AF Journal \ Vol.4 - The Play Edition

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Journal Vol.4

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Smartphones have woven themselves into our everyday lives, unlocking experiences we’d never otherwise have access to. But like 24/7 access to Netflix, it’s a curse as much as a blessing. Those same devices chain us to an always-on work schedule and have provided the tipping point for a culture of constant self-improvement.

So now more than ever, it’s important we take a moment to enjoy ourselves every so often. But where’s the role for brands in that?

In this edition of the AF Journal, our Folk explore the importance of providing moments of play in order to create valuable brand experiences.

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FIVE THINGS WE DIG SIX SMASHING APPS MAKING THE MUNDANE MARVELLOUS GAMING THE ALGORITHM WE WANT FUN ENCOURAGING EXPLORATION TWITCH & SHOUT DATA SHOT THE RETURN OF THE CRECHE MANAGING COUTINHO & CONTENT ENABLING PLAYTIME 5

5 // Joe Portman Junior Strategist London

THINGS WE DIG POMPOM MIRROR

Ever woken after a heavy night and been ashamed of your own reflection? Daniel Rozin has created the mirror for you. Made up of 928 faux-fur pom-poms, it uses a Kinect sensor to detect the user and translate the image into a black-and-white pom-pom collage. It might not be using digital to make the analog world better, but it’s certainly making it more interesting. vimeo.com/128375543

DREAMSCOPE Google have gone full Blade Runner and developed a ‘Dream Machine’. It’s able to emulate the neurons in the brain by analysing images for patterns to understand what they contain.

They’ve used this future tech to inspire the Dreamscope web app. Visitors can use this artificial intelligence to develop their photos into surrealist images. For those who are tired of the same old sepia-toned Instagram filters. dreamscopeapp.com

CHANGE COINS First we had BitCoins. Then the genius-yet-short-lived Kanye West-inspired Coinye. The next virtual currency to get us excitedly jabbering is Change Coins – “a virtual currency for good.” The Aussie start-up lets visitors earn Coins by watching and engaging with branded content, which they can donate to a host of worthy causes. The businesses the user engages with then fund the charities and NGOs, exchanging Change Coins for real-world currency.

One of the few times that everyone truly wins. makesomechange.com

EXHAUSTING A CROWD Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? With one CCTV camera for every eleven people in the UK, if you’re a Brit chances are you were. Worse still, footage from some of those cameras is being used to create 12-hour looped videos for the notoriously savage and hilarious internet community to annotate and criticise your every move. It started with footage from London’s Picadilly Circus and has now moved on to focus on the Dutch (Amsterdam, to be precise). Take a look and remind yourself that Big Brother is watching. exhaustingacrowd.com

CRACK + CIDER Christmas is over but we’re still caught in the spirit of giving, so we’ve got another charitable one here. AnalogFolk London’s own Scarlett Montanaro, alongside freelance strategist Charlotte Cramer, devised the world’s first concept store where customers could buy useful products for London’s homeless, delivered in time for Christmas. Named after the audience insight that drove the initial idea (that we’re led to believe the homeless are only going to spend your change on drugs and drink), the store offers a survival kit for the city’s rough-sleepers that’d have Bear Grylls nodding his head sagely – waterproof jackets, sturdy backpacks and warm fleeces, to name a few. You might be too late for the Christmas drop-off, but keep an eye on the project for more opportunities to contribute. crackandcider.com

// Sharmin Rashed Strategy Graduate London

Darkroom VSCO cam has had a monopoly on the iPhone image filter market for a while now, but Darkroom might be about to spoil the party. The app’s unique feature lets users make curve adjustments and also create their own filters. Eventually, the founders hope to set up a user-driven marketplace in which people can share and sell their own custom filters. An iPhoneographer’s dream come true!

Lucky Trip Got an infectious bite from the wanderlust bug? Tame your restlessness, with Lucky Trip. Set your budget and the app will help you find a destination and accommodation in just one tap. With over 300 destinations in their system, it pulls the best flights from Skyscanner, a place to stay from Booking.com, and unique handpicked things to do while you’re on your lucky trip. Thankfully, there’s now no need to spend hours on planning!

Great Little Place City Guide From Sydney to New York and the many cities in between, GLP helps users experience the best cafes, bars, restaurants, coffee shops and other hidden gems through the eyes of a local! Real places, added by real people who love it.

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Handpick To make unbearable, mouth-watering food porn on Instagram less unbearable, there’s an app called Handpick. It combines those tempting photos with related recipes. Discover trending recipes on Instagram and blogs, access over ten million dish posts from around the world, and see what pairs with the ingredients in your fridge. With the opportunity to explore the world’s largest collection of food, this is a must for food lovers.

Flush Toilet Finder For those who are “0 to pee in 7 seconds,” this may be one of the most necessary apps out there. The Flush Toilet Finder app locates free public restrooms near you from a database of 100,000 around the world, and shows you how to get to them. And it works perfectly fine offline too. Particularly useful when you’re in a day-drinking type of mood.

