Experiment like Google…
Jan 21st, 2008 by Simon
Here’s a nice little idea - not a new one, admittedly, but still it’s worth remembering once in a while.
Brought to my attention by this little article in Ad Age - where Andy Berndt explains what he’s planning with the in-house brand agency at Google.
Reminded me that there’s an inherent sense of excitement to your brand when you do that “always in Beta” thing and that you can easily reward some of your more loyal customers with new things to play with - even if they’re not always finished and polished.
At the same time, what if we really did approach communications that way? So, ideas are tested publicly rather than pre-tested. That being the same was less worthwhile than being different all the time? Not to a point of confusion, but definitely to the point where you feel something ‘fresh from the lab’ was being aired or placed or launched online…
Labs.google.com, Google’s technology playground.
Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren’t quite ready for prime time. Your feedback can help us improve them. Please play with these prototypes and send your comments directly to the Googlers who developed them.
There is such an opportunity in this thought for progressive agencies…PERPETUAL BETA. Digital media lets us see what is happening in real time, and then adjust. Some advertisers are putting out there three different pieces of creative online (or on TV though Google TV), seeing what is reacting and then adjusting the work or optimizing against whatever is working best. Or most relevantly.
Or if we look beyond the “testing” thought, experimentation lets us play. Put out small bets and learn. Act fast, learn fast…
The new book “The Black Swan” suggests that most of human achievement has been “stumbled upon”, or through experimentation, massive impact things that we then post rationalize how they came about. ie: 9/11 and Google. Not sure if I buy the whole theory but its interesting!
The age of spending 6 months building “the perfect ad” and putting it out into the world and never thinking about it again is (should be) dead.
It shouldn’t be scary.
It should be exciting.
Its not going away.