OPINION: Success factors for real innovation in digital

Digital is the only environment I can think of where marketers, technologists, creatives, media folk and analysts have to work together to make great things happen. That’s why innovation is so important. Something that changes consumers’ perceptions of the 'status quo' or accepted principles, from Ford’s Model T to the iPhone.

Collaboratively, we need to make sure that our clients are using the digital platforms for what they are best at, building networks, creating longevity and encouraging the right people to spread the word in the right sentiment for their brands. The extraordinary pace of technological change we face today continues to be over-hyped but its potential particularly regarding mobile is still vastly underestimated. Not only that, it is also cheaper, quicker to mobilise and the bringing together of media, telecoms and content will give rise to even more innovation.

One agency simply cannot provide the best of breed capabilities necessary to succeed in the networked world and most CMO’s are ill equipped to unite and implement the best resources in a collaborative way.

Real innovation only occurs when you integrate people, not departments or companies. Exceptionally talented individuals working seamlessly together are much more efficient, collaborative and the experience is more enjoyable and much more personal than one single agency can offer.

Typically, an agency views a client’s needs through the lens of its own core capabilities and methodologies and fixed (costed) resources and invariably arrives at the same channel solution. This should not be a surprise, because agencies are simply selling a service they are structured to provide and one that affords it the greatest profit.

Moreover, agencies tend to be their own worse enemy. A collection of silo like fiefdoms based on individual disciplines, including the ad-agency, the design agency, the digital agency, the media agency, the DM division, etc. They all have their own P&Ls and corporate manifestos.

Innovation comes from people. It’s about deliberately creating an environment where you put people with very different skill-sets, including marketers, creatives, media specialists, technologists and analysts, together. It’s not about forcing them into a particular process. Rather it’s about the conversations that are overheard around someone’s desk, around the water fountain or more often than not over a few beers or a coffee.

Obviously it also helps if you’re working with innovative clients.

Our role is to build a compelling case for any initiative and if we can’t convince a client to do something it was either a bad idea or we’re simply not doing our job properly.  

Having one’s ideas dissected and spat back out is an invaluable learning experience. It’s critical to remember that when you’re doing stuff that’s a bit more cutting edge sometimes it just won’t work. If a client doesn’t feel comfortable taking the risk that is absolutely their prerogative.

The key characteristics of great innovators are:

Curiosity. They collect information from seemingly unconnected arenas, just because they are interested or passionate about change.

Lateral thinking. They tend use that information to see connections between things that others don’t see as connected – such as applying business principles from one industry to another (like Ford taking the processes used in meatpacking factories ('disassembly lines') and creating the first mass assembly line for car manufacturing).

They are often mavericks that don’t like to accept the status quo and are always looking for different ways of doing things (there’s no greater challenge to an innovator than ‘that’s just the way it’s done’).

Persistence. Not giving up at the first hurdle, they keep going against advice. For example, Dyson is said to have had nearly 5,000 prototypes before launching the breakthrough Dual Cyclone vacuum cleaner – and it was rejected by every existing vacuum cleaner manufacturer.

Success factors include:

Loose organisational structures, creating mixed skill-set teams, deliberately getting people to do things outside their ‘role’, encouraging differing opinions and debate and integrating people, not departments.

Top two innovations for 2011:

Android. It is influencing the ‘mobile’ experience in a big way. Open is good because it is about choice and allows people to do what they want. You get more innovation, it lowers costs, increases creativity and it sounds very familiar to the internet, anyone can contribute and for me ‘open’ is the catalyst for innovation.

3D won’t make a big impact this year but perhaps the start of a virtual reality revolution, starting with augmented reality already embedded in mobile devices and it is a brilliant tool for 'search'. Also there are some great advancements in 'telepresence' technology. Without sounding like a ‘total geek’, Star Wars like communication is being developed and commercialised as we speak.