Seashine You’re a small bioluminescent jellyfish absorbing light to keep yourself glowing in the dark abyss of the ocean. Swim through this mysterious underworld, experience beautiful graphics and encounter strange creatures and objects, but don’t ever let your light fade or you’ll get yourself eaten. That’s the premise of this enchanting game, not the script from a relaxation exercise.

// Matt Dyke Founder & Chief Strategy Officer

It’s a common thread in the AF Journal.

We are more than a little obsessed with developing interactive experiences that people actively seek out and value.

One of the most powerful ways to achieve value is through adopting a strategy of play (the irony of strategy and play in the same sentence is not lost on me).

HOW PLAY CAN BE HARNESSED TO CREATE POSITIVE EXPERIENCES THAT MATTER

Quite simply, brands that are open to play are more fun to hang out with. They become attractive by offering a level of escapism from the everyday, or even making it more pleasurable.

When brilliantly staged, play experiences can release extremely high levels of positive emotion, which can lead to much stronger associations with your brand.

Not to mention the talk value that accompanies unique experiences you want to share so that friends can experience them too.

Play doesn’t just release strong emotions – it can also be one of the most compelling ways to hold attention, drive deep interaction, increase frequency and maintain interest over longer periods of time. This is because play-led experiences tap into our intrinsic motivational triggers, which in his book Drive, Daniel. H. Pink refers to as the trifecta of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

Autonomy: we all have an almost childlike desire for self-guidance, to explore

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new experiences by ourselves. Mastery: we have the urge to master new skills. Purpose: we are inspired to tackle difficult challenges if we care about the outcome.

It all sounds almost too good to be true, which begs the question, why aren’t more brands turning to ‘play’ as an effective method of brand building? What’s the catch? Well, of course there are number of barriers. One of the biggest being that it is actually very hard to stage a compelling play experience, but very easy to execute a bad one. Many brands have tried a play strategy and had their fingers burnt by creating an expensive game about their product that no-one played. There are also brands that are so ingrained in utility, that they simple don’t see the opportunity to be playful.

But the rewards are high for those brands that get it right, as these examples will show.

PLAY CAN BE USED TO POSITION A BRAND BY LETTING PEOPLE EXPLORE FOR THEMSELVES. Wrigley’s 5 Gum developed a truly unique mobile experience challenging their audience to explore the power of their senses. The Nightjar was voiced by fanboy-favourite Benedict Cumberbatch and required the player to use surround-sound audio through their headphones to escape from a seemingly deserted spaceship.

PLAY CAN BE USED TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL WORLDS AND CREATE UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES. Absolut combined a mobile game called Silverpoint with Punchdrunk productions that involved participants helping a mysterious girl by unlocking clues, solving puzzles and then tracking down real world places for a theatrical experience.

PLAY CAN BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH MORE UTILITY-BASED EXPERIENCES. An oldie but a goodie. The Nissan Carwings app, built for their 100% electric model, can charge the battery, set timers, and turn on the A/C amongst other things. But beyond that, it gamifies driving.

With a regional rankings dashboard, owners can compare their energy consumption and earn virtual rewards, using intrinsic human motivators to add a bit of fun to saving the planet.

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Gaming the Algorithm A my ot dfo B ro a luence

A creative approach to SEO

In f nce & dne y Audie ector, Sy ir D

In a time when Google algorithms create absurdist art, Tinder prioritises local hotties based on data, and Spotify can optimise your playlist of 80s synth pleasures, is it possible to reverse the trend and use playful creativity to game the algorithm and put the human touch back into the digital ether?

Yes. Not only is it possible, it’s proving very profitable. You might have heard of the website Ship Your Enemies Glitter. It went viral after the novel concept – paying $9.99 to have your nemesis sent an anonymous glitter bomb – was covered by global media in early 2015. What you might not know is that it was also an SEO stunt.

A clever young man named Matt Carpenter from regional Australia with a background in SEO came up with the approach after reading Ryan Holiday’s Trust Me I’m Lying. Holiday’s book explains a technique that can gain the attention of the lazy or stressed journalist via creating a buzz on platforms like Reddit. Once an alluring story presents itself, the time-pressured journalist often doesn’t perform the correct background checks and potential media hysteria follows. That’s exactly what happened in this case – and Matt Carpenter ended up making $85k for roughly a month’s work.

Carpenter’s mischievous approach appears temptingly easy. Google’s search algorithm (and I am simplifying this) likes social media buzz and inbound links. And not just any links, but high quality, creditable ones typically coming from news websites. Facebook’s algorithm also favours publisher content, with even Buzzfeed’s organic reach benefitting from recent changes.

All SEOs will know these principals, but only a handful of creatives, brand marketers and PR professional do too – which is unfortunate as this is a rich area going largely untapped by businesses. And here’s why: all who work in search agencies lust over the concept of using large ideas to generate inbound links and social mentions. These ultimately have the ability to increase page rank and domain authority. The better these are, the better the site ranks in organic search results. You would have heard the wellworn statement ‘content is king’. Well this is its nucleus. Truly unique creative ideas drive earned media, earned media creates links and increased social activity. Algorithms just love earned media.

