Let’s face it – at one point or another, we’ve all had a bad user experience. For some of us, the memories appear in the form of a blinking red “12:00” on our VCR. For others, it’s the lid of your piping hot coffee cup that seems to crumble, popping off just as you pull out of the drive-through. For many of us these days, a bad experience can be an irritating remote control layout, while for others it’s called airport signage. And while we all have come to grudgingly accept commercials before a $15 movie, we all still feel somewhat victimized.
More often than not, we ask ourselves, “How could the designers have gotten this so wrong! I could have done better myself!”
To a degree, you may be right. At the end of the day, one of the many challenges of experience design is a disjointed process where the product or service is touched by specialists who don’t talk to each other or who simply see their own specialty as being “priority number one.” They all may have even seen the creative brief or statement of work – but, based on their specialties, they all translated it differently. The engineer may see “elegant” as exquisitely crafted with the finest chips. The designer sees “elegant” as the most beautiful shape, color or texture ever to have graced the human eye, while the salesperson sees “elegant” as whatever the data shows as selling most effectively this quarter.
So, how do good experiences get designed? A great house requires an equally great architect, and in that same vein, the user experience architect role serves to create good experiences. As a user experience architect, the fundamentals of good experiences are embedded in the study of human behavior. Here are some basic tenets that can be universally applied to any user experience:
- Clearly define the end result of your product or service, the budget and the timeline at all phases. If you have more than one step in the process, it will be all too easy to lose sight of what’s being done, why it’s being done and how it will be delivered.
- Define and categorize your users. Understand their priorities, the environment they’ll be in when they experience your product and service, and what’s ultimately important to them. User experience architects typically work with strategists to create “personas,” which are behavioral models for groups within your target market. These personas are referred to throughout the project as a sanity check to make sure that the user is always top of mind on project direction.
- Understand your business goals and make sure everyone else understands them, too. Help the team understand roles and who drives at what point. You don’t want your engineer to design, and you don’t want your designer wielding a hot torch, but if both have ample opportunity to collaborate, the results can be wonderful.
- Test your work early and often with actual users. Understand and study reactions to your product and service, and validate the work done. User experience architects understand how best to test and what to ask in moderated sessions.
- Don’t leave each specialty to define and interpret the brand vision. Let your user experience architect work with the business analyst to clearly articulate the vision, through validated documentation that includes user-centric perspectives.
There is a method to creating a good user experience, regardless of whether it’s an e-commerce site or a multichannel marketing campaign. At the end of the day, your user experience architect can apply tried-and-true methods to advocate a positive experience for the user. Your customers will benefit from the constant advocacy of your user experience team, and you’ll find yet another key method for differentiating yourself from your competitors. We may not be able to save you from 20 minutes of commercials before the movie, but we can help create the right kind of experience for your brand and for your organization.
Back in October, Sarah Voges introduced Pinterest to the blog. The rise of this online bookmarking site has been exponential. As of November 2011, TechCrunch reports that Pinterest is up more than 2,000% since June. Its audience is mainly female with boards centered on wedding, food, décor and many more.
Brands are beginning to find ways to utilize this new kind of social media to speak to their consumers. The greatest potential for success in this space is the rise of social shopping because people trust recommendations by friends more than marketers. By sharing and viewing Pinterest boards with your Facebook and Twitter networks, you can easily see what your friends are interested in and recommending. Advertisers that work in the retail, food and fashion industries can obviously benefit from pinning their pictures or products on the site and being part of users’ social sharing.
Here are few examples:
Nordstrom, one of the nation’s leading fashion specialty retailers, created Pinterest boards showcasing gift ideas and holiday outfits. Once you click into the picture, you’ll be redirected to the product page on the Nordstrom site for purchase. How convenient!
Real Simple magazine creates boards centered around tips for decorating, recipes, gifts and overall holiday inspiration. Every one of their pictures links back to the article or picture on their site. The popular magazine reports more referrals from Pinterest than Facebook for the month of October. Below are some of their recent boards.
Whole Foods, the national grocery store specializing in natural and organic foods, is interested in Pinterest by using it to be part of people’s passion points. To show brand personality, they’ve created a board for gardening and sweets. To raise awareness of their community involvement, they’ve made a board for their nonprofit organization, Whole Planet Foundation. All their boards create conversation starters and establish the company’s personality without selling anything directly.
