I try not to get too caught up in Gen Z versus Y versus Millennials versus Boomers. At the end of the day utility wins out. When things are easy and they serve a purpose, there’s a clear value proposition that should be ageless.
John Sampogna, is CEO and Founding Partner of Wondersauce, a digital advertising agency that executes marketing initiatives for global brands. Wondersauce is a part of Project Worldwide, an independent global network of wholly-owned creative agencies.
In this episode of Velocitize Talks, Sampogna shares his thoughts on the digital agency landscape, user experience and content creation.
At your service (1:53)
The context in which a sale is teed up for a customer happens way before the actionable product detail page.
Due to the nature of customer-to-brand interaction, there is only so much you can do from a design standpoint. It is important to dive into how customers are interacting with brand. One way is to look at how brands pair media tech and creative staying power.
According to Forbes, over 130 million Instagram users every month engage with “shoppable” photos. These make it easier for users to shop products right from their news feeds. Wired has compared this customer experience to “opening a storefront in a shopping center where the customers who are most likely to buy from them are automatically directed to their front door.”
Audience outreach (4:07)
Have a distinct value proposition for what you’re trying to say and ultimately how that ties back to your goal; whether you’re one of a group of agencies working towards a successful launch of a successful campaign or you’re just working directly with a small brand.
Wondersauce focuses on the complete customer journey and helping clients understand the most relevant ways to reach their audience. Sampogna feels agency partners and brand alignment on the brand’s core goal is critical in a hyper-competitive marketplace. For a digital launch project, Wondersauce successfully partnered with Scotts’ in-house design team, which led to an ongoing partnership.
Wondersauce is currently an integrated part of the Scotts team, working alongside their in-house teams to create digital content across their ecommerce and social platforms.
It’s the little things (5:56)
We’re always talking about having meaningful brand experiences. I would argue that 90% of meaningful brand experiences are the wrong meaning. It’s usually negative. So sometimes it’s okay to be forgettable.
It is not as important what a brand says anymore. The world is so noisy right now, making it even more important how a customer feels when they use your brand. Sampogna gives the example of using a car sharing service; when he used it for the first time, he appreciated how efficient and easy it was to use which made him likely to use it again and again.
It’s little things that lead from surprise to delight, making an imprint in these moments of brand building. Wondersauce believes the market has changed and the most successful brands are the ones that aim to provide value and build equity with every single interaction.
Creative staying power (8:03)
We put a lot more emphasis on not only making it look and feel great but ultimately how can it be cut down and again reused in any number of formats that we aren’t thinking of today.
When agencies are creating campaigns for their clients, it is important to get the most out of a creative shoot so that it can be optimized to use for many of a brand’s needs. While working with client Tabasco, Wondersauce created a scalable design system that supports Tabasco’s ongoing marketing initiatives and partnerships. For example, Tabasco displayed their creative staying power in shooting original, lifestyle and product photography to be featured across the digital experience.
True or faux (9:55)
If I’m being told that a brand is going to create something personalized for me, the context has to be really correct or I’m going to judge it falsely. That’s why I think there’s a difference between faux and true personalization.
Faux personalization is something brands need to be hyper aware of when trying to customize their messages. It goes without saying that if you’re going to ask a consumer for their data,you better do something compelling with that data or don’t bother asking for it. In a survey by Gartner, of more than 2,500 customers, half of them said they would unsubscribe from a company’s communications if they deem their personalization efforts to be “creepy.”
For more information on Wondersauce, check out their website.