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While I’m not suggesting we create false spin pieces here, there’s still a valuable lesson to be learned. Firstly, we need to value (and make room for) creativity while integrating SEO practices into all aspects of our existing campaigns. By value, I mean ensure our data teams are ready to capture the true value of earned media by attributing its financial worth to the business.

Secondly, we need to ensure that our next PR campaign works with search teams to capture and optimise the inbound links it generated, and not just focus solely on the column inches gained.

This approach will allow for awareness building activities such as branded content, social media, PR and experiential to form a powerful argument for their place in the marketing ecosystem, rather than simply crediting last-click attribution to platforms like AdWords or tactical sales bursts immediately prior to purchase.

However this is not a new concept. Google has been valuing inbound links to various degrees for years. So why are we so late to the game?

We have siloed digital marketing away from marketing. And out of all the online practices SEO seems to be the most underappreciated dark art of the online realm, yet it secretly holds a very valuable key. This key unlocks very profitable benefits when combined with existing creative activities. We need to move it away from being seen as this complex ‘thing’ that has been delegated to the too-hard basket for far too long. After all, it’s the same thing.

Digital marketing is marketing. We know that fortune favours the brave. The brave will be the ones who chose to play the game and win the algorithms by the new set of rules.

of y o j e Th playful expuser eriences

// Harry Llufrio Creative Director & Partner Hong Kong

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hink of the last experience you had that allowed you to complete a daily task, and at the same time, was fun and enjoyable to use. And when the fun kicked in, did you expect it, or was it a surprise, something you discovered along the way?

There was a time when it was only gamers who benefited from these types of user experiences, but it’s been picked up by more and more brands and manufacturers to create more playful experiences across multiple digital touchpoints – experiences that are easy to navigate, almost human, have a story to tell and most importantly, are fun!

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This is not simply a matter of ‘gamifying’ experiences, where brands apply gameplay elements (such as point scoring or rewards) to utility-focused activities. It is about making an experience playful for users, taking ordinary or dull tasks and sprinkling a bit of magic on them, making them pleasurable.

As a guide, the Playful Experiences framework categorises playful experiences (no surprise there) based on theoretical work on pleasurable experiences, game experiences, emotions, and elements of play.

The final categories – which range from ‘discovery’ to ‘sensation’, and ‘humour’ to ‘fellowship’ – can help us focus on a theme to craft experiences around. Essentially, the value offering of your brand’s playful experience.

With that in mind, here are some playful experiences that work from some gameplay principles.

You can’t get much dryer than this – a VPN service. Well, probably not the content you can access through it, but certainly the utility tool itself – subscribing then simply switching it on and off as and when you need it. One wonders how you could possibly turn such a dull utility into something playful. Well, Tunnel Bear has done just that. They have themed their service around a fictitious bear who helps you browse privately, hiding your IP address and ‘tunneling’ you around censorship and blocked sites to other countries, zapping trackers on the way.

Yep, probably all sounds familiar, but the bear gets involved in the experience along the way. Let’s take pricing. If you saw just the wireframes of any price list there would be three options to choose. Same here, but it’s how the price plans are positioned within the theme – Little bear (free), Giant bear (medium) and Grizzly bear (max).

And it doesn’t stop there. When using the service, the feedback is themed as well: “Rawwww!!!! You are now browsing in the United Kingdom.” When you’ve lost connection you get “No bear glove = Risky internet love.” What has always been a dull, sensible piece of feedback becomes playful, attracting you to the brand further.

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Messaging – another experience we often consider fully defined and with little room for evolution. It’s an experience where all fun comes from user interactions with one another, exchanging emojis or text messages. You could say there’s not much one could do to make it more playful. Not true. And one platform that has proved this is Slack – bringing a conventional messaging platform, originally intended for project teams to collaborate on, into a different dimension of communication and pleasure. For example, loading messages. What is normally a dry message telling users that the experience is loading uses surprising messages like “Remember to get up and stretch once in a while”, or “Each day will be better than the last. This one especially.”

The fun doesn’t stop there, you can personalize this message so that your teammates can see it, such as “Work harder” or “Did you know [insert co-worker’s name here] sometimes isn’t wearing underwear in the office?” Surprises in a social space can be fun and embarrassing.

We are seeing some experiences develop into something that is more intelligent and at times human – artificial intelligence. Now with intelligence we get pretty boring results most of the time. And mostly that’s good. After all, we’re mostly after short answers to first world problems quickly. “Where’s the nearest place to buy a flat white” – that sort of thing. But what if the AI experience actually had a bit of humour mixed in, just to lighten the experience up and throw in the odd surprise. Fortunately we have just that with Siri and it only seems to be getting better. Siri is quite simply a voice recognition search tool. ‘She’ helps you find stuff. And if you really want to test her with some very human questions, the response can be quite amusing. For example, ask her “What should I wear for Halloween?” and she’ll reply with “Just be yourself, pumpkin.” Or “When is the world going to end?” – Siri comes back with “As long as you keep me charged we should be just fine.” And finally tell her “Roll a die,” and Siri says “Ok…three.” You get the picture. The experience – sorry, Siri – has a mind of her own and some humour there.