As Pinterest gains more users and views, more brands will take notice and join the movement. They have the opportunity to showcase their products, link back to their site for purchase, converse with their followers, raise awareness of their community involvement and express brand personality.
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If there’s one toy that truly captures imaginations and encourages creativity, it’s LEGO®. Sure, the simple building blocks have become more complex over the years, adding lots of new pieces, characters and even electric motors, but the fundamentals remain the same. Give two people the same bricks and tell them to make something, and you’ll most likely end up with two vastly different creations. You’ll probably also have two very entertained people.
Today, LEGOs have found a new way to amuse. Go ahead and search “LEGO” on YouTube. Then sift through the almost 500,000 videos. A few of the videos are commercials and video game trailers, but the majority of them are made by people who just love LEGOs or see them as a powerful storytelling tool. I’ve compiled a few of my favorites.
First, let’s watch the first level of Super Mario Bros. created with LEGOs. Full disclosure, LEGOs and Super Mario Bros. are two of my favorite things. Ever. So combining them automatically gets them the first spot.
Next up, we’ve got a video of a felt-tip printer created with LEGOs. This might be one of the nerdiest LEGO videos I’ve seen, which is saying a lot. But it’s also one of the coolest.
There are so many more awesome LEGO videos I’d like to share, but time and space won’t allow it. Other favorites you can look up on your own include The White Stripes music video for “Fell in Love With a Girl” and a kid telling the entirety of the original Star Wars trilogy in a little over two minutes.
Finally, I’d like to share the video that inspired this post in the first place.
This new LEGO product, called the Life of George, brilliantly brings LEGO further into the Internet age. It’s the first interactive game combining building things with real LEGO bricks and an app for iPhone or iPad. As far as I know, no other “old” toy has melded the physical and digital so well. In my opinion, the genius of it is that LEGO didn’t mess with the original in an attempt to make a cool app. They stood by the fact that building things in real life is way more fun than faking it on a screen, yet added the best of digital to make it social and engaging in a totally different way. Other brands would be smart to take note of LEGO’s success and build apps that integrate their real-world product in a new and interesting way.
As a side note, I still have two VERY large tubs of LEGOs at home. I have no intention of ever getting rid of them, because at this rate, LEGOs will never become obsolete.
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Steve Jobs wasn’t just the creator of our most valuable devices, he was responsible for the creation of some of our most admired ads. Sure, TBWA’s Media Arts Lab shares the credit, but Steve Jobs was intimately involved in every ad created – down to approving copy for TV spots. I’m sure this led to some intense client/agency meetings. But he was über-involved because he believed that advertising was an integral part of his product. And he protected it at all costs. Control freak? Maybe. But when you know your products change the way people live, communicate, work, create, shop and (fill in the blank), when you can see the effect of your products decades before they’re even manufactured, you deserve to be a little controlling.
With that, let’s take a look at some of his more memorable contributions to the world of advertising. On our MacBooks, iPads or iPhones.
Greatest Hits 1984-2011
“1984”
This was a breakthrough ad for its time for so many reasons. It brought to life a story everyone had read and knew. But the production quality was amazing (remember, this was in 1984). It was shot by a big-time Hollywood director. And where was the product?! What was this rainbow apple thing stuck on the end of the spot? It wasn’t long before people found out.
“Think Different”
Let’s imagine the internal pitch:
Creative: “We’re gonna do a montage of people set to music. It’ll be cool, trust me.”
Creative Director: “That’ll suck. And where did you learn grammar?”
This ad simply used celebrity endorsement in new way, was set to a beautiful music track that dared you not to cry (which was the start of an Apple trend), used “unconventional” grammar to prove a point and featured no product. As promised, it got people to think differently.
“Silhouettes”
No one got to travel to South Africa, eat at fancy restaurants or spot celebrities to shoot this ad. Apple simply used a cool film technique to introduce a new product (which actually wasn’t the first in the market, just the coolest). Speaking of, where is the product? Oh, it’s that thin white thing around the person dancing. What does it look like? How does it work? Why do I want to get up and dance right now? I guess everyone had to search their Macs to find out what this thing was all about.
