovation Ecosystems

Frank Gehry - Disney Concert Hall by Julius Shulman and Juergen Nogai

When Frank Gehry was designing the Disney Concert Hall, he considered how the building would interact with the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion adjacent and adjusted the design accordingly. I recently came across a comment in the Financial Times in an article by Ron Adner that cemented the sentiment behind this in my mind. It’s not enough to simply manage your innovation, you must manage your ‘innovation ecosystem’ also. Essentially it’s all to easy to focus on the outcome of what you are trying to produce and forget to consider how it interacts with people and the world around it.

In his book, Ron Adner examines this phenomenon that causes many companies to fail “because they focus too intensely on their own innovations, and then neglect the innovation ecosystems on which their success depends.”  This single minded execution focus is inward looking, involving the standard processes of linking strategy and operations, bringing teams together, looking at competitors and their value propositions. It is seen as good business practice, which it is, however it can create a blind spot that hides key dependencies that are equally important in determining success or failure. As technology causes our world to become increasingly connected and interdependent, this problem becomes exacerbated. For example with much of the marketing content we produce we now need to consider, how will people be viewing the content, where will they be, how will they share it, who will they share it with and most importantly how will they know it is there.

Obviously completing the project is still the core focus however Ron Adner suggests two other areas to consider to help take a broader view of the innovation ecosystem. Firstly, consider who else may need to innovate to activate your product. This has two sides, one the business side, in terms of production and delivery of the product and two, the consumer side in terms of using the product. For example with mobile advertising, to truly make the most of what you are creating you may require significant smart phone penetration or upgrades in mobile phone handsets. Secondly look at who else needs to adopt the product to deliver it to the end user, who do you need to sell it in to and who needs to support it to deliver it to market. This naturally has more of a business focus, however with many digital innovations these days, there is an element of connectivity and sharing, which may mean you require a critical mass of a few key influencers adopting the product before its value is fully realised.

Innovation Ecosystem

It’s easy to fall into the trap of execution focus, especially when we are faced with tight deadlines. However I think the take out here is that, taking a moment to consider a broader view and looking at the entire ecosystem rather than simply what needs to be done to complete the project may change how you approach things. It may change how you choose to bring it to market or what you prioritise in terms of the product features. It may even help you to identify new opportunities or threats and adjust how you measure the success of the project. This isn’t a new idea, but it’s one that’s important to remind ourselves of.

Alex

Reference: The Wide Lens: A New Strategy for Innovation by Ron Adner

Innovation & The Connected Mind

Innovation. A term often bandied around and something that all forward thinking companies strive to deliver in spades. The question is, how can companies take advantage of this elusive trait, is it something a person is born with or is it something that a company can cultivate as a product of the cultural environment? If the environment does indeed play a part, then increasingly how might the use of digital technology to connect ourselves and our ideas effects this process?

When you first consider the term innovation, you may be forgiven for thinking that it concerns a moment of great insight, which happens with people who are inherently “innovative”. It’s a term that has alot of myths attached to it. I came across the below table from an HBR Article which addresses these quite nicely.

Innovation Myths

The couple of points that really stood out for me here is that there is an aspect of nuture involved in innovation and that it is something that can occur throughout the company, not just in the R&D lab. This suggests that it is certainly something a company can cultivate and can be driven by anyone across the business at any time. How can businesses use this to their advantage? There has been a recent proliferation of new titles in our industry involving innovation, Chief Innovation Officer, Director of Innovation and the list goes on. Whilst these may seem like invented positions to try to convey a sense that the company is innovative, I believe that companies need people on the fringe who push forward new thinking. This often means they isolate themselves from others resistant to change, being at the forefront can be a lonely place to be. People like this can really help to drive new thinking over time by stirring the pot and provoking discussion. More then this though, ensuring companies support people to pursue new ideas and realising that they can come from anyone at any time is crucial.