There’ll always be a need to have utilities and tools, whether they are for a service, for the daily task of messaging teammates, or searching for something. You may have come to the conclusion that they are

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pretty well defined with a pattern of their own. But clearly what is working well out there are the experiences that are a little more like James Brown – they have a soul. They have personality, a life of their own. They are fun to use, turning the mundane into something that is pleasurable and more desirable for the consumer.

Just remember, the web can be a cold place. Try injecting some fun into your brand’s everyday interactions.

Mon, Oct 19, 7:43PM

“Siri, what should I wear for Halloween?” tap to edit

Just be yourself, pumpkin.

THE WONDER OF DIGITAL HOLIDAYING 22

// Suz Tucker, Editor-in-Chief, Sydney

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ver thought about the fact that in order to escape we need to go somewhere? Is that ironic? There seems to be a muddled convergence of irony and inevitability in the notion, and it begs the question: Is the process of escapism about the act of getting away or is it about the destination we’re heading toward?

It’s the 21st Century and those of us living in a major metropolis know all too well the choking overburden of things - screens, devices, gadgets, all manner of tangible consumerist ephemera… So is travel about ridding ourselves, temporarily, of all these incessant things?

These days? Heck no!

On the contrary.

This phenomenon of ‘thingery’ has become woven into the travel experience. More than that, it’s become embraced now we’ve actually acknowledged, however reluctantly (I’m looking at you, Mum), that it is these things and how we interact with them that elevate and upgrade each step of the travel journey. Even before booking the ticket.

Curbed on a several-hour stopover at the Dubai Airport I was taken by how it operates as a stunning symphony of stimulants and sensory buttons constantly-yet-subtly getting nudged. It’s a triumph of immersive retail. A four-story waterfall elegantly crashes in perpetuity behind a row of elevators. An airline customer service officer rendered in Tupac-definition hologram welcomes you through the post-check-in clutter. Screens guide our every move - and we’re grateful for their presence! “Want to learn more? Press here!”... “Hungry? Why, allow me to show you the way!”... “Login here for free Wifi - now do you want an app with that?”

The senses crackle and our synapses fire. These are the things that give us pleasure.

Even the process of checking bags has been almost gamified thanks to digital kiosks; and independently printing a boarding pass complete with self-selected seat preference can give travellers a modest sense of victory.

It’s no surprise that the travel world, much like the fashion world, has embraced the interactive, participatory digital experience unlike almost any other leisure market. Consumers are eschewing the service of personal travel agents in exchange for exploring the online booking realm for flights, accommodation, event tickets and more - it’s the thrill of the chase.

Moreover, the ability to hold everything from a concierge, city guide, navigation system, language translator and international weather updates in the palm of our hand means a reduction in stress, time-wasting and potential for encountering trouble when we’re outside our home city.

In travel, it’s no longer enough for a brand to simply provide a functional product or service – such as a directory for where to stay, or a map to get from A to B. Usability (or ease of use of a website, app or digital kiosk) and efficiency (how quickly customers can achieve a specific task) should be accented and enhanced through content and interactions that provide additional value for the user and make their experience all the more memorable. Take entertainment value, for example. It can occasionally be overlooked in

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favour of that aforementioned functionality – and yet it’s what can make the difference between whether or not a person connects positively with the brand - or, better yet, whether they are actually interested enough to care at all. Never underestimate the all-important give-a-shit factor.

These are the extras that kindle brand loyalty and increase user-return rate.

Airbnb has a unique proposition in that a percentage of the brand’s community are actually stakeholders in the business. However, from very early on, Airbnb ensured it offered more than a directory for accommodation and a promotional platform for aspiring landlords.

The brand’s careful curation of properties into niche travel experiences capture the imagination and provide content that appeals to the ‘interiors porn’ lover in us all. For instance, while you might not necessarily want to stay in an inhabitable windmill in Portugal or an underground bunker in Rio, you still want to see what it looks like.

It’s this well-considered strategy for pulling in an audience outside the moment of transaction through useful, entertaining or interesting content that can make a huge difference in earning brand preference and the attention of an audience in a category as stacked as travel.

“Never underestimate the all-important give-a-shit factor.”

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In the analog world, airlines and rail companies looked at the handy pocket in front of every seat. It’s where travellers tuck the newspaper, a magazine, novel or a book of crossword puzzles.

They eventually saw that space as an opportunity, and now some of the most lovely publications are made to provide the in-flight or on-rail audience with the information, entertainment and distractions travellers crave.

Ultimately it’s those marketers who are prepared to look outside their own brand goals and flip the focus to align with the interests of their audience that successfully and meaningfully connect in the digital landscape.

