People rarely think about brands, but when they do they expect more from them than ever before. They look behind brand promises, seeking out content and services that makes those promises real. They also expect the brands in their lives to exist seamlessly across all digital platforms.

This is why mobile is vital for marketers wishing to add value to people’s lives. Where once mobile might have been an interesting avenue for forward-thinking brands to explore, shifting consumer habits now make a nonsense of marketing strategies that don’t have mobile as part of their DNA.

With the need to create a consistent and compelling customer experience at the top of the agenda it follows that those who break mobile out from other online disciplines – in terms of budget, strategy and creative – will struggle to achieve excellence in any of them. A couple of years ago, marketers who bolted a mobile specialist onto their agency roster were probably doing enough to get by. But that was before mobile elbowed its way into the middle of our lives. You might say that this happened on October 6th 2010, when a little photo-sharing application called Instagram launched in the Apple App Store. By Christmas, it had a million users; a year later it had 10m. Instagram was the hit application designed purely and entirely for mobile – right down to the shape and the formatting of the images.

February’s Super Bowl also provided one of those increasingly regular moments that reminds us just how central mobile is becoming to brands’ digital marketing efforts: in and around the game itself, Google reports that 41% of searches involving Super Bowl TV advertisers came via mobile devices.

There have been other tipping points too. When over half of Facebook users updated their status via a mobile device, something was clearly changing. Brands who ignored mobile and focused purely on the web while Facebook mobile penetration was at 10% or 20% could say they were still hitting most of their audience. When the number was 50%, it became too big to ignore.

Today, being present in mobile isn’t enough on its own; you must be integrated too.

UK newspapers provide an interesting case study. If I am reading the FT, it knows who I am and where I am. It allows me to choose how and when I read the articles. It is a completely integrated experience. The FT’s content management system, analytics tools, advertising solutions and identity management is designed to work across a range of different platforms. Most other publishers have some sort of mobile presence but it is just not as integrated.

Two or three years ago, when mobile habits were very different, you might have got away with this fragmented approach. Not now. Consumers make absolutely no distinction between the service they expect via a mobile, a tablet, a desktop computer – even a TV.

There are so many practical reasons to ensure mobile and web platforms function as one. Take the example of an airline. Building a mobile app that allows passengers to carry their boarding pass on their phone might seem bright and cutting-edge, even in isolation. But it will be no use if the desks at the airport aren’t able to scan it.

That is a very simple example, but it reflects the way that we as individuals want to use our phones. And it’s why brands that are not putting mobile at the centre of their strategy need to look at changing their processes from the bottom up.

This is the reason why, alongside the larger, multi-year projects we do for brands including Lloyds TSB and Virgin Atlantic, we have set up Mobile Accelerator – a small, very close unit that is purely focused on being agile, creative and multi-disciplinary.

The unit is responsible for building small, highly-innovative mobile projects that enable brands to dip a toe in the water and learn what mobile is all about.

Integration remains at the heart of this approach. What makes Mobile Accelerator different is that it creates bespoke projects while still taking into account all the necessary integration. We can produce mobile products and services in a quick, iterative way, then we can integrate what we develop and what we learn into the larger projects we are working on.

If this sounds like a plug, there is a general lesson in it. We believe that mobile will increasingly underpin everything that happens in digital, and our aim is to feed new lessons from the cutting-edge of mobile into everything else we do. If you are creating an ad campaign or building a product, it needs to fit together with mobile, or it simply won’t work as well as it should.

The logical conclusion of all this, from a brand perspective, is that consolidation of all these pieces is the only approach that makes sense today. If you have a single, blended team that can build your services, your mobile app and the iAd assets you need to advertise it, as well as handling the media buying, the SEO and PPC, you not only control the quality of the mobile product, you ensure that it is marketed effectively by the people who understand it.

In the future, mobile is all going to be about partnerships and solving problems. To do that, you need to look beyond the mobile application you built, and consider how it integrates with billing, how it works with outdoor advertising, how it works with the entire traditional and digital estate.

A mobile phone can be the gateway to a customer when they are watching TV, or when they are walking down the street looking at a billboard. It is the only platform that allows that continuous, constant conversation between a brand and a consumer, and that conversation allows you to tell longer stories, put everything else in context, stay top of mind and solve your customers’ problems – which is the reason they buy into your brand in the first place.

It is a picture brands have fondly imagined for a long time. Now we’re actually here, it’s equally true that the only way you can make it all possible is to integrate every single part of your business. When consumers are integrating every aspect of their own digital lives, it is only good sense for brands to do the same.