“Mac vs. PC”
This is what happens when you take one of the oldest tricks in the book – personification – and add really great dialogue, a guy you saw in a movie once (you think), another really funny guy and a white background. This campaign made Apple cool AND smart.
“Smile”
The story’s so heartfelt and relevant in this one that you forget you’re watching a product demonstration. Classic Apple. Great story + great production + great product = great ad. And if you missed it, this one tops the charts as one of the most viral videos ever. You can find it on the Interweb.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple?ob=5#p/search/0/niOCmIuts90
WWSJD?
There’s a lot that we can learn from Steve Jobs. Here are just a few lessons:
- Think of new ways of doing old things.
- Make complicated things simple (pretty much sums up what Steve Jobs was all about).
- Make stories relevant.
- When you’ve got a pretty product, show it off.
Listen to clients. They know their brand better than anyone.
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Since you’re probably either still hunkering down to avoid the lingering effects of this year’s extreme August weather or basking in the glow of your summer vacation, it’s hard to muster more than lackluster holiday spirit. Regardless of your spirit, it’s never too early to begin considering an e-commerce strategy for the holidays.
All indicators predict that this year will be the biggest for e-commerce thus far. It follows a trend that sees online sales increasing from year to year and outpacing non-e-commerce growth (see chart below). The 2010 holiday season brought forth the singularly biggest day for online sales yet, topping $1 billion in online sales on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving). Consumers are also beginning to do their Black Friday shopping from the comfort of their couch, frustrated by jostling through crowds and waiting in long lines, only to find that what they wanted is already sold out.
In general, e-commerce outperforms same-store sales at many chains, thanks to shoppers choosing to research products online and then using the convenience of online shopping to complete the transaction. This trend holds for both business goods and consumer goods. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses such as Williams-Sonoma have online sales accounting for 33% of total sales, and Staples counts online as 40% of their total sales.
So how do you capitalize on this trend? You may be concerned an e-commerce presence will snipe traffic from your brick-and-mortar stores. But if you embrace both, the two venues can provide your customers the choice they demand while providing you sales traffic between the channels.
For instance, in-store pickup of products ordered online increases impulse add-on purchases in-store. Consumers who can’t find the options they want in-store can go online to order exactly what they want, ensuring that your brand gets the sale. As long as salespeople are well trained and there’s perhaps a kiosk in-store, brick-and-mortars may even be able to stock less inventory on shelves.
Simply put, ignore digital channels at the cost to your bottom line.
An article aptly titled “Online back-to-school shoppers to spend 40% more than those who only shop in stores” from July 28, 2011, offers, “Specifically, online back-to-school shoppers will spend a third more than all shoppers for shoes and school supplies, and fully 68% more for electronics and computer related goods. Like most everyone, online back-to-school shoppers have felt the economic pinch, and to that end plan to shop for sales more often, comparison shop online, find and use coupons, and buy more generic or store brands, among other money-saving strategies. Much of that research will be facilitated by smartphones and/or tablet devices that many online back-to-school shoppers already own.”
What Features Do Consumers Want in Their Online Shopping Experience?
- Free Shipping – comScore’s postmortem of the 2010 holiday season reports that free shipping was used in more than half of all 2010 holiday e-commerce transactions, up significantly from 2009.
- Gift Ideas – Help consumers figure out the perfect gift for a hard-to-buy-for person. See Amazon’s best-in-class gift ideas.
- Comparison Shopping – Users want to feel that they are getting the most bang for their buck. Review Forbes’ best in class.
- Research – Consumers want to know more about the products they’re considering. Specifications and trade write-ups help consumers understand what the professionals think, but ratings and reviews from other consumers also strongly influence purchasing decisions. In a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, shoppers were asked about how the economy was changing their behavior: 30.7% planned to do more comparison shopping online and 12.3% planned to shop more online in general.
- Pick Up In-Store – Consumers who have waited until the last minute to purchase gifts appreciate the convenience of shopping online, but with the option to pick it up in-store so shipping isn’t a factor.
- Coupons – Budget-conscious consumers who are trying to save money can be driven to make a purchase, given digital coupon incentives delivered though the website, email or mobile channels. In the same NRF survey, over 36% of respondents were likely to use more coupons. According to an article in eMarketer about 2011 back-to-school shopping (a good predictor of holiday sales,) “…the internet is viewed as a valuable source for saving money. The leading reason why shoppers…planned to shop online was because they expected to find better discounts (70%), were able to research prices and products (63%) and avoid potential out-of-stock items in-store (40%).”