A large part of that? Using all those things - the screens, devices, gadgets - and putting them to work to aid the act of escapism, to encourage exploration and discovery and play in every part of the consumer journey.

That’s how to improve customers’ experiences with brands, the actual journey itself and with their future travel experiences.

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CONSUMERS ARE ESCHEWING THE SERVICE OF PERSONAL TRAVEL AGENTS IN EXCHANGE FOR EXPLORING THE ONLINE BOOKING REALM FOR FLIGHTS, ACCOMMODATION, EVENT TICKETS AND MORE - IT’S THE THRILL OF THE CHASE.

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TWITC // Jake Doran Content Creative London

What are you watching?

&

…uh, it’s called the International.

It’s like a global tournament for Dota 2.

What’s DOTA 2?

It’s a bit like League of Legends. It’s a MOBA. What’s a MOBA? It stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.

What’s that?

It’s a videogame.

Oh. You’re watching people play a video game? Why don’t you just play it?

You watch football on TV, right? When was the last time you played 90 minutes? …that’s different.

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CH People watching people play video games. It’s huge and it’s not just limited to competitive tournaments. Just search YouTube for the term ‘Let’s Play’ and you’ll see hundreds of thousands of videos of people just… playing games.

With north of 100 million monthly users, Twitch.TV is one of the biggest live streaming portals in the world. So much so that it caught the eye of Amazon and was acquired by them in 2014 for $970 million. That may seem like a lot of money for videos of games, but when you consider that Twitch users watch an average of 100 minutes of content per day – that’s a lot of potential ad-watching, revenue generating eye-balls.

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So what has made Twitch so successful? Its appeal lies in the same factor that has made Kickstarter, Patreon and Bandcamp so successful – the democratisation of media. With Twitch, anyone can create their own live TV channel with the smallest possible budget. This level playing field has created a very real sense of community where anyone can get involved, bringing previously unheard voices to the table.

While it has an enormous user-base, the core of Twitch’s content creators is a group of 6,500 ‘Twitch Partners’. These are the streamers who get the big audiences and who can, in turn, collect revenue on the ads that they’re displaying.

They’re the stars of Twitch and they’ve got the audiences and power to make or break new games on the market.

That’s the magic of Twitch as a marketing tool – if a big Twitch streamer plays a game for a few hours, broadcasting live to 6,000 people and enjoys it, it’s an incredibly convincing product demo. It’s authentic and super-targeted. Those 6,000 people may sound like a small audience, but that’s only the ones who are watching live – Twitch videos can be watched long after they’ve been first broadcast too. It’s also hitting a core audience. Those 6,000 people are the forum dwellers, the commenters on articles and the tweeters who form the groundswell of grass roots buzz for games.

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So what can marketers learn from Twitch? When you’ve got a product that people are genuinely excited and passionate about, you may have to give up a bit of control to get the best results. Give your audience the tools and the environment to advocate for your product and they’ll do most of the hard work for you.

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Source: GlobalWebIndex Q1-Q2 2015 Base: Internet Users aged 16-64

Which of the following activities have you done online in the past month on your PC/Laptop, Mobile or Tablet?

70% Watched a video clip 51% Played an online game 48% have streamed or downloaded

Watched a full-length film which you

47% music-streaming service Listened to music on a

41% via a catch-up streaming service

Watched television shows on demand

36% Streamed live television 35% Watched sports coverage 33% Listened to live radio online 32% Watched a vlog 31% Listened to / watched a podcast 33

Putting the fun back into shopping I used to despise trips to IKEA as a child – experiences that have scarred me through to adult life.

It’s not because of the aesthetic appeal (or lack thereof) of the giant blue corrugated-steel shoebox in a faraway pocket of North-West London.

//Amar Babbar Strategist London

It wasn’t even because of anything on offer at the store. I’m actually quite fond of the cuddly snake draft excluder, the copious amounts of tea lights and, of course, Swedish meatballs.

I didn’t even mind the fake books and TVs.

It was for one simple reason, one that I haven’t forgiven my parents for: I was never allowed to play in the ball pit and, as a result, had to traipse around the entire one-way maze on countless rainy Sunday afternoons.

Now, this isn’t just me acting like a spoilt brat who didn’t get his way (though it is partly that).

This is something that’s inherent in us all. It’s our natural desire to play.

Something which I was clearly deprived of and something I’m not bitter about at all.

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But as we grow up, we’re conditioned to suppress this urge and do more serious, ‘meaningful’ things – something that is reflected across many retail experiences available to us.

No ball pits at the supermarket.

No climbing frames at the department store.

No slides at the menswear store.

Of course, it’s ridiculous to think of these as realistic ways to make the retail environment more fun and playful (I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that was sarcastic…). But brands should embrace play in the retail environment, giving people a reason to come into store beyond a purely functional transaction.

The rise of the uncompromising, demanding consumer has put e-commerce in a dominant position: shoppers are able to find their desired item within seconds, on the device of their choice, at a price they’re willing to pay, and delivered to them when and where it suits them best. More often than not, all those features can be found in one place – just look at Amazon.