30 May 2012, 3pm 
LBI, 146 Brick Lane, London, E1 6RU

In a few short weeks, our Branded Content team will be hosting one of the highlight events of the LBi calendar.

The Branded Content Salon returns to our Brick Lane space on 30th May, 2012 for What’s Next… in Branded Content: Being Human: How Empathy Builds Better Brands

Expect a thought-provoking and enlightening experience with our cast of seasoned storytellers, brand bards, social observers and cultural commentators. We’ll explore how we all connect as individuals, social groups and brands to create meaningful exchanges of stories, knowledge and experiences with one another.

More about the event:
“Storytelling is at the heart of all successful interactions, whether between individuals or between brands and their audiences. Previous LBi Branded Content Salons have looked on the telling part of storytelling. This time we focus on that other great art of storytelling: listening.

Most brands now invest significantly in social media efforts, yet many regard phenomena like Facebook as another channel through which to pump the usual messages. Invitations to interact or participate are often tactics to drive numbers rather than real commitment. The brands that thrive in social spaces are those that listen, understand and respond, brands that, like real human beings, exercise empathy.

We are thrilled to have the School Of Life’s Roman Krznaric to help us understand empathy.

Drawing on his new book, The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live, Krznaric will show us how empathy – the art of stepping into the shoes of another person and seeing the world from their perspective – can not only enrich our own lives but also help create social change by helping us challenge prejudices and overcome social divides. Be prepared to participate in some real life empathy exercises!

This will foreground a discussion of what empathy means for brands and how it can lead to more successful encounters between brands and their audiences.

To debate empathy in the context of brands we also welcome Tom Harper, director of The Scouting Book For Boys, Misfits and The Borrowers, and James Young, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Sony Mobile, who will discuss how Xperia Studio took a radical approach to marketing smartphones.”

The Salon is free-of-charge but by invitation only, so please email us if you or any other people you know who might benefit from some empathy…

In teams of 2-8 people (extra points went to the teams with the most creative names), we got together after work to be merry and test our knowledge, wit and Googling skills – after all, we wouldn’t do justice to our digital background without a little cheeky technology abuse (but shhhhh!).

Led by our sparkly quizmasters, the 15 teams got to work on the questions and tasks, ranging from a classic general knowledge round, celebrity-hair-recognition exercises to spot-the-bad-accent.

A favourite was the plasticine round which saw our more crafty team members get busy with sculpting miniature representations of famous musician’s deaths. Suffice to say, we uncovered some super-talents in our midst as they came up with with an incredibly detailed showcase of Elvis’s, Kurts and Whitneys.

And the winners of the whole thing? The triumphant team hails from our Media department and took home the spoils of victory — two bottles of Buck’s Fizz, a glorious vase of victory and the sweet sweet taste of success.

London and New York: Global marketing and technology agency LBi has won a prestigious People’s Voice Award in the Integrated Mobile Experience category for its work to promote Sony’s Xperia range of smartphones.

The Xperia Studio initiative invites the digital generation’s most talented people to use Sony Xperia smartphones to create fun, beautiful, out-there experiences that ‘Remake Reality’.

Xperia Studio contributors include a diverse mix of innovators and agitators, who have manipulated, abused and even destroyed Xperia smartphones in the pursuit of creativity.

The result is a rolling programme of inspiring content that takes in projects from Danish art collective Illutron, NASA astrophysicist Josh Peak, hot British film director Tom Harper and innovative photographer Joergen Geerds.

People have discussed, shared, Liked and even loved the content available via Xperia Studio, helping to give Sony an edge over big-spending rivals like Apple and Samsung.

The films generated by the initial slate of ten projects have clocked up over 1.7m views so far. Moreover, the online content fuelled a 24/7 positive conversation about Xperia smartphones with 85% of people surveyed saying that they had a better opinion of Xperia smartphones as a result of the campaign and 17% of visitors to xperiastudio.com continued on to the main Sony Mobile site.

Established in 1996, The Webby Awards, which is now a byword for excellence in internet related creativity and business, is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 1,000-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

Cedric Devitt, Executive Creative Director LBi in New York, said: “Every once in a while you get a client that is completely on the same page as you and the creative idea. Xperia Studio was one of those times. It seems that the Webby judges thought so too. We’re obviously thrilled with the win. It’s the bloody Oscars of the internet, innit.”

- ENDS -

27th April 2012, Edinburgh: LBi bigmouthmedia, the media arm of global marketing and technology agency LBi, has been acknowledged as one of Scotland’s best places to work by the Great Place to Work® Institute at its annual awards this week, achieving accolades for having an exceptional company culture, HR processes, training and staff development initiatives.