Create a Positive User Experience
Your user experience is the digital reflection of your brick-and-mortar; keep it friendly, stocked and easy to use.
To deliver the most impact to your busy holiday shoppers, simply maintaining an e-commerce site just isn’t enough. Usability is key.
- Users must be able to quickly find a specific item (like using an intelligent search), but the site itself must facilitate browsing with clearly defined categories and hierarchies.
- Upselling or cross-selling is also important, using “products like this” or “customers who bought this also bought this.”
- Clear product images with multiple views and the ability to enlarge the image give consumers the confidence to click the buy button.
- A detailed description of the product, including dimensions, colors and other key attributes, must be readily available.
- Lastly, a site must instill consumer trust by displaying guarantees, return policies and accurate shipping dates.
Promotional Channels
The more touchpoints that are available to consumers, the more likely they’ll find you and purchase from you.
An important factor to a successful e-commerce holiday season is driving high traffic to your online product offerings. Money is being left on the table if you don’t consider using multiple channels to deliver the most impact to your busy holiday shoppers:
- Mobile – Mobile couponing or QR codes to provide more detailed descriptions and/or ratings and reviews. It’s particularly helpful for on-the-go consumers to find your location.
- Geolocating – Offer specials for check-in with Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Locations.
- Facebook – Integrated shopping, sales alerts, specials, recommendations, single sign-on to reduce cart abandonment.
- Twitter – An ideal channel for promoting sales alerts, specials, recommendations that can generate social media buzz.
- Online – Sales, free shipping, printable/online coupons, product comparisons, consumer ratings and reviews, in-store pickup (to increase impulse purchases), adequate inventory, callouts and/or billboards.
- Email – Hold “secret sales” or a “deal of the day” and offer other incentives for email sign-up.
Test It for Success
Unavailable or broken sites are like locking your doors on Black Friday.
By far, the single most important preparation for a successful holiday season is testing to ensure your servers and e-commerce engines can handle the huge volume. Nothing frustrates a consumer more than getting a busy server error or spending time browsing and shopping only to discover they cannot check out. All your investments and innovations for successful online holiday sales can be ruined by poor server performance. Make it a priority to ensure your technical infrastructure is in place to support the demand from your varied advertising channels.
A personal anecdote: There is a certain big-box retailer that offers fantastic Black Friday deals. I’ve been at their doors at 6 a.m. twice, shopped their sales, only to discover the slow-moving checkout line extends all the way around the store, guaranteeing a two-hour wait. I abandoned my basket the first year, and the second year, I checked the state of the impossible checkout line before even bothering to shop. I never returned to that retailer to purchase holiday gifts. Last year, I decided to try their online shop and see if I could get some of those amazing deals. Their site was incredibly slow, but I persevered, only to have my cart time out and empty at checkout. At this point, I won’t shop that retailer ever again. And yes, I tell my friends about those experiences, increasing the probability that they also will not shop that retailer during the holidays.
Remember, when your eye is on the bottom line, online and offline shopping can be complementary experiences providing great service to your consumers. Do you want happy brand advocates or vocal brand dissenters?
So while the leaves may not yet have begun to change, it’s time to plan your e-commerce strategy and spiff up your online store for the holidays. Your brick-and-mortar stores would never advance into the holiday season without adequate preparation. Your online presence should be no different.
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I first laid eyes on an iPod in eighth grade. Looking back now, it was a heavy brick of a device with only five gigs of memory, but at the time it dropped my jaw. Multiple albums of music fit neatly into this well-designed piece of hardware. I could haul my Green Day, Everclear (the band, not the booze) and Foo Fighter CDs everywhere I went without the need for a CD case. It was amazing. For many fans, Apple provides this kind of experience on a yearly basis when they announce their newest products.
On top of creating somewhat revolutionary, well-designed products, Apple has produced some of the best advertising around. Their “1984” commercial is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats, and the Mac vs. PC campaign was endlessly entertaining. Surprisingly, Lee Clow, the creative director responsible for much of Apple’s great advertising has said, “The Apple Store was probably the best ad we ever did.” It’s true. The store itself is an icon. The clean design is instantly recognizable as you walk down the street, through the mall and…watch YouTube?