The risk is that with shopping moving online, a trip to the shops becomes a dull, mindless chore rather than an intrinsic and exciting way to allow customers to truly experience your products, your brand, and your story.

But the trick lies in setting the role of real-world shopping. Brands with a physical retail presence shouldn’t be competing with these leaner online services. They should instead reassess their competitive set to provide new reasons to visit the store, working in harmony with online shopping.

Rather than online shopping, a trip to the shops should be viewed in direct opposition to other leisure activities. And a look at how we spend our leisure time can start to provide inspiration for the sort of behaviours a store should cater for in a post-Amazon world. Relaxing with friends. Reading and learning. Being amazed and entertained by the latest CGI-filled blockbuster.

If these are the cues retail experiences should be picking from, digital technologies have opened up a plethora of opportunities, particularly as shoppers are equipped and using their devices when they’re in-store.

Take groceries for example: in 10 years, the average duration of a trip to a supermarket has more than doubled to almost an hour and a half. And while this could be attributed to more deals and wider product ranges, one key factor is the use of mobile phones to check that shoppers are getting the best deal – 84% of shoppers use mobile devices in-store to help them make purchase decisions.

So, how can today’s brick-and-mortar stores succeed amongst a competitor set of other leisure activities? Here are four key principles to succeed by incorporating ‘play’.

Despite all the benefits of e-commerce, people still go down to the high street, the shopping malls, the flagships and the supermarkets to touch, talk about, try and taste things – in essence, to play with the product and learn about the brand before buying it. Blending online with offline provides a more holistic experience for the customer, catering for both their emotional and rational need-states.

When Burberry’s Creative Director, Christopher Bailey, introduced the world to the revamped flagship store in 2012, he wanted the space to feel like the Burberry website housed within a majestic Regent Street property, becoming a hang-out destination. In addition to regular live in-store music events and a British-themed café, the store is brimming with technological surprises aimed at bringing each piece of clothing to

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life. RFID tags on selected clothing allow shoppers to see how each of the pieces looked on the runway, or paired with other items. If you’ve browsed online and added items to your basket, they’ll be waiting for you in the fitting rooms. And there are no cash registers in sight, relying on wandering check-outs and, of course, e-commerce.

In every experience, there are highs and lows – and shopping’s no exception. But the negatives during a shopping experience form a formidable list. The queues stretching as far as the eye can see, trying on a pair of ill-fitting jeans on for the third time, everything being out of stock – these often detract from the joy of the eventual purchase.

Brands should look at the total customer journey to identify these moments of frustration or boredom, turning a negative aspect of their experience into an opportunity for the brand.

Remember those halcyon days at the end of the school summer holidays when you were whisked away to the shoe shop, only to wait for what felt like an age with a paper ticket and cold, bare feet waiting to get measured? Well these days, kids waiting for their latest pair of light-up lace-ups are treated a little better, thanks to Clarks’ iPad foot measures. As well as collecting data to improve their shoe designs, the iPad measures keep the kids entertained with playful characters.

Consumers have become adept at buying online, so the retail space should offer something different – a physical manifestation of what the brand stands for, helping to engage people beyond products and plunging them headfirst into experiencing what life would be like as a customer of your brand. And in doing so, building brand affinity.

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Skate brand Vans have created ‘The House of Vans’ – a lifestyle venue for skaters, music lovers and foodies alike.

With London’s only indoor skate park accompanied by a restaurant, cinema screen and gig venue, House of Vans is creating a new standard in the role of a retail brands physical space. Rather than acting as a place to purchase, it combines the interest areas of the brand with those of its customers, giving people a space to experience not just the brand, but also the unique things their town has to offer.

Culturally, we’re increasingly valuing experiences over possessions – seeing something you’ve never seen before, or learning something you’ve never known before, or going somewhere you’ve never been before. Shifting your retail space from a showroom to a playroom helps to get people involved with your product and gives your brand more relevance in the customer’s lives from the moment they leave the store.

Jamie Oliver’s Recipease is a restaurant that’s not a restaurant. It’s a place to shop for fresh produce and kitchen equipment, and a place to learn about cooking from the best. The space is regularly used to host events and classes to help people get more from their meals, giving them fresh ideas around their food beyond just buying it and cooking their tried and trusted favourites.

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As 2015 drew to a close and we entered into the festive period, a somewhat random stream of thoughts began running through my head. Where did the year go? Can a 35-year-old father of two demand a present-packed stocking?

And can I spend the entire Christmas break playing Football Manager?

Yes, I admit, I was (and still am) a massive football geek with a borderline obsession for a computer game that – to uninitiated observers – is a series of coloured spreadsheets, a few stats, and some moving dots. It almost sabotaged my university degree and it certainly ruined a relationship.

