Experience Design? What’s that?

Experience Design: It’s not what you say. It’s how you think.

As many ad agencies around the country experience budget-driven difficulties, we are fortunate to be working with some incredible clients on some very exciting projects. Sure, we’re not a traditional ad agency in any sense, in fact, we’re almost positive that’s why we’re doing well right now.

Our capabilities extend beyond much of what the agencies of today (or yesterday, depending on how you look at it) offer. What makes us different is that we find innovative ways to let the actual customer experience drive the message. And that means that if the experiences our clients offer aren’t the best they could be, our first order of business is to help them create something awesome, THEN tell people about it. Not the other way around. After all, nothing kills a bad product faster than great advertising. We call it experience design.

12 Things I Learned at the Creative Unconference

Brian, Dave and I drove to New York May 7-8 for the Creative Unconference. I’m now permanently ruined for traditional conference formats. I filled several pages of notes and I thought I’d share some tidbits I took away from the event.

Opposing lessons in experience design (from outside the convention center)

Last night, we went to dinner at a seafood and steakhouse in town called Truluck’s. The food – awesome. The presentation – incredible. But the real surprise came at the end of the meal when, tucked in the folder with our bill, we got a business card from our server. Not for any hokey side business she mentioned during the night, but a professional card with her name and the restaurant’s number.

People are people

I help our clients develop social media and communication strategies here at NewCity. I try to get out of the office pretty often, meet people and talk to other conversation-oriented types about what’s working for them and what’s not. I like to get out and meet people that we might like to work with in the future. I go to advertising functions, industry association meetings, technology council meetings, higher education conferences- I like