Further to this, from an environmental point of view, in an age of increasing connectivity within the company through digital technology, could this have a positive effect on innovation?  This seems to be the case. I recently watch an interesting video by Stephen Johnson on Where Good Ideas Com From:

In it, he puts forward the concept of the “slow hunch”. This hypothesizes that most great ideas don’t come from a moment of great insight, but a slow building hunch that when combined with other peoples hunches creates a new concept or innovation. This suggests that digital technology allowing us to interact in real time with people quickly and easily to share ideas may have a positive effect on innovation. Twitter is a good example of this idea sharing in action, people all around the world collaborate around topics and share their ideas. Essentially being constantly connected creates faster feedback loops between people allowing ideas to bounce off each other at a faster rate.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in future as much like Moore’s, Kryder’s & Gilder’s laws see an increasing rate of change in technology, so to may this apply to the new ideas that spring from it.

Alex

Cultural Latency – Easy Come, Easy Go

A 2009 study has found that the fall of an item’s popularity mirrors its rise to popularity, so that items that become popular faster also die out faster, which is demonstrated by name trends. Image caption: Berger and Le Mens. ©2009 PNAS

It seems like everything is becoming more disposable these days. As we become more connected and have always on access to content that we can engage with and distribute in real time, what effect does this have on the life cycle of content?

Previously creating content was the domain of specialists and distributing it was restricted to those with money and corporate backing through well established networks. Mail was delivered in days rather than seconds and news content was printed and delivered to your door. Even music took time to distribute through retail outlets on vinyl or CD. Now just about anyone with a PC and an internet connection can create and rapidly share their ideas and content. I was reading over Faris Yakob’s post in which he raised an interesting point about what he termed Cultural Latency, in that there is a correlation between

“the amount of time it takes to distribute something, and the amount of time it takes for that thing to have an effect, and consequently the amount of time that thing stays relevant and interesting.”

Essentially research has found evidence to back up the saying, easy come, easy go. A 2009 study found that a fall of an item’s popularity seems to mirror that of it’s rise (see graph above). They discovered this in studying the popularity of names in France & US over the last 100 years. They hypothesize that whilst there is no mathematical reason behind this phenomenon, it is driven by people’s beliefs creating the reality, probably stemming from the fact that it gets to a point where people don’t like to be thought to follow the mainstream. It is an example of the interrelationship of how psychological processes can shape culture and that culture can shape thought processes.

Now that digital technology is reducing the friction points within any given distribution system, it is making them more efficient and is causing this effect to become quite evident in the life span of content. Content can spread and become popular faster then ever before, I guess we’d call this “going viral”. This has the effect of creating much faster feedback loops, information is delivered and consumed faster, which triggers more effects in quick succession. This rapid rise has the flow on effect of potentially leading to much faster cultural decay. Just take music for example, you can see bands come from nowhere with a manufactured hit then just as quickly disappear off the radar.

So what does this all mean? It certainly raises the case for slow and steady organic growth. Perhaps it’s not always better to go after a meteoric rise to fame but to consider the option of growing at a slower pace. Obviously this would depend on the content or objectives behind the strategy of the campaign but an interesting point to consider when considering a brand or content strategy.

Alex

Big Data & In Memory Computing

BT Tower - London - A Monument To The Broadcast Era

Big Data is a term coined to describe the data deluge we are currently experiencing. It’s no secret that we are living in a technology driven society that generates an ever increasing amount of data as we go about our daily lives. “Always on” is a term that is often heard and more often then not, when we are “on” we are creating data about ourselves, our likes and our dislikes, our network of friends both professional and social, and even our travel habits. At the same time, businesses must also retain more and more information to manage themselves more efficiently across the board. In tough economic times there is an ever increasing recognition that organisations must use every single resource at their disposal to get ahead. This results in information and data that once might have been given little attention is now seen as worth its weight in gold if any perceived value can be derived from it.

Looking at the sources of this data, to start with there is of course the sales, operational and customer data that the business collects. On top of this there’s social media data from the likes of Facebook and Twitter including information around friend groups, likes/dislikes and sentiment analysis. There’s web search data, with transactional information or online customer reviews. There’s also data generated by location-based services and data from sensors, moniters and GPS embedded in a growing array of products from vehicles to appliances. I believe if we as advertisors can offer solutions to our clients of how we can process and utilise the growing amount of data available to help inform creative business solutions we could offer real value. To quote a recent Financial Times article

“The challenges are two-fold: First, to recognize the value of big data in mining customer needs and desires, and second, to devise a data management strategy that integrates big data into the front end of the innovation pipeline.” 

