Navigating the Intersection of Technology and Human Experience with Starcom Worldwide’s Bohb Blair

Granted Blair is passionate about technology too amp160In the third year of the WARC Media Awardsamp160amp160a global awards program celebrating product excellence innovation and creativity amp8211 Blair was named to the amp8220Effective Use of Techamp8221 jury amp160He sat down with MediaVillage to discuss what technologies and trends are inspiring him and how marketers can leverage desire lines to create meaningful human experiencesDavid Berkowitz amp160Tell me what you do as Starcom Worldwideamp8217s Global Chief Experience Officer amp8211 amp8220CXOamp8221Bohb Blair amp160Chief Experience Officer isn39t a role that you find in a lot of agencies which is surprising to meamp160 Starcom is in the marketing and communications space as the Human Experience Company experiences are our product amp160It39s also the experience of working with us as a client or to work here as an employee In my role Iamp8217m free to really envision what amp8220greatamp8221 looks like in the space of experiences and to provoke new thinking amp160What is an appropriate plan for innovation amp160Are we creating an atmosphere where we can cocreate with clients and partners These are the types of questions Iamp8217m contemplating for our clients every dayBerkowitz amp160When you think about the intersection of technology and human experience where are brands getting this right and where arenamp8217t theyBlair amp160Well the big sweeping statement is if you39re using technology amp8220just becauseamp8221 then you39re probably doing it wrong amp160If you39re using it in an organic way to extend your brandamp8217s customer experience then you39re probably doing it rightBerkowitz amp160What are the qualities you look at when you evaluate amp8220Effective Use of Techamp8221 entriesBlair amp160A lot of it is in the word amp8220effectiveamp8221 If you39re using technology in a way that39s not relevant or you39re pushing a bleeding edge technology that hasn39t been adopted yet itamp8217s highly likely that it won39t be effective amp160The other part I39m looking for is tech that is very organic to what that brand is trying to doamp160 With the entries I39ve already reviewed so far as a judge my favorites are using technologies that have been available for a while where someone was incredibly creative in how that technology was appliedamp160 That gets me much more excited than somebody grabbing a headline from Mobile World Congress and using it on their plan the next weekBerkowitz amp160Whatamp8217s an example of an effective use of technology that your team worked onBlair amp160A program that we did for a client where we used kinetic mobile archetypes which is a really new approach to mobile targeting amp160It39s about using the kinetic behavior of your phone to make targetable segments of people You can hypothesize about what they39re doing because of the kinetic behavior of their phone amp160An easy example of this would be if your phone is moving at 50 miles per hour but you39re actively touching the screen you39re probably the passenger in a car amp160If your phone is moving at 15 miles per hour in a very small environment you39re probably at a car wash Weamp8217ve mapped archetypes for very sophisticated kinetic archetypes for common activities that you might be doing from walking exercising to kneeling down in a grocery store so you have a high degree of likelihood of knowing exactly what someone is doing because you have location mixed with kinetic signals from their phone amp160Your content should be different for someone who is bored and standing in line vs someone whoamp8217s just finished a set of pushupsBerkowitz amp160How do desire lines fit in with this Blair amp160I just love the concept of desire lines amp160The strict definition of a desire line is the path people take despite the path planned for them That is amazing and inspiring when you apply it as a metaphor for how people navigate a category despite the way the brand wishes they would amp160If people have started to find a more attractive path through the category and that39s not where you are that is a big problem amp160As more people start to be attracted to that path through the category you are going to have an increasingly big problem amp160It39s important for us to detect desire lines early to understand how many people are using them and whether those people are influential to your customersWe tell our clients amp8220You39ll spend a lot less money and effort changing your behavior to meet people on their desire line than kidding yourself that you39re going to change their motivation and how they navigate the categoryamp8221 amp160But you have to do it authentically otherwise it will failBerkowitzamp160 Are younger hires able to adapt to this approachBlair amp160I think it39s just the way you have to work now amp160I feel bad for a young person coming up nowadays because to succeed in our industry you have to be a content strategist a data strategist a creative thinker a politician and a great storyteller Thatamp8217s tough but our current reality Those that blend it all together are the shining stars of our young talentClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers amp160

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Navigating the Intersection of Technology and Human Experience with Starcom Worldwide’s Bohb Blair

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David Berkowitz

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