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The Experience of Evolvedesign

I attended the Evolvedesign roundtable hosted by AIGAMN last Thursday, January 13, and left with a whole new outlook on design and how we advertise. The roundtable consisted of the titans of the Minneapolis design community…the designers who pioneered the business in the Twin Cities, and the most relevant in the current industry.

First, a little bit about me: I’m a video editor, not a “designer.” I put a series of moving pictures together given to me by some guy with a camera to tell a story. If necessary, I make it look pretty or help the story with moving graphics. I entered the workforce thinking designers worked on something you printed. They sat behind their computers, or maybe a sketchpad, and made things look pretty. There were web designers and developers, too, but they were weird. Sometime between then and now, I started to come around to the idea that I wasn’t just a video editor, but a designer as well.

Team = Design
The event confirmed it for me. It became clear that the entire team I work with are equally responsible for the designs we produce for our clients. And designs aren’t just a full-page ad or website. They are any communication meant to influence a consumer. Panel member after panel member at Evolvedesign discussed the importance of every person on a design team. And they are right; you are only as good as your weakest link, and the quality of communication throughout the chain. The account manager. The producer. The art director. The graphic designer. The creative director. The web developer. The project manager. The video editor. All responsible. All producing design.

New Advertising Channels
Another theme that emerged from Evolvedesign was that the old way of advertising is ready to retire. Only the slowly shrinking big pockets of “old media” are keeping the plug from being pulled. The panel discussed the idea that design needs to be more experiential and produced with the end user in mind. Joe Duffy of Duffy Design (and neighbor of StoneArch) said people are designing their own lives. This statement really hit me. He is right. People are not sitting back and letting old media advertisers force-feed them messages anymore. We are smarter and can see through the pretty facade.

Social Channels
Our audience is looking for advertising through their social networks, whether they are just having a conversation with a friend, a method that has always been there; or using emerging media to find what they are looking for via Twitter or Facebook. Or YouTube. Or Groupon. And that new technology that just came out today? It will be relevant in 3 months. Have you heard of Google Goggles yet?

Consumers’ social networks online are increasingly influencing people’s behavior. When I want to buy something, I’ll do my research online. I have a number of people whose opinion and reviews I respect. Traditional advertising only lets me know that a product exists, and the tone of the ad gives me an idea of the company’s desired culture around the product. If that appeals to me, I will then go to my social network, vet it, and maybe buy it.

Smartvertising?
Further, with the advent of mobile media (iPhone and Android smartphones), TV over IP (Netflix and Hulu), and social media (Twitter and Facebook), the channels that previously worked are not as effective.

Radio
For instance, I no longer listen to the radio thanks to my iPhone and iPod. There are a number of podcasts that are more relevant to me than pretty much any radio station (National Public Radio being the exception…and NPR is “ad free” if you don’t count the donation drive or sponsored messages). Plus, I can listen to the music I want, not what some executive at the radio station thinks I should like.

Print
With the advent of RSS, I rarely read magazines or newspapers. Most of the information I want is sent to me through my friend, Google Reader. Almost always ad free, unless I end up linking to the website from the feed.

Television
My exposure to television advertising is also limited. I use Netflix to stream entire seasons of a TV show. AppleTV and Boxee are allowing you to rent episodes the day after the original air date, which will further cut into exposure to televised advertising. Aside from live sports, television by appointment is dead to me. Why should I have to schedule my day around when they want me to watch something? I’ll watch it when I darn well feel like it! DVR anyone?

Don’t get me wrong. Being in the video production/advertising business, I love watching TV spots. They are sometimes more entertaining than the shows they are being advertised on. I’m just saying, we are in a new paradigm, and the numbers show that it is true.  The market value of the “new media” companies Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Netflix, Twitter, iTunes, and Hulu is neck and neck with the market value of the “old media” companies Time Warner, Viacom, Time Warner Cable, News Corp., Comcast, Disney and CBS, and NBC Universal.

In Closing
As advertisers, we need to think about the entire experience the end user seeks. We need to find social outlets where our desired audience lives and create a space they enjoy. We need to get into their social space so they are tweeting links to videos on YouTube, and singing their praises on an Amazon review. When we are developing our strategies for advertising, we need to embrace our entire team, and get them completely on board and involved so that we can “design” a more experiential place for our clients’ products.