Yep. The Apple Store has become a viral phenomenon. Why? Because the devices in the stores have cameras and they’re connected to the Internet. Videos of people dancing in the stores have garnered millions of views on YouTube and It’s pretty clear that Apple Store employees have been told to let them continue. After all, no one’s getting hurt and it’s great publicity. But how far is too far when pulling stunts in the Apple Store? Check out this video of comedian Mark Markoff as he attempts to find out.
I thought for sure he had them with the goat. Nope. As Apple’s fan base continues to grow and create these videos, someone may eventually cross a line, but for now, it seems like anything goes at the Apple Store. And that’s just one more reason for consumers to love a brand that has done so many things right.
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Selling things is easy when you’ve got an awesome product. And this real estate agent knows she’s selling one of the world’s coolest products.
Favorite line: “Leave your cares behind. Not your family members.”
“Home Alone,” at least in my mind, is a timeless movie. It’s every kid’s dream come true. The parents go out, and all of a sudden, you’re king of the castle. That’s probably why I watched that movie about a zillion times as a kid. Well, that and it was one of two VHS tapes I owned. The other being “Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze.”
What I loved about the video for the house is that the real estate agent makes no bones about why you should buy it. Sure, it’s got a large sunroom, an elegant sitting room and a spacious master bath. Truth be told, it’s a beautiful house. But that doesn’t connect on an emotional level. She knows it reminds people from all over of something that only movie magic can produce.
The owners, on the other hand, seem to play it down. They’re just a family that wants to sell their home. However, from the asking price, I’m fairly certain they know the value of owning the house where Macaulay Culkin single-handedly took down the Wet Bandits. Surely that became apparent when the Japanese ambassador showed up to check out their digs.
Can you tell I would love to live in this house? I don’t care what they say in the video, I would definitely try sliding down those stairs on a sled. I would watch old gangster movies and eat massive bowls of ice cream. And I would definitely make friends with the guy who salts the sidewalk, because I know he would have my back in a pinch.
I apologize if you haven’t seen the movie, but do yourself a favor and watch it soon. Here’s a fun musical trailer for it:
KEVIN!
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On July 12, videos from “Old Spice Man,” aka “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” started showing up on the Internet. But these weren’t normal spots, but instead responses to fans from across the Internet.
For instance, here’s a response from Old Spice Man to Twitter user Jsbeals, who asked Old Spice Man to ask for his girlfriend’s hand in marriage
In the ensuing three days, the production team for Old Spice created 183 video responses to question threads from Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Facebook, blogs and 4Chan. Over the next seven-day period, they amassed a whopping 36 million total views to their social media experiment and built significant brand credibility with the thought-leaders and meme-starters of the Internet.
From the success of this brief initiative, advertisers should take away a few lessons:
1. Adapt your brand assets to fit an emerging medium – Old Spice used the strength of the character they created in their offline campaign. Even before this initiative, Old Spice Man had become something of an Internet celebrity. Netizens used the cadence of the original spot inside their own conversations and posed rhetorical questions about the Old Spice Man’s mythical nature. Old Spice was sure to leverage the equity they had already built for this character when bringing their brand into the social space.
2. Ensure quality content – Old Spice accomplished this by doing two things:
a. They used social media experts as copywriters – Not only did the Old Spice Guy have funny comments, but the comments were relevant to the communities. For instance, knowing (and leveraging) the Internet’s fascination with Ninja and Pirate battles.
b. They looked for comments where they could have success – They didn’t respond to every single comment left to them. Instead, they found comments that created the best opportunities to reinforce their brand message. For instance, choosing to answer “How can I smell like fighting and space shuttles?” rather than “Dear Old Spice Man: I tried Old Spice and the results were underwhelming.”
3. Produce content in real time – This was the most important piece of this project’s success: they recognized that social media is a real-time world. As such, these responses had to take place quickly and still retain a high production value. In most cases, the Old Spice responses came within an hour or two of the questions posed. Of course, this didn’t happen by magic; no, real-time messaging takes significant planning and “on the ground” resources to do it right.