So how do businesses harness all the data that is being created and use it to inform their strategy and decision making? The challenge here is being able to process large amounts of data at speeds that make it useful. It’s very difficult to really make use of data in business decisions on an ongoing basis when it takes weeks to gather and process. Large software powerhouses such as SAP & Oracle have been bringing new tools to market for businesses to help solve this problem. In memory computing software is designed so organisations can analyse vast quantities of data in near real time across many sources. Essentially in-memory computing takes advantage of a better understanding of how data is formed and housed and the ever decreasing price of memory (discussed in my Technology vs Advertising post). Instead of housing data on a hard drive, data is stored in a computers memory. Therefore, when it needs to be analysed it is available in near real time. This increased power and speed also means that the computers can handle more unstructured data, important when data can come from so many different sources. On the back of this there would need to be a process for managing and delivering the data in an efficient manner and most importantly, in a way that is easy to understand and glean insights from.

Whilst I think caution must be taken not to let our ability to measure granular details bog down the creative process, at the end of the day, the more you know about your customers and can integrate those insights into your business strategies the more likely they are to improve revenue, margins and market share. Who wouldn’t want that leg up over the competition?

Alex

A Consideration of Charm

Depot Eatery by Al Brown - Auckland, New Zealand

Today I was reading an essay in the February edition of Monocle magazine on charm and it got me thinking about that elusive quality, that is so hard to quantify, yet can make all the difference to someones opinion of a place or service. As they pointed out, you will never hear someone say “I was I were less charming”. It’s a quality that can’t be easily replicated (bad news for competitors) and I believe really helps to give your business a special place in peoples minds. Take Depot Eatery pictured above, as soon as you arrive you feel the place has a character which is replicated in the unpretentious yet delicious food.

How can we as advertisers help to create content and instore experiences that help to cultivate this elusive trait? I believe it has to start at the ground level instore, where the customer is interacting with your business and you really have the opportunity to control a branded experience. Create a service experience that is friendly and warm, where the customer feels a personal touch. In a larger retail advertising sense this comes down to utilising CRM and Instore channels. Using CRM databases to customise content delivered to customers, you could send out personalised mailers to letterboxes, exclusive deals to mobile phones or deliver on screen prompts to sales staff of the customers favourite products when the customer is at the point of sale. Also consider the design space and fit out of the store carefully. No longer is it simply enough to erect some shelving and place products on it, expecting them to sell. When instore, this is a retail or service businesses big opporunity to sell the brand in an age when people roundly ignore a large portion of the advertising messages out there. Think on brand, engaging and personal, of course all the while remembering we are in the business of selling!

In terms of bringing the message above the line, as a brand you must be true and honest. This is nothing new in terms of branding strategy but I think now more then ever it is important for your busiess to have a clear value proposition. Be proud of the qualities of your business that can’t be faked or replicated. Are your products wholly sourced from quality producers or do you have the widest curated range of fashion available for convenient purchase? It is no longer simply enough to just decide what your product or service is about through mass market channels, people see through this. Brands must now constantly live their values, throughout all touch points with the consumer to truely deliver a memorable experience.

So next time when someone wanders in with a Powerpoint describing in detail the customer journey, take a minute to think about at what point you will be charming the pants off them!

Alex

CES 2012 Trends & BBDO Digital Labs Round Up

CES is held every year in Las Vegas, where the worlds leading innovators in technology gather to showcase their new products and share their vision for the future. This year was no different and BBDO Digital Labs TV was on hand to report live with key figures in the technology industry. I thought I’d put together a summary of some key trends from the event and round up the Digital Labs TV coverage.

Trends

-Smarter TVs: Simplicity of control was a theme here, with the latest models featuring voice commands, gesture controls and even facial recognition. This is made possible with increased processor power & built in cameras & microphones. These more intuitive gestures make accessing apps & services a much easier prospect.

