New agency uses crowdsourcing to shape offering, concludes: ‘forget about awards’
Campbell
A digital design agency which launches in Melbourne this week has used crowd sourcing to shape its brand, website and service offering.
Navy is being launched by the user experience director of DTDigital Ollie Campbell and three DTDigital colleagues – design director Marc Clancy, UX designer Brett Warren and group account director Michael Trounce.
Before launch, they ran a series interviews among senior staff from companies such as Telstra, Lonely Planet and ANZ , asking them what they thought of early versions of the agency’s visual identity, messaging and presentations.
“We tested some industry terminology to see which words people understood,” said Campbell. “We ran exercises to learn about which qualities are important to people in a digital agency. And we talked about the process of working with an agency from the client’s point of view.”
“We originally wanted to be seen as bold and confident – to tell everyone that we’re the best. But our users wanted a more humble tone, for us to be more genuine,” he said.
The research revealed that awards were a turn off for would-be clients. A common sentiment was: ‘I know how awards work, it’s just people patting their mates on the back’.
“We removed all references to awards in our communications, and it’s safe to say we won’t be entering any in the future,” said Campbell.
Avoiding industry jargon and giving users personal details about staff were also key findings. Using details such as ‘Ollie’s a chess nerd’ or ‘Michael’s a proud new dad’ was very well received, while introducing senior staff in the first few meetings only never to see them again was seen as a big no-no.
Navy is positioned as a ‘creator of digital products and services that people love to use’, and produces websites, mobile apps and software.
Proud
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Didn’t this used to be called “Market research” ? Not sure exactly what they’ve “sourced” from the crowd here – other than an opinion…
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Totally agree, confused.
“Avoiding industry jargon and giving users personal details about staff were also key findings.”
I’d have thought saying “crowdsourcing” when you mean “market research” wouldn’t tick the “avoiding industry jargon” box but maybe that’s just me.
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Perhaps it’s a journalist error, or confusion on the part of the interviewees… this isn’t Crowd Sourcing. Title has spoiled an otherwise engaging article. ??
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‘Crowd sourcing’… someone’s playing a cruel joke or this is a mistake by an intern, ha
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