4. Publish where your fans are – Don’t make them find you (even if you already have a social media presence). Dig into the forums and communities that aren’t particularly brand-friendly, but are where conversations are happening. For this promotion, Old Spice used a social media monitoring software to find conversations about the brand and looked for opportunities to embed themselves in “virally-relevant” communities.
5. Stay true to your communication goals – Of course, it’s important to stay true to your brand and the goals of your advertising. In many responses, Old Spice made sure to not only answer questions, but did so in a way that spoke about the brand and the product. For an initiative like this to remain loyal to your brand goals, you have to be willing to devote an extensive time investment from a broad team, from careful strategic planning down to execution.
We should say that this campaign has, so far, failed to produce sales results for Old Spice Red Zone After Hours Body Wash. In fact, according to SymphonyIRI, in the 52 weeks ended June 13, sales of the brand are down 7%. While those figures won’t include results from this social media initiative, it may show problems for the “Old Spice Man” direction overall. It’s a solid reminder that mass attention doesn’t necessarily mean money in the bank. UPDATE: It looks like sales are up, too! Recent sales figures show a lift last month of 107%.
In all, though, Old Spice created a unique and breakthrough execution founded on a few of the tenets of social media marketing; principally, that real-time, personal content is sure to win the hearts and minds of your audience. I’d challenge you, dear reader, to define and learn from what is and isn’t successful both from your and your competitor’s emergent media practices. With enough insight into how the medium works, you, too, can build a breakthrough campaign.
For more on how this was pulled together, see this article: http://creativity-online.com/news/behind-the-work-old-spice-responses/144947
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Last week a friend uploaded a video to Facebook about Umphrey’s McGee, a jam band we listened to in college. To my surprise, this wasn’t shaky concert video from the Gorge, but instead a piece highlighting the band’s use of social media to create a custom, truly shared, live experience. Using a projected SMS feed, the crowd was encouraged to text styles, genres, or ideas of anything they wanted to hear, and as the texts rolled in, the band improvised their requests in real time.
This video made me wonder how else digital is changing the way we experience live performance. How are other live acts utilizing digital to enhance their presence? And what are the overall effects it is having on the live show experience? I found that digital is changing and adding value to the live performances in two main ways – greater access and crowd power.
Increased Access
Simply giving more people the ability to view the show changes access. With digital there is an opportunity to spread the experience beyond the physical limitations of a specified time and space.
- U2 streamed live on YouTube from their last tour.
- Lumeefly , Chicago based hip-hop production company, moves from viewing to virtually attending the show – for a fee you not only get digital access, but the ability to chat with other virtual concertgoers, send drinks and gain backstage access.
- Sony launched “Club Dates” music series in October showing live concert films in select movie thea
ters. - The Fray Live is a mobile app that gives users tour information, streams live show footage, allows users to upload their photos taken during the show and has a light visualizer (a virtual lighter to be held up during the performance.)
Although access can be gained, the question lies in how does this affect the experience? Is there dilution of value when exclusivity and perishability is removed? Or, more blatantly, is it worth paying the high price for a U2 ticket when you can watch the same show at home?
I feel the benefits offered by each experience are different enough that cannibalization will be slight. What live concert fans want – atmosphere, shared experience, bragging rights – will be hard to replicate through a digital viewing experience. The digital option lowers the cost of consumption creating a trial opportunity for a new segment of consumers. I think both can thrive simultaneously, so fret not Bono, your shows will continue to sell out even though they’re free on YouTube.
Crowd Power
The other way digital is changing “live” is by giving consumers power to actually manipulate the show in real time. Umphrey’s McGee showed us how digital crowd sourcing can be used to inspire and change the immediate experience. Another more unlikely example is the New York Philharmonic. During a performance last year in Central Park, the orchestra took a text poll on what their encore piece should be. After over 5000 votes rolled in, the classic orchestra ended the evening with “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix. Now, rather than screaming “Free Bird” at the top of your lungs, consumers have a streamlined, audible method for reaching the decision makers on stage.
But crowd power can manifest in other ways than changing the set list. Created for an Edinburgh music festival, Fest Buzz is a social media application aiding festival navigation with the ability to contact the necessary people, receive immediate feedback and add reviews. What started out as an information source quickly turned into the guide that manipulated crowd flow. Bands that were putting on good shows got immediate promotion and the crowds moved in. And for bands that maybe weren’t so hot, the live feed let consumers know to focus elsewhere. This tool created a new level of accountability for the quality of the product being served and gave users a digital method to optimize their time and experience.