– Improved Screen Technology: Thinner, larger & with higher detail then ever before. Sony for example, unveiled a Crystal LED display which has 4 times the detail of current HD.

-Ultrabooks: These thin, light & instant on machines were popular among manufacturers. Netbooks on steroids, the standouts were the HP Envy Spectre & the Lenovo Yoga.

-Mobile: A number of smart phones were announced, including Intel’s first foray into the market. Smart phones are clearly a growing area as mobile network speeds continue to increase. Could 2012 be the year of 5G?

-Networking: Wireless technologies & networks were of interest, with some products showing off concepts of islands of 60ghz network connectivity around your TV for example, allowing super fast speeds within that room, then tapering off around the rest of the house.

BBDO Digital Labs TV CES 2012 Coverage Round Up

Newspapers – Product & Positioning

I was recently reading an article in Monocle magazine about a newspaper in Norway, Dagens Naringsliv, http://www.dn.no/ which targets the premium end of the news market with their printed editions with thorough, quality, investigative journalism whilst utilising their website & tablet editions for breaking and up to the minute news & comment. Could this be the future for newspapers? Will printed paper stand for quality like it once did when the internet and digital devices are ubiquitous? In my opinion we are seeing this trend to an extent with magazines already.

It’s no new concept however that in advertising and media we need to look beyond just the product itself as a basis for our strategy. In our over saturated & communicated market, this is no longer enough. Even if we have the best product we now need to look at how the product is positioned in the minds of the receivers/consumers to really find our space in the market. Technology and the internet are forcing newspapers into a transition phase where their old model of being a printed advertising delivery system where journalism takes a back seat is rapidly becoming obsolete. Readership is dropping as people turn to the internet for their daily news rather than the traditional printed edition.

Could a new product & positioning strategy perhaps help to both revive the printed edtions and innovate the business model into the future? With some clever positioning and quality content this could be the case. I’m sure there will always be people willing to pay for quality journalism on a tangible medium such as paper, especially if we can make people feel more sophisticated for doing so. Let’s face it, we by nature are tactile creatures and there is something about the feeling of a good quality paper stock in your hands that no amount of digital technology can replicate.

So how could a newspaper go about doing this? For a starters it would most likely take a refresh of brand design and some self promotion.

For the printed editions the below points could be considered:

• Improve the quality of the content (look at longer form journalism, perhaps investigative content & content with strong editorial influence)
• Improve the quality of the paper stock
• Consider the distribution quantity (perhaps reducing the printed circulation and targeting specific geographic regions to control costs)
• Consider the distribution channels (could the channels be more carefully considered to portray a premium image?)
• Increase the price to reflect a premium pricing strategy

Then, back it up with an “always on” site which can be viewed across multiple devices from laptops to tablets or mobile. Content here could be up to the minute, with far less editorial control & could cover a wider variety of stories & commentary. As you compete on a global scale online, keeping content curated to the region your printed in would most likely serve best against competition from strong international news powerhouses. Paywalls should most likely become the norm for certain content here also.

All this aside, the biggest challenge facing the industry is that with the web it is impossible to monetise to the same extent as print since the advertising space isn’t as valuable. Unfortunately for them, I doubt this hurdle will ever be able to be overcome, they may simply never be as profitable as they once were and the focus must go back to quality content. As it should be.

Alex

Colmar Brunton & Millward Brown’s Digital Predictions For 2012

As we rapidly speed towards the end of the year and scurry to get the last bits of creative out the door before we head off on our Christmas breaks, I took some time today to consider the year ahead after reading Colmar Brunton & Millward Brown’s digital predictions for 2012. Whilst it’s impossible to be truly accurate with these predictions, it’s exciting to think about the trends that will potentially be shaping our projects in the year to come. With technology changing so rapidly, alot can happen in 12 months time! Here’s their list:

#1 Gamification Unlocked: Big Brands become even more playful

This concept has close ties with behavioural economics, applying gaming mechanics to non game situations. The trick is to bake them in and do it in such a way that it doesn’t feel like a game. For example, bonus reward points randomly offered on purchases.

