Creative Tech And Product Development Are Both Part Of The Process

Marketers have two contrasting strategies to engage customers at their disposal: short-term campaign ideas based on creative technology and longer-term product development schemes. They can only succeed by using both.

In August 2011, American entrepreneur and software engineer Marc Andreessen famously articulated how technology would drive business growth in his essay “Why Software Is Eating the World.” In the five years that have passed, CMOs across Europe have used technology to better engage customers in two contrasting ways—through short-term campaign ideas supported by creative technology and longer-term product development initiatives.

While it could be tempting for CMOs to focus on one over the other, or even ignore them entirely, both are important strategic practices for modern marketers.

Creative technology can amplify, activate, and accelerate campaigns, most often through the use of fresh experiences that excite customers. Charity Women’s Aid, for example, made use of the technology within digital billboards to raise awareness of domestic violence. The campaign team used facial recognition cameras to track the number of people looking at a beaten and bruised woman. As more people looked at the screen, the woman’s bruises began to heal.

Within product development, technology is often the backbone of new and valuable tools that improve people’s lives on a longer-term basis. Insurance giant Aviva, for example, has developed the Aviva Drive app that rewards safer drivers with lower premiums. Using GPS and native smartphones sensors, driving skills are monitored and discounts calculated.

These two disciplines have much in common, yet different skills are required to make them work and must co-exist in a marketing team. Managing such varied mindsets and goals can be challenging for CMOs, but by breaking them down—and recognising these differences and the value of both—it should become apparent why there are reasons to press on and do both.

**Creative Technology **

• Purpose:*** Creative technology should be used to build experiences that engage and excite customers. O2 achieved this as part of its 2013 “Be More Dog” campaign. Users could connect mobile phones to their laptops and play virtual frisbee with an animated dog-like cat. Cutting-edge front-end technical expertise was used to create a simple and fun experience that bridged the physical/digital divide.

People: The best creative technologists itch to make stuff that stops people in their tracks—or start them running in the case of the team at 4am Saatchi & Saatchi. The team used GPS tracking to recognise when customers of trendy Guatemalan shoe seller Meat Pack entered a competitor’s store. This triggered a time-sensitive discount on Meat Pack products, starting at 100% and dropping 1% every second until they managed to race in-store.

Approach: Creative technologists need to be given time to proactively build concepts that use emerging technologies. Heineken 2011 StarPlayer app allowed players to score points by predicting in real time what would happen at key moments in UEFA Champions League matches. It tapped into the then-emerging trend of dual-screening and used mobile technology to engage customers in a completely new way.

Watch out: Progress in creative technology can be hindered by those who are too close to the problem. Their detailed knowledge of the situation often leads them to give rational reasons why particular solutions won’t work. Try to keep them away from the process until nearer the end.

Success story: British Airways’ 2014 “Magic Of Flying” campaign connected digital billboards in London with aircraft flying overhead. And while it took years to get away, it captured the imagination of customers and won countless awards.

**Product Development **

• Purpose:***The results of successful product development can completely redefine the way customers think about entire verticals. Nike’s FuelBand may have launched after the first Fitbit, but its pioneering initial public release captured the hearts and minds of customers, and kicked off the billion-dollar wearables industry.

***People:***Product managers tend to be in tune with market needs and understand customer behaviour patterns. They’re constantly looking to refine and improve their products—which is exactly what the team at Chicago-based web application company Basecamp did in February 2014. After a decade of trading and creating 10 products to their name, they decided to ditch all but one of them and focus 100% on the most successful.

Approach: Product development doesn’t always have to start with coding. Platform partnerships and service integration can deliver new functionality quicker and with fewer risks. Streaming giant Pandora recently announced a collaboration with A Million Ads, enabling it to deliver tailored and sequential audio advertising. Choosing to partner rather than build their own tool has given them a class-leading dynamic creative audio product in a fast-moving and highly competitive market.

***Watch out:***When it comes to product development, it’s critical to test everything before committing. Analyse the competition, look at how customers are behaving inside (and outside) the category, and check in with your strategic partners. Be prepared to pivot based on feedback or to reduce timings and costs.

***Success story:***Engine’s most recent product development pivot resulted in the creation of a “Lite” version of our CX Score product. We used this to create our first industry-wide report into state of customer experience within fashion e-commerce. The results were fascinating, with H&M topping the list, and affordable brands beating premium ones in the race to engage customers.

Final word

Technology can add serious business value on both short-term creative campaigns and longer-term product developments. In 2017, both practices can help tech-savvy CMOs win.