Consumer Benefits Turn into Lead Generation
Digital tools have added new dimension and real value into the live experience. Creating a genuine, custom moment for fans helps solidify fandom with an active role in the creative process. What’s more interesting is that benefit received is high enough for consumer to volunteer their information to participate. Experiences that create a more involved consumer AND capture valuable information about active target members? Seems like a rocking idea to me.
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Recently, I’ve taken on a few clients for which raising money online is a big part of how they operate. And while most organizations we’ve worked with and have seen out in the marketplace have long understood that an online strategy is an important part of growing their donor base in today’s philanthropy world, just a select few are doing really innovative things in the space.
Here’s a short list of unique tools brands are using to connect with donors in new ways.
1. Online widgets/microsites that encourage interaction and competition
Online widgets have become a powerful way to connect with your donor base and give them a different way to participate in the cause than your typical donation page. We had the opportunity of working with an extremely well-known brand like the Salvation Army to develop the Online Red Kettle during their Christmas campaign in 2008. The campaign is idle now until the holidays ramp up again, but this past year was an incredible success. The keys to why this worked so well included its seamless interface, the ability to share news about the online red kettle easily from the site itself, and the competition it drove by highlighting the top teams and individuals.
Here’s what the site looks like now:
2. Smart website improvements that engage donors minds and hearts to where their dollars are going
We often see philanthropy websites built on a template that looks like every other donation site out there and has very little unique content. In a world where you’re competing for the limited dollars out there, we believe the keys are to create engaging experiences on your website and give the potential and existing donor a glimpse into where their dollars are going. There are a couple of examples of website that are doing a great job of this – one of them being my alma mater, Emory University and their capital campaign, called “Campaign Emory.”
Instead of a canned website, they have developed a unique look and feel and addressed the unique needs of touting the reasons to give for various schools within the university.
Another example of a philanthropy engaging donors through smart website improvements is NothingButNets.net, an organization dedicated to raising money to send anti-malaria bed nets to Africa to help prevent malaria, the leading killer of children in Africa. They’ve developed online game called Deliver the Net and an Interactive Net Distribution Map. The online game, while simple, is a fun way to get immersed in the experience of participating in the cause.
And the interactive map gives you the feeling that it’s real time and things are happening in Africa right now. Both engage potential and existing donors like few philanthropic organizations do on their websites.
3. Leveraging social networking for transparency and cross-platform sharing
This last one should be obvious. Social networking and philanthropy seem like the perfect match. But it isn’t as easy as developing a fan page that links to your donation page and waiting for the dollars to pour in. The most effective ways we’ve seen philanthropies use social networking is to leverage the transparency it offers and make it easy for users to spread the cause. The Humane Society has done quite a bit in the social networking space and has over 100,000 fans.
They utilize their page to share news stories that would be relevant to their audience as well as setting up events in local communities that users can RSVP to. Social networking is also the platform where users can easily find out pretty much all they need to know about the cause, through its Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube channel. There’s obviously much more happening in this space, but the Humane Society is one good example.
As innovations keep expanding the power of online, particularly in the mobile space, we hope more philanthropic organizations pursue these new methods of reaching potential and existing donors. The old rules of direct mail and cold calling may not go away anytime soon, but peoples’ taste for receiving those kinds of communications look like they’ll continue to decline as their receptivity to new and innovative ways of communication increase.
Consider the growth in e-commerce on mobile devices – already popular in some European countries and Japan, it seems like only a matter of time before it becomes commonplace here (remember a few years ago when it was hard to fathom entering your credit card information into a computer?) When that shift happens, philanthropies would be smart not to ignore this trend of people making these kind of financial decisions on the move. Other cutting-edge trends that philanthropies would be wise to keep an eye on:
- Facebook Causes: While these primarily bring in supports but few dollars, this is certainly an area not to ignore for general awareness of your cause and possibly in the future, as a regular source of donations
- Location-based social networking: Partnering with new social networks that find like-minded people near you geographically, philanthropic organizations could quickly put together events that bring these people together to support the cause
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