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If a project that takes a traditional insight, strategy or innovation agency weeks to do can now be done in 1 hour by a virtual agency, to the same or higher quality of thinking and creativity, what implications does that have for the way we all work?
The most obvious implications are of course SPEED and COST. You’re getting results much faster and without the costs associated with time intensive manual processes.
But really this is just the start, the implications are likely to be far more fundamental…
It’s hard to say exactly what the implications of 100% virtual projects will be, given we are all so early on in this journey. But here are some initial thoughts…
You’re free to go BROAD & DEEP
Most if not all traditional insight, strategy and innovation projects require significant trade offs between breadth and depth. Go too broad in scope and sources of insight and inspiration and the time and cost you spend quickly get out of hand. The same is true when you want to go deep, you have too make difficult choices about where you dig and how deep you go.
Virtual projects are not bound by these same restrictions, breath and depth can be simultaneously embraced. Can’t decide which sources to explore to get the best insights? Explore them all. Don’t know which of the potential platforms to take forward? Profile them all. Generated 100+ ideas? Turn them all into concepts and evaluate them for their potential across a range of criteria to help choose which to take forward
You can embrace truly ITERATIVE working
The benefits of iterative working are well known, but often hard to employ. When traditional processes take time and money then changing direction can be difficult or impossible. How many times have you thought… ‘If only I’d known at the start of the project what I know now I would have done things differently’?
Imagine you can get the full debrief of results of your project 1 hour after you brief. You can then review, tweak the brief, give feedback on the results, and then get a revised debrief again in an hour. This process of iteration can continue until the results are optimised in a matter of hours or a couple of days and with no escalation of costs. That’s truly iterative.
Your WORKSHOPS can focus on building on existing work
I think workshop fatigue happens because so much pressure is placed on participants to go through a journey from almost blank page to final ideas. Even with the best insight and creative stimulus that’s a tough ask for anyone, but particularly for those for whom ideation is just a small and occasional part of their jobs.
If 100% virtual insight, strategy and innovation projects have been run ahead of time… from research, to insights, to platforms, to ideas… to concepts evaluated on a range of criteria… it will liberate workshops, freeing people to work with and build on existing thinking and creativity, helping them get further, faster with a far more relaxed and enjoyable session.
Your time with CONSUMERS will be focussed where it is most valuable
I can’t help feeling that a lot of consumer research is done simply because people have knowledge gaps and hiring a consumer research agency is the easiest way to fill them. This source of knowledge is known, familiar and comforting, but often not the best way to fill that gap, particularly given the time and expense of consumer research.
We’re discovering that virtual projects using online sources is a great way of getting to insights, identifying opportunities and creating ideas. It’s honestly mind blowing what’s possible. We believe that time spent with consumers is essential, but it should be focussed on later stages, when you have hypotheses and ideas that you want to explore and refine with real people.
Free people for VALUE ADDED THINKING, not process management
We hear time and again that-client side teams spend a frustratingly high amount of time managing people and processes around projects rather than on adding value, even when they are working with external agencies.
Often times they are left with deliverables that fall short of what they need, or that come from disparate sources, and have to spend time pulling it all together to make sense of it rather than focussing on what it all means for their decision making.
Even those not directly involved in the managing of these projects have to wait for these weeks longs bottle-necks before moving their projects forward.
If these projects are complete in 1 hour of briefing, and enhanced in a matter of hours through subsequent iteration, this time spent on people and process management disappears, the bottlenecks are gone. People can spend their time focussing on working with and building on the results, adding real human value and aligning the business around better decision making.
100% Virtual projects are here and they are going to be a game-changer. The impact on our industry could be profound, but also incredibly positive
If you want to know more about ONE Strategy Studio and our vision for AI driven virtual projects in the insight brand strategy and. innovation space then please do get in touch.