#2 Just Tap It! Wide spread adoption of the mobile wallet

We’ve always got our phones with us, we will start to see its functionality enhanced enabling practicality. It could be used as a payment system, a means of I.D, drivers license or even keys to unlock our car.

#3 Virtual Togetherness: TV & Social Media will fuel an explosion in tools, technologies & platforms for interaction and research

People will be able to engage with shows in new and interesting ways. TV viewing habits are often influenced by our friends so the social graph could be leverage as a program guide. Could have an impact on how we view TV Ratings also.

#4 Online Video: Invades the living room

Google TV & Apple TV have already had a stab at this, but as TVs become internet enabled we will be able to access more and more content from the web with it.

#5 Mobile Marketing: Will become more social & local than ever before

Success in this space will combine relevance, location and timing of the content intertwined with social. Care must be taken about appearing intrusive here as people have very close relationships with their mobile phones and don’t take well to being pushed content they don’t want.

#6 Growth: The only App trend that really matters

Looking beyond Apples app store, we see Android market steadily growing. Apps could be pulled accross multiple devices from mobile to tablet to PC and TVs. In App advertising will grow and morph into richer content and video.

#7 Social CPG e-commerce: Tiptoeing between engagement and marketing leads us back to traditional marketing vehicles

Care must be taken not to turn the social space into just another selling opportunity but it may offer the chance to build awareness, trial, sample and coupon.

#8 The Social Graph will generate meaningful data for brand measurement

The social graph generates an unprecented amount of consumer data that can be used both for consumer insight and a real time barometer of consumer opinion.

#9 Regulators narrow their focus as consumers pay the real price for “free” access

With information sharing essentially being the cost of entry to networks, the financial implications of how information is managed and protected may come in to play.

#10 The arrival of Seamless Sharing

The share button will continue to spread throughout the online space, being able to share a peice of content is just naturally expected. Those who produce the most interesting content will gain the most earned media through this mechanism.

#11 China will see “One Stop Shop” convergence of micro-blogging, social networks & information portals

New forms of micro-blogging which integrate facets of social networks are taking off.

#12 Online Advertising: Real-time decision making takes centre stage

We want data and we want it right away. Successful strategies here will involve being able to adapt efficiently to real time information in combination with insight, analytics and creative execution. As a side note, Google Analytics just launched real time stats for your page.

Colmar Brunton & Millward Brown’s digital predictions for 2012 Report

Here’s to an exciting 2012!

Alex

Considerations of Influence

Lapo Elkann - considered a style icon

I just read a post by Noah Brier in which he quoted the below from the SocialFlow blog regarding how we consider social influence which I thought was quite good and got me thinking about how we measure and define influence.

“As we build out digital social spaces, we must not get derailed by metrics of status affordances that have taken center stage. Just because we have easily accessible data at our fingertips doesn’t mean that we have the capacity to model and place a value tag on human behavior. Followers, friends or likes represent an aspect of our digital status, but are only a partial representation of our general propensity to be influential. Keith Urbahn wasn’t the first to speculate Bin Laden’s death, but he was the one who gained the most trust from the network. And with that, the perfect situation unfolded, where timing, the right social-professional networked audience, along with a critically relevant piece of information led to an explosion of public affirmation of his trustworthiness.”

With all the data that digital media affords, there is a danger that we can get caught up in the numbers, measuring people and their behaviour is never going to be an exact science. Whilst we can take the data available as part of the picture we must remember that there are many external factors that can affect influence. People are complex things and we must be careful to place a numerical figure on behaviour implying causation.

With that in mind, below is a simplified model which can help as a framework along with the data available for examining a situation of influence. It is hard to project forward many of the factors at play but can help along with the data to put together a picture.

Influence:

Any situation of influence involves 2 parties, influencer & target.

1. Influencer’s ability to influence relies on:

Credibility (what they know): The influencer’s expertise or perceived expertise by the target on the subject matter.

Social Capital (who they know): What standing does the influencer have in the community, do they know and associate with people that support the area of influence in consideration.

Bandwidth: The extent of the influencer’s ability to transmit their knowledge through their network of channels.

2. The target’s likelihood to be influenced by a specific influencer:

Relevance (the right information): To what extent do the target’s information needs coincide with the influencer’s expertise and subject matter.

