CONNECTING THE DIGITAL DOTS

As the world shifts ever faster into the digital realm, we’ve spent a lot of time asking ourselves and working with clients on the questions this raises relative to their brands.

One of the key questions raised by the digital age is about the level of integration between product and brand. In simple terms how connected should they be? How mutually reinforcing? 

Traditional marketing thinking would tell you that to be successful, the brand has to elevate above the product and be somewhat aspirational. However in a digital world where useful is the new cool what we observe suggests that this isn’t always the case.

For a simple example just look to Google. Is the Google brand elevated beyond the Google product, or does the Google product create the expectation and underlying narrative for the Google brand?

We believe it is largely the latter, so we decided to create our own product in order to see what we could build for ourselves.

Over the past couple of months we’ve been working with the really awesome digital product specialists Henrik and Philip from Prehype. With their assistance, we’ve been piloting our own internal VC project in New York. This is designed to identify and then create a digital product, where the product will form the underlying expectation for the brand.

We’re really excited about this pilot for lots of reasons. First, the best way to learn about digital products and the agile methods necessary for creating them is to build them for yourself. Second, because kicking off the process gave the office a real entrepreneurial energy boost at the end of the year. Third, because of the really excellent ideas people came up with (not least the idea we’re currently pursuing). And finally, because we really enjoy collaborating with folks like Prehype.

As we continue along this journey, seeking to build a brand into the product itself, we’ll post more progress reports here on the blog. So please keep an eye out. 

(Paul Worthington)

Image borrowed from: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/canwaters-eauxcan/bbb-lgb/sandbox-sabliere/games-jeux/img/dots1.gif