I had the full on college test nightmare the other night. It was a math test that involved a formula. Apparently, the formula was allowed on a single note card, but I left it somewhere. Every question needed the formula. I needed the class to move on with the program. I was using everything in my brain to remember that formula when I finally woke myself up.
That’s kind of the feeling that most marketers probably have every night. Our business literally changes every day. Can we prepare for it? Can we truly know what’s next? Let’s put this in perspective. Facebook was invented in 2003. Twitter in 2006. Instagram in 2010.
Client decision makers who are authorizing brand spend have to be very good at knowing their core business. So, they have very little time to master, understand or even keep up with the daily nuances of digital innovation. I think it’s up to us to find it, share it and bring the inventive spirit of creativity to digital marketing.
American industry and the work environment aren’t all that conducive to innovation. When offices first sprang up, there was an early 20th century movement to make them as efficient as factories. Then came the variations of the cube that we see today. The book “Cubed” describes the “action office”—a design that was created to promote movement and flexibility. A couple of designers like Knoll came up with connecting systems for offices to operate and the cube farm was born.
But at the end of the day, how people work is more about the culture of your company than the layout. Creating a culture of innovation is the real challenge. Fun, informal workspaces, shared work environments and open doors help a lot. We’re thrilled to have that, along with a world-class research facility to play in every day. In our world, it’s the college environment—it’s work hard, party hard. It’s bring your dog to work. Lunch n’ Learns. Sapporo on tap.
But getting to “what’s next” is everyone’s real job. We started pushing our co-workers to research and publish digital marketing innovations, anything we can find and share. MooseTracker began in 2008, and we’ve cataloged more than 3,000 concepts. Some of them aren’t even innovations any more. But we’ve got them, broken down by industry and media type.
Each of our co-workers has to publish one a month, and with 100 people, that means you can read several new ones every day. It’s reading and studying that is the real sweat to get past stale ideas and molded models.
As we evolve, we are declaring that we will never be done. Our business is one of daily change. We subscribe to monitoring tools, media analytics—our own customized software mix to inform our decisions.
We’re calling the Moose approach, Digital EQ. We believe that people see the most successful brands as friends, who know them and are a real part of their lives. Successful digital programming drives that connection at scale for brands.
We’re executing digital and experiential programming from every angle. We believe that consumers want friendship, they want personalization, and they can smell marketing that misses.
We are continuing our Millennial research. You’ll see more soon. We believe that these digital natives are the harbingers of consumer response.
Most importantly, we know that what worked yesterday, may not work tomorrow.
Our site is no longer a static brochure but a real-time connection, a log of our team’s observations and insights.
Welcome. Enjoy the new site.
(and sweet dreams)
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