Agencies, Culture, DesignDecember 12, 2018

Last Rites get a Rise with New UX Experiences

How to revive funeral rites through the creative use of experience design

The most exciting thing about experience design is its potential to improve everyday life. Beyond setting click paths, designing pretty pages, and ensuring flow, the job of an experience designer is to take a step back, look at the world, and figure out how rising digital behavior can better it by enhancing, enabling and easing pre-existing human behaviour.

To illustrate this point at the recent Adobe Creative Jam in Montreal, I talked about Fragment, a start-up project that aims to transform one of the most difficult moments in life: its end.

Reviving funeral rites in 3 crucial stages

1. Involving the community

2. Creating engaged remembrance

3. Assisting in the mourning process

Using UX for lasting, life-changing results.

Seven Tips to Success on YouTube

The Best Companies on YouTube in 2018

“We all know that YouTube reaches just as many, if not more, people than any of the existing cable networks.

However, what might be surprising is that the volume of videos uploaded per company is increasing tremendously. In total, the companies on our list have, during the past year, generated over 178 million views on YouTube.

You can also see a clear change among the types of companies that are actively using YouTube. When comparing 2014 and 2018, we see that YouTube was previously used largely by the retail industry but is now being used by all industries,” says Peter Söderlind, CEO of Chimney Sweden.

Seven Tips to Success on YouTube

1. Place the message you want to communicate at the beginning of the video. Viewers rarely watch the video until the end.

2. Make sure that the title of the video answers a question or tells the viewers how to solve a problem– this is a key factor in driving traffic from Google.

3. Add a clear link to your company or product. It should be a clickable link in the subject field, not just text in the video.

4. Add the video to a playlist along with other relevant videos, which will lead the viewer to more of your content.

5. Upload material frequently. Do not upload all videos at the same time if you have multiple videos ready. Spread out the publishing over a couple of days or weeks so that the channel appears live and current.

6. Use an eye-catching thumbnail. You want your video to stand out.
7. Think of YouTube as a fast and cost-effective platform to increase your reach, and follow up with optimized videos for Facebook.

YouTube has gone from being a platform where you can experiment with new ideas, to becoming an important part of our communication strategy. YouTube allows greater freedom, more interaction, and a higher engagement.

ChimneyGroup – Puffing from Sweden (and NY)

Agencies, UnfilteredDecember 05, 2018

Want a BK Whopper for a Cent? Drive by McDonalds’ and it’s Yours!

Cheeky campaign by digital agency, FCB of New York hacks geofencing technology.

 

McDonald’s outnumbers Burger King in terms of restaurants in the United States by two-to-one. This is great for McDonald’s but not so much for FCB New York client Burger King.

So, how do you tackle this issue without physically opening more establishments? This cheeky campaign by FCB did exactly that by selling Burger King Whoppers at McDonald’s. But that’s not it. They cost 1 cent.

What’s the catch? Well, the newly updated Burger King app includes an order-ahead feature. FCB tweaked the app to geofence McDonald’s restaurants so that this ‘Whopper Detour’ promotion only unlocks when people are within 600 feet of a McDonald’s.

Burger King is lovin’ it right in its biggest competitors face – but you know there will be payback….

Conversational Interface Prompts Policy Signups for New Insurance Company Branding

“By using a redesigned application process from Work & Co, Haven Life increased mobile applications by 112%, tablet applications by 59%, and the total number of policyholders by 76%,” said Forrester in a new report that highlights winning strategies for conversational interfaces.

“Crafting a differentiated product that combines a human element with a fully digital experience is a challenging task,” noted Haven Life’s Head of Design, Leslie Kang. “We needed a partner that would match our entrepreneurial spirit and could create exceptional experiences. Work & Co showcased a unique ability to offer original and engaging solutions, like the conversational application, while also iterating quickly based on customer and team feedback.”

Nine months after Haven Life’s relaunched its digital channels, the insurer is seeing a surge in customers, Forrester Research reports.