LBi London

LBi publishes ‘The Blended Future’ with Campaign magazine

Posted by Gareth Jones July 12th, 2011

12th July 2011: Leading agency sets out its strategic vision

LBi has partnered with Campaign magazine to publish ‘The Blended Future,’ an article outlining the agency’s strategic vision.

LBi Chief Creative Officer Chris Clarke and Director of Branded Content Graham Hodge

Appearing in Campaign’s ‘What Next in Digital’ supplement, ‘The Blended Future’ explains that in a world where consumers are increasingly demanding more from brands, any agency worth its salt needs a constantly evolving understanding of the possibilities technology enables.

Authored by LBi Chief Creative Officer Chris Clarke and Director of Branded Content Graham Hodge, ‘The Blended Future’ highlights that in order to deliver real innovation agencies need a special culture that is not conservative, change resistant or nostalgic for the past.

‘Blending allows us to take ideas from strategy and concept to launch and evaluation as quickly and effectively as possible – regardless of the specifics of the business challenge. Blending ensures we function as strategic partners, helping our clients decide what’s next and holding their hands on the journey,’ writes Clarke.

‘It’s not a complicated process. It’s about casting the right people and orchestrating their contributions so that the outcome takes a client further on their digital journey, delighting their customers on the way.’

‘The Blended Future’ concludes that thanks to the constantly changing media landscape the challenge for brands and agencies is less about forecasting what’s next and more about organising their businesses to be able to quickly adapt to change.

Campaign’s ‘What Next in Digital’ supplement also contains thought-pieces by a line up of other leading marketing agencies.

Here’s a video clip from campaignlive.co.uk featuring LBi’s Branded Content Director Graham Hodge talking about what’s next for the digital industry.

Read the full Blended Future article (PDF)

Related articles on campaign.co.uk
Digital learns to play a new role: Roundtable discussion

Tags: agencies, blending, Chris Clarke, client, creative, LBi London, marketing, Technology, work culture

0 comments Share

Outperform Casanova

Posted by Marcus Mustafa March 16th, 2010

Every day I talk to clients about how digital solutions can be particularly good for nudging and exciting their customers. It’s all a bit like dating but without the Casanova ending.

As was later the case with 20th century marketers, Casanova often repeated the same pattern in his pursuits. He would discover an attractive woman (customer) having trouble with a brutish or jealous lover (competitor brand). And then three acts would follow.

Act 1: The seducer ameliorates his lady’s difficulty. Act 2: She shows her gratitude, he seduces her, a short and exciting affair ensues. So far so good, but then comes… Act 3: The seducer gets bored and orchestrates a rapid exit. The end.

For Casanova, life was an open field of sexual opportunities without consequences. For the marketers, it was an open field of transactional opportunities without post-purchase responsibility.

Persuasion without information is as unsatisfactory as information without persuasion, but together they beget seduction.

The best thinkers in User-Centered Design have long claimed that information and persuasion are two opposite modes. Some content is labelled as persuasion or even manipulation, and is associated with advertising and marketing, while other content is understood to be information and therefore virtuous. But maybe persuasion and information are not mutually exclusive. Maybe we just need to re-write Act 3 so that persuasion + information = seductive strategies.

Here’s an example: a week before Valentine’s Day I went online to find something nice for the lady in my life. I tried my best to appear susceptive by freely giving away my personal details in the hope of attracting some targeted offers relevant to my needs. I entered competitions to romantic holiday destinations; I saved several virtual shopping baskets full of flowers and chocolate, and so on. I even returned to several websites, just to show how keen I was. But maybe I was too keen, as instead of tailored suggestions for romantic gifts all I got were the usual Viagra spams, dating and gambling adverts, and an offer to join a new gym.

Persuasion design is dead. Long live seduction design!

Seduction design is all about nudging and exciting the customer, rather than using an all-or-nothing strategy. The most elaborately designed experiences inspire people to adapt their behaviour and engage with new features and functionalities. In other words, the customers allow themselves to be seduced and buy into the proposition that the product or service is worth their time and money.

Designers, marketers, and creatives need to design for seduction as much as for aesthetic impact and usability. Methods of seduction can sell a genuine offer through the combination of motivational psychology and careful preparation. To convert this into a website, a mobile application, an email, or a banner, each element – graphic or verbal – must be given a seductive value that deepens into a suggestive relationship over time.

Had Casanova known that, I’m sure his romantici evenings would have ended happier both for him and his ladies.

Marcus Mustafa – Head of User Experience – twitter.com/dacrumb

Tags: Ideas, Opinion, Persuasion, Seduction Design, UE

0 comments Share