LBi bigmouthmedia was ranked as the 3rd Best Workplace in Scotland, beating multi-nationals including coffee giant Starbucks and becoming the only digital media and technology business on the top 10 list.

During the awards ceremony at the Radison Blu Hotel in Glasgow, LBi bigmouthmedia also walked away with the Learning & Development Excellence Award, praising the wide array of award-winning learning and development initiatives available to its staff.

The Best Workplaces programme was launched in Scotland in 2010, as part of a strategic initiative supported by Skills Development Scotland, with 25 organisations each year being publicly recognised as Scotland’s Best Workplaces.

While LBi bigmouthmedia has featured in Great Place to Work’s UK top 50 for the past five years, this is the first time the company has chosen to benchmark its internal procedures against other Scottish businesses.

Phil Gripton, Chief Operating Officer, LBi bigmouthmedia, said: “It’s a day of celebration for LBi bigmouthmedia as we show the world just how much of a great business we all work in.

“At a time when it’s a really tough economy out there it’s great to be part of a progressive business that is doing great things like this. This is deserved recognition for the hard work every member of the team puts in on a daily basis.”

ENDS

Media Enquiries

Stephen Green
Giant
steve@giantpr.co.uk
+44 (0) 7775 677 101
www.giantpr.co.uk

Don’t walk under ladders, don’t open an umbrella inside, black cats are bad luck – the Western catalogue of superstitions is endless (for example, did you know that some aeroplanes don’t have a 13th row?).

This Friday the 13th, the Creative department decided to focus our creative energy on giving some of these old wives’ tales a bit of a facelift. After all, superstitions are nothing if not imaginative — and back in the day, used to put a much needed sense of order and control into people’s lives — and what’s so wrong about that?

A couple of our Art Directors asked us to come up with a set of new superstitions based around our agency and create corresponding posters. Using a vast array of magazines, scissors, some Prit sticks and our inherent wackiness, we got to work!

After a frantic session of cutting, ripping, gluing, scribbling, doodling, scamping and thinking, the results were in: To avoid falling victim to digitalite nightmares such as breaking your iPhone or having your tumblr deleted, you might want to take the lift on Friday the 13th – There’s a curse on every 13th step! And  staring at your colleagues do for all too long could prove fatal… rumour has it certain individuals will take your eyes as punishment for too close a scrutiny.

Just as well we don’t take ourselves (or our crazy superstitions) too seriously. What we do take seriously is making sure we have a healthy team culture, always have a laugh together and stay light-hearted. And well then, mission accomplished!

Hang on, what actually IS Friday Fun?

Every Friday morning the Creative Department gets together for a little fun. To pull our heads out of work and engage in some wonderfully whimsical wizardry, getting our creative engines running. Just because it’s fun and we want to preserve the lightheartedness in our work.

For some more Friday fun, check our Blog Archive for everything tagged Friday Fun or come back next week.

London: Honda Motor Europe has appointed global marketing and technology agency LBi to revamp its online customer experience across multiple European territories.

Following a competitive pitch process, the agency has been selected to relaunch Honda’s online presence in 22 markets across Europe. LBi’s unique blend of strategy, creativity, technology and user-experience will be harnessed to deliver a state-of-the-art customer engagement platform that will help equip Honda for its digital future.

The twelve-month strategic partnership will see LBi and Honda’s teams work in close collaboration to devise and implement a user-centric, technologically advanced and visually stunning digital experience that will allow customers to engage with the Honda product range spanning cars, motorbikes and power equipment.

The customer engagement platform will feature a number of next generation digital tools aimed at engaging and empowering consumers in the decision-making cycle.

Jon Gibson, European Digital Marketing Manager at Honda, said: ”LBi outshone the competition with their clear and inspiring vision of how we can best harness digital channels to build business value. LBi’s track record of delivery is exemplary and we look forward to our working partnership.”

Anil Pillai, UK Chief Executive of LBi, added: “We’re incredibly excited to be embarking on this journey with Honda, not least because culturally there is a incredibly strong fit between our two organisations.
The team at LBi have done a fantastic job of aligning our strategic goals to deliver the best possible outcome for Honda.”

- ENDS -

Media Enquiries
Gareth Jones
Global Brand & Marketing Director
LBi
gareth.jones@lbi.com
+44 (0) 7794 624 147

Our mums: Some of the most important and formative people in our lives. The person we can always go back to for a hug, for an open ear, comfort food.

When the mums of two LBi colleagues both passed away around this time last year, there was no motherly haven for them to turn to. Emil, who works at LBi as a conceptual creative, and Rafa, a designer, bonded over their similar circumstances and decided to take the grief and love for their mums and put them towards achieving something to celebrate the memory of these amazing women.

Rafal:
“My mum (Irena Bauer) got sick in 2004. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was the worst message I could get. I will never forget the day when I came to here for a visit. My mum hugged me like she was about to leave for a long time.
I didn’t know it was the first goodbye. But I knew when was the last one. Last year I had a dream. My mum was sitting next to me and she said: “I’m dying”. She passed away four days later.
I lost my best friend and now I want to get back on my feet. I want to tell everyone about this terrible disease.”

Emil:
“When I grew up my mum was sick with breast cancer, but she was a fighter and she wouldn’t let the cancer take anything away from raising me and my two brothers.
When I grew up I was always encouraged to go after my dreams and my parents supported me in all the different ways they could. Two years ago it came back and this time it wouldn’t go away. My mum still supported me to go after my dreams.
Last year I lost my beloved mum Eva Rydberg and now I need to get back on my feet to be able to continue what my mum encouraged me to do.”

To get back on their feet Emil and Rafa will be walking the 100km distance between London and Brighton, giving themselves 24 hours to achieve this. Supporters are able to buy each one of their steps for a small donation of £1 per step. This way the two are hoping to raise as much as they can for Macmillan Cancer Support and Ovarian Cancer Action.

In the run up to the impressive challenge they’ve set themselves for the 12^th of May, Emil and Rafal are rallying support via their website, Twitter (#100000steps), Facebook and not least by training ceaselessly in their campaign T-Shirts around London.

This is not just about the money; any kind of support is welcome. Whether it be a shout of encouragement during training, a pat on the back or even just a quiet “Hi” on the street; it is knowing that people care and are rooting for them which will help Emil and Rafal get back on their feet and move forward with their lives.

With the time, dedication and effort the two have been putting into their Back On My Feet campaign, it’s gratifying to see they’re being noticed by media both here in the UK and their home countries, Sweden and Poland:

• Evening Standard
• London Svenskar
• Goniec + cover on print version

Here at LBi  can’t help but be incredibly touched by our two colleagues’ stories. We’re proud that they’ve found their way to make good from this curveball life has thrown them, and we are 100% behind them.

And once you’ve had one look at their website and read their stories, we hope you will too. One step to Brighton goes a long way for Emil and Rafal.

Visit backonmyfeet.co.uk and trace their steps and more.

We may not be great gardeners, but today a little botanical beauty has made it into LBi HQ, and we’re proud to present another fantastic local artist in our Brick Lane foyer.

From the artist:
“Charlotte Day’s “Plant Hunters” is a series of patterns and illustrations inspired by the travels of some of Britain’s greatest adventurers who introduced an array of exotic plant and animal species to this country.

After being exhibited by the Royal Horticultural Society and in the windows of Whitards of Chelsea, Chelmsford, for the next month these beautiful prints will be gracing the exhibition space at LBi.

Charlotte has been exploring her passion for plants and print for the past few years, completing a degree in Textile Design as well as studying horticulture and botanical illustration at the Royal Horticultural Society. She is currently completing her MA in Textile Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London.”

Day’s work has created a bright spring contrast to the industrial air and warehouse style of the Truman Building and a certain air of nostalgia to our reception.

For all sales contact charlotte@charlottedaydesigns.com

With the sun out, spirits high and our next Friday fun booted out by Good Friday, a couple of our fine designers decided to get us into the Easter spirit early last week.

Armed with a basket full of hard-boiled eggs and plastic eggs filled with decorating themes, a bag full of  crafty goodness, and a twitter hashtag they got down to business.

Each of us got to pick one egg and one theme, and the decorating was ON. From Britney over Monster to Hipster egg: our eggcitement knew no bounds.

The eggs of our labour were then hidden all around our lovely office, and the floor opened to all departments. Using #lbiegghunt, each egg discovery was sent to Twitter, with the aim of finding the highest number of eggs.

Apart from the respect and admiration of fellow employees and some serious street cred, the top egg finder won a basket full of eastery chocolate treats. Yum!

Hang on, what actually IS Friday Fun?

Every Friday morning the Creative Department gets together for a little fun. To pull our heads out of work and engage in some wonderfully whimsical wizardry, getting our creative engines running. Just because it’s fun and we want to preserve the lightheartedness in our work.

For some more Friday fun, check our Blog Archive for everything tagged Friday Fun or come back next week.