Those who’ve played may well be able to relate to this. For those with no idea what I’m talking about, Football Manager is essentially an ultra-realistic simulation of football management – they call it “the closest thing to doing the job for real”. Taking control of any team, you decide the squad list, the post-match interview, the pitch-side tactics – you’ve even got control over the players’ personal problems. You’re a virtual god.

After a brief period of self-imposed abstinence, I recently downloaded the mobile version. And jumping back into it, I realised three things…

I am a Football Manager addict and always will be.

Football manager has taught me a lot about how to solve problems.

Succeeding in Football Manager and building a successful content marketing

strategy are more alike than you might think.

Let me explain. In both Football Manager and content marketing, there are two core principles that define your long term success: Establishing the foundations of your approach at the beginning, augmented by live decision making.

It’s traditional strategy, followed by what Sir Lawrence Freedman has called “the evolution of the big idea through changing circumstances”.

Setting yourself up for success.

For obsessives like me, the start of your first season with a new club is the most exciting aspect of the game, where you get to define the direction and approach for your new (virtual) employers.

Similarly, when you embark on your first foray into content marketing, the possibilities are limitless. In both cases, you need a clear vision, plotting how you’ll harness a number of variables to make more than the sum of their parts.

Can I really win the Premier League with Bournemouth in my first season?

At the start of every new game of Football Manager, the objectives you set will make or break your managerial reign. The joy comes from surpassing

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these expectations; the pressure comes from falling short. If you choose one of the elite clubs you are expected to win silverware immediately and are given the vast transfer funds to support these objectives. But choose a middle-ranking or lower league club and you are given a wider choice of aims which span from the ambitious “qualify for continental competition” to the modest i.e. “stay clear of relegation”.

Whether you are a brand, agency or publisher starting out in the world of content marketing, establishing what success looks like alongside core stakeholders and ensuring it’s realistic is key. Of course success in the early stages of your content marketing lifecycle can raise expectations and breed confidence, but it is important to remain pragmatic and take each stage of your evolution step by step.

Is my squad good enough to achieve long-term success?

So you’ve set your expectations for the season ahead, now it’s time to make it happen. The most important task you need to undertake as a new Football Manager is to closely examine the talent in your squad.

Why haven’t I got any right backs? Is this the player I build the team around? Does my veteran striker have a role to play in my team?

These decisions need to be made with your overall strategy in mind.

Back in the realms of content marketing, the questions you might ask are similar.

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Who is the creative talent that will bring my brand’s tone of voice to life? Do I invest in a content management system or a partnership with agency experts?

Whether the ‘talent’ is a specific person or skill set, an agency partner or a piece of technology, identifying who or what you need is a challenging task that requires considering the immediate, medium and long-term future. And it’s as much about identifying what you no longer need as well. Are there elements in your content marketing infrastructure that you don’t need anymore? Know what you need, but also what you don’t.

How do I want to win?

While assessing your squad and the gaps you need to fill, you need to simultaneously consider the style (not just formation) of football you’ll play so you can recruit the players to fit it.

Counter-attacking, ‘gegenpressing’, tika-taka – the choices are endless.

You need to decide and commit to a particular ‘brand’ of football that players can get used to and get behind over time.

Central to your content marketing approach is the development of an Editorial Mission Statement that encompasses what you stand for, the type of content you are going to create

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and the value you are providing to your audience. It provides a lens and a filter through which you can judge every piece of content you create. This in turn, establishes a consistency that should shine through whether you are creating big hero pieces or ongoing hub content.

Driving marginal gains through in-game management.

Having a plan is all well and good, but it’s how you adapt, tweak and refine that plan when you’re in the thick of it that elevates the best football managers and content marketers beyond the rest. Sticking with the sport theme, Mike Tyson put it characteristically eloquently: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. Just as content marketing is made up of individual pieces of content, a football season is made up of football matches. Some matches are bigger and more important than others, but they add up to the success of an entire season. Each match can be influenced by the decisions you make, however small, as they unfold in front of you.

How can I improve the performance of my team?

Data sits at the very heart of Football Manager. Every event is turned into a data point that you can choose to obsessively analyse or ignore.

Your interpretation of this data can inform your approach to a particular match or even your training regime. But the real thrill comes within the matches themselves. Making informed decisions based on how you decipher the data can change the outcome of a match. In some cases a decision can define your entire season.

No matter how well designed, expertly copy-written or slickly filmed a piece of content is executed, the agility to make decisions based on data signals can take a piece of content from being simply a great example of craft, to a remarkably effective piece of content with real business benefits. It could be a tweak in the headline of an editorial article, a shift in approach to social media targeting. It doesn’t matter how small the change is – by arming yourself with the data and dedication to optimize your content live, you’re significantly increasing your chances of succeeding.

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Testing the unknown might unearth a gem.

Watching with paternal pride as a 17 year old plucked from the lower leagues in France turns into the focal point of your team is something all Football Managers aficionados yearn for. But to reach their potential, young players need to play. Of course this comes with risk – lack of experience can put your team in jeopardy in a match situation.

So nurturing youth requires equal measures of bravery and shrewdness, giving youth players their chances in the right type of matches with experienced heads to support them will build their confidence (and value).

The more progressive content marketers would agree that adopting a test and learn culture is the most effective way you can take significant leaps forward. Some major brands and publishers even set aside a specific budget to fund experiments that deviate from their business-asusual approach. In the grand scheme of things, it is irrelevant whether the results are negative or positive. The value is found in applying what you’ve learnt to what you do in the future. Who knows, you may uncover a gem that really does change the game.

How do I evolve to continue building on my momentum?

Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s most successful manager ever, is one of the best exponents of evolving success over time. His approach is best summed up by one of his most famous and enduring pupils, Ryan Giggs.

“He’s never really looking at this moment, he’s always looking into the future. Knowing what needs strengthening and what needs refreshing—he’s got that knack.”

Whether it’s football management or content marketing, it’s an approach worth emulating. *Opens Football Manager

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//Fame Razak Chief Technology Officer

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D

igital technologies and channels have made it easier than ever before for brands to connect with people. But as with most things, it’s a double-edged sword. If your brand can connect with consumers, so too can your competitors.

In order to stand out, marketers need to create campaigns that grab attention and engage emotions – like a Michael Bay movie, but with relatable characters and a comprehensible plotline.

And what better way to do that than blending the digital and analog to create moments of play?

We’ve dug through the technologies on the brink of spilling over into mass market, highlighting how brands can use each of them to build playful experiences. There’s no use creating brand experiences that rely on technology no-one’s using. Instead, brands should focus on using technology that’s reached mass acceptance in innovative ways.

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How does Adam Sandler keep getting movies funded? And how do you enable deep and personal engagement with consumers in a physical space? These are the great questions of our age – but for the purposes of this article we’re only interested in the latter.

You can count on pretty much everyone having a smartphone in their pocket, which provides the perfect playground for more one-to-one engagement. And in the absence of staff or brand advocates, NearField Communications and Bluetooth beacons are increasingly providing the vehicles to deliver that experience. NFC smart tags rely on users physically tapping their device on the tag to access content, services or experiences. While Bluetooth beacons (or iBeacons) provide an additional layer of configurability, delivering highly-targeted, highly-relevant messages to anyone nearby who’s agreed to receive notifications from your brand via an app.

This method of proximity marketing has typically been used to push discounts and vouchers at the point of purchase. But there’s real potential for the technology to create immersive, playful experiences. Building an in-store trail or treasure hunt using iBeacons, for instance, adds a memorable layer of interactivity to an in-store experience that can introduce customers to your brand and your products in a unique and exciting way.

Taking contextual data to the next level, Augmented Reality allows marketers to create digital overlays viewable through a

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smartphone camera. These overlays – whether it’s a video, image, or data set – can be launched by GPS locations or visual cues, such as QR codes. In a nutshell: AR offers plenty of potential for creating playful experiences.

The 2014 Ikea catalogue was accompanied by a smartphone app, allowing customers to scan items and then see a 3D model rendered on screen. Using the camera built into their device, they could ‘try out’ a sofa, checking to see if it would fit in their living room, and which colour best suited their décor. This augmented reality experience was simultaneously novel and useful, allowing customers to play around with furniture before they bought and assembled it.

The application of Virtual Reality to create playful experiences doesn’t need much of an introduction. It’s the sort of technology teenage gamers have dreamt of since Donkey Kong first threw a barrel at Mario. But with the commercial releases of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR just around the corner, brands can start bringing these dreams to life. From immersive gameplay to virtual product demonstrations, brands are only limited by imagination and budget.

For instance, travel agent Thomas Cook is reportedly in the process of building “virtual travel experiences”, allowing customers to tour resorts without stepping one foot out of the travel agency. Not only does this create a playful point of

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difference against their competitors, offering an experience that many would actively seek out, it provides genuine utility for both business and customer.

Despite a predictably high profile launch of the Apple Watch, wearable devices remain relatively untouched by marketers.

There are myriad reasons for that – some got spooked by the failure of Google Glass; others are yet to be convinced of the enduring popularity of wearables; others just haven’t been sure how or what to build for the devices. But with the Apple Watch and Android Wear beginning to gain momentum and Bluetooth always being enabled on these devices, allowing for beacon communication, the first big effective wearable campaign is just around the corner.

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Perhaps most unexpectedly, older techniques like SMS, hold the greatest potential at present, with haptic ‘taps’ helping to attract the wearer’s attention. There can be no doubting the usefulness of services such as GoButler, whose AI-powered personal assistant will take care of your every need (within reason) and is always just an SMS away.

Whichever technology you choose, one thing remains true.

Only by properly understanding target demographics and telling a brand story that dovetails neatly with the customer context is it possible to build a playful campaign that properly connects. Get that right and you’ll deepen the level of engagement, increase the user’s enjoyment, and help deliver the sentiment change you want.

But for all the technology and data available, the ultimate goal of any playful experience must be to put a smile on the face of your customers and clients.

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AnalogFolk.com #TheAFJournal

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2016