Timing (the right time): The ability of the influencer to deliver the information to the target at the time when the target needed it.

Alignment (the right place): The extent of the channel overlap between the target and the influencer across their networks. If the two parties overlap on many channels, the expectation would be an increased situation of influence.

Confidence (the right person): How much the target trusts the influencer with respect to their information needs. This comes back to the influencers credibility and social capital in the eyes of the target.

Alex

The Future of Books

For a 1 year old, is a magazine simply an iPad that doesn’t work? Are we seeing a new generation for whom printed content is essentially broken? I just recently saw the above video on Youtube and it got me thinking about what the future will be for how we will read and consume content. Like I touched on in my Technology vs Advertising post, what we consider technology is predicated by the age in which we experience it. What is considered technology by us now will just be stuff to children who grow up exposed to it. With the release of the iPad, Apple essentially brought to the mainstream a new way to experience content and we are already seeing a change in behaviour as many newspapers struggle with a downturn in readership as people go online for their content on a daily basis. Also printed content is obviously alot more expensive and time consuming to create and produce so we are seeing not just a change in how we consume content but a change for how the industry creates and distributes it as well.

Tablet devices are already impacting upon how people consume content, with more and more people reading books and getting their information from them. I for one enjoy reading the Financial Times on their web app. Reading books and consuming content in this way opens up new opportunities for how we engage with it. About a year ago now, IDEO put together the below concept video illustrating three different concepts for how technology may change the experience of reading for people.

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Nelson: Contextualizes books within popular opinion and debate to provide reference and easy cross-checking of information

Coupland: Contextualizes books within your professional social network to make it easier to identify what’s worth reading

Alice: Adds a game layer to the experience of reading, in a sort of choose your own adventure meets geo-targeting scernario.

The key technology linking all the concepts together is that through the internet feeding tablets and mobile we are able to be constantly connected wherever we are which enhances how we find and consume content. New layers of utility can be added to the reading experience that couldn’t be before. As tablets become cheaper and a device for the masses, I believe this will be an area of significant growth. I do however feel there will be a place for printed books for a long time to come. I can see them becoming almost a luxury item such as many of the thriving printed magazines are these days. Since it will be alot more expensive to print a book, it will be left in the domain of the quality publications.

On the other side of the coin though there are wider reaching implications for the industry itself of digitalisation. Firstly, if you remove the printed nature of books, the definition of what one is becomes blurred somewhere between a tweet, an article and a 500 page novel. In the digital environment there aren’t the same parameters as there are in the printed world. Not only that but since the cost is lower and the whole process of producing content is faster, it puts pressure on the current distribution model. The traditional delay of up to a year between a books completion and publication was due to the work required to print, distribute and market but also allowed a means of stock control for retailers with the constraints of shelf space in their store. They needed to sell through one lot of books before they could take on more. Now books can be sold and distributed via the internet, it means book stores need to look at their business models and rearrange them.

What does this mean for the future of book stores? Much like I discussed in the Continuous Channel – Future of Retail post, people will always have a reason to go to stores but retailers will need to design them and consider the service offering as a whole with the online one. Not only does the online offering support the stores but allows the long tail of the back catalogue of books that aren’t held instore to be taken advantage of. I think we will end up with a situation where book stores will still have a place, but just a more specialised and service driven one. We are still seeing stores like WH Smith looking to triple their stores in air ports for example, capitalising on the sales of books in the moment when people need them. Whilst they will be supplying their e-book reader Kobo from this location, they will have a selection of paper backs too. They still currently see the e-reader as incremental to their paper back sales, as two thirds of their sales come from children’s books and non-fiction whereas 90% of all downloaded e-books are fiction (WH Smith plans to triple airport stores – FT.com).

Digitalisation of the book industry impacts not only how we as consumers experience the content but how the industry delivers it. Through the internet and new devices we are constantly connected with easy access to books and content, with new layers of utility added to them. For the industry it means a radical change in the distribution models and looking at their service offering, including an online product as part of it. All that said, there is still something about holding a good quality printed product on high quality stock in your hands.

Alex