Seamless in Seattle
Posted in Blog, Events, News by Jacob
Best known for its coffee, Frasier (which incidentally was entirely filmed in LA) and the iconic Space Needle that shapes the City’s skyline, Seattle is also the home of some of the worlds leading tech and digital businesses including Microsoft, Amazon.com, Real Networks, Getty and Omni. No surprise then that the 8 companies forming our trade mission were made up of some of the leading innovators in the West Midlands. Amongst our consortium; Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Screen WM, Advantage West Midlands and a mix of games developers and interactive agencies.
Along the way we met with Valve, quite possibly one of the most prolific creators of entertainment based gaming titles and games distribution platforms such as Steam. Similarly, we met with Big Fish Games, a company who’s frankly ingenious business model has generated some impressive and equally enviable financial results. Recently securing $38,000,000 in venture funding.
We talked extensively about why businesses like Big Fish and Real Networks have been so successful; because their products in themselves are something that I think you’ll see us as an agency working on more and more, something that Razorfish have coined; Social Objects. In short, a conversation starter, something that conversations and particularly chatter around social media should surround. It’s far more than viral, it’s something entire communities can be based on. The use of sites like Facebook and Twitter are creating micro-communities that are driving traffic to game preview sites at a rate that’s up to 6 times greater than that of traditional display advertising.
Razorfish, previously owned and operated by Microsoft, is now part of the Publicis Group and one of the world most successful digital advertising and engagement agencies, turning over in excess of $400,000,000 whilst handling everything from strategy and planning to creative and media buying across their network of 19 worldwide offices. Their client list is made up entirely of Fortune 500 businesses, on the rare occasion they’ll accept work with top 1000 companies, but only on the basis that a specific project or brief excites them.
I met with Matt Wood, Manager of Media Development at Razorfish. We talked through a number of principles that are integral to the successful running of any digital agency regardless of size and learned of some new processes that they had adopted since being acquired by Publicis earlier this year, some of which we’ll be exploring here at 383 Project. Amongst them, the use of Wikis as collaborative tool for designers, developers and clients, new methods for gathering trend data and the importance of white papers to their business development efforts. The most impressive of which being the 2009 Feed Report which you can view here. If ever there was a reason for Marketing Directors to start apportioning more of their budgets to online brand experience and not just display, this report is it.
One thing that can be said for all of these businesses is that they are all, without exception at the very forefront of their respective industries. As such, there has been much to learn, especially from some of the digital agencies operating in The States. These lessons are valuable but over the next 6 months prove to be invaluable. Stateside new business executives for example are reporting a significant decrease in their clients willingness to spend over online ad networks and display and are now far more focused on creating immersive online experiences and social objects.
Inevitably now in the UK, we will see these trends continue, particularly with the increase in sophistication of social media measurement and analytics tools. If digital agencies can embrace measurement solutions to help tweak, perfect and justify their increased activities in this space, the sector as a whole will doubtless become more trusted and credible with our respective client bases.
Seattle is a truly digital city, where they just seem to ‘get things’ quicker, this may be down to the fact that their agencies have client lists made up of huge corporations who can afford to be braver in their activities, it could be that with so much hot competition on the doorstep of game developers they need to be constantly investing in research and product development, or equally it could be that these businesses are effective at securing the finest talent from around the world to work in this booming sector. Whatever your take, I’m convinced that increased relationship between Birmingham and places like Seattle is vital as we aspire to be a ‘digital city’ within the UK. For 383, the exposure to new thinking allows us to offer our clients and customers the latest and most effective solutions, increases our confidence in the relativity, longevity and value of our offerings and most importantly will ultimately work to keep our clients attracting and converting more online users into consumers in new and innovative ways, seamlessly.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Its always inspiring to go see people operating their business in a different manner. So much to learn, so little time!