How To Build A Brand In The Digital Age
When we talk about building brands in the digital age, so many advertising folks make it seem complicated. Is it about upping your content strategy or investing in mobile? Using customer data or developing an engagement strategy? What the hell does engagement strategy even mean?! But really when we take a step back, we realize that building brands in the digital age is SIMPLE.
It's about putting the customer first by understanding their needs.
What does that mean? Now more than ever, every customer touch point is digital. Every interaction with a brand can get broadcasted across various social channels through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Information can be spread like wildfire and reputation is key. Digital is a tool like anything else - so understanding a person's overarching needs as it relates to that category is key without segmenting out their digital behaviors.
So how would this play out with a newly created brand in the digital age? Recently, I received a box from Oscar Health insurance. Oscar is a new startup health insurance company that I chose to try out because bigger health insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare have shown time and time again how dishonest their practices were. Whether through burying information deep inside the fine print or having poorly made websites that are impossible to navigate, bigger health insurance companies have shown that they are not customer focused. I don't get the sense that they see me as any more than a being that generates revenue.
But Oscar has proved so far that they are different. In order to build their brand, they are building their reputation one customer at a time. When I first signed up, I received a phone call from them asking if I had any questions. On the flip side, I remember with my old insurance, even getting on the phone with an actual human being was such a hassle that I imagined their system was purposely set up so customers would give up on this task. Oscar's website is easy to navigate and clear as to what they offer whereas previous insurance websites were at least 5 years behind in design and technology.
So why is this box so important and how is it part of building a brand in the digital age? In the box, every aspect of the plan is clearly laid out and it's easy for me to find what I'm looking for. It feels personalized and almost precious which speaks to this trend of valuing physical objects (anti-digital) and of Millennials, especially, searching for meaning in the digital age. Instead of receiving a standard, generic, large envelope that will eventually become buried and lost among my papers, I have a bright blue box that can nicely reside among my files or even be used to store something else. The box itself relies on high quality design, forgoing cheesy stock images for peppy colors and expressive type to relay information. While it's too soon to tell how they're doing, they're off to a good start and gaining interest in the process. If similar disruptors like Warby Parker are any indicator, Oscar may be the health insurance solution for the biggest generation in the United States - and an industry ripe for disruption will find a leader.
New York Tech Meetup "March" Re-Cap
The New York Tech Meetup "March" event tops my list of best NYTM's. The technology and new products were both groundbreaking and more importantly, incredibly useful.
First on the stage was Watch It. It was the first in a long list of "why didn't I think of that?" Watch It aggregates available movies across multiple platforms so you can easily find a movie you want to watch either online, DVD, in the theaters, etc. You can make a queue, share it with your friends, and get alerts when a movie becomes available. Simple yet brilliant.
Yapp took the stage next. I think Yapp marks an important milestone in our digital behaviors and needs. Yapp allows users to easily make a mobile app. Currently in beta, they demonstrated how to make an app for an event - which I'm sure all us nerdy tech folks will want to use to impress our other nerdy tech friends. So does that mean we will go from everyone having their own website to everyone having their own app? Special shout out to the preggers demoer who cracked us up with her Vegas wedding app suggestion. It's always nice to see female presenters onstage especially when they're developing startups outside of fashion.
For those of you trying to juggle your various social media presences (isn't that all of us?!), there's Engagio, a platform that allows you to see all your social media comments and interactions in one place.
Float schedule looks like a useful tool for agencies, studios, digital project managers - or anyone else who has to manage the schedules of various client projects. The act of producing projects is often under appreciated. I consider myself a dreamer or incrementalist according to Scott Belsky's Making Ideas Happen so any tools to help me be more of a "doer" is very much appreciated.
And another special shout-out - this time to my former hometown classmate Andy Tider who presented his Hack of the Month with Ben Fisher called Pool Party. I'm not 100% sure what it does because I was distracted by him throwing beach balls at the audience. Oh - and the hysterically awesome "please be patient" commentary while the program pulls data. Pool Party connects with LinkedIn's APi to help you make better use of a particular group's members - so when you sign in, it connects to LinkedIn, then one of the groups you belong to. From there, you can easily pull out UX Designers, Interaction, Product, Rails, etc. to better connect with. And as if I can't give enough props - another special shout out for getting the URL: JumpInThePool.com.
It would seem as if a shower of beach balls would be a tough act to follow but UnRoll.me did it with ease. UnRoll.me could be the most useful thing since ... email. UnRoll.me is a very simple email add-on that allows you to easily unsubscribe to unwanted emails, receive the subscriptions you like in one convenient email and here's where this service can become the next Groupon: get recommendations on newsletters you may actually want to read. It's in beta so sign up and be sure to tell your friends, or work on making your newsletter more interesting and engaging so it doesn't end up "unrolled."
When Kapitall took the stage, it became apparent that the hits would keep coming. French accents, online gaming and stocks! OH MY! Kapitall aims to make investing in stocks understandable and engaging to the masses by creating a game around researching and trading stocks. I'd tell you more but I just signed up and want to go play! Sign up now because trades are only $5 up until March 31st. The potential for educating people about stock trading is groundbreaking. I'll let you ponder that while I introduce the final presenter.
Last but certainly not least, the seasoned Anthony Caselena from Squarespace took the stage with an introduction to their revised portfolio and website publishing platform. There were collective oohs and ahs as we watched Anthony create a photographer's portfolio under a minute. And cringes as we silently cursed ourselves for renewing our Wordpress hosting sites. And curses from web designers who realized they have some serious competition.
So the common theme with all of these, and why I think they're going to be successful, is that they were all incredibly useful. More importantly their use can easily be explained.
Be sure to sign up for the next NYTM on March 27th. If you haven't attended yet, you're missing out. A trick to getting the ticket before they sell out is to make sure your payment is correctly linked before they go on sale. Also, they sell like hotcakes so set your alarm and be on your computer when they sell. If you can't get a ticket, people often resell theirs closer to the date when they realize they have a conflict and can't make it so don't "unroll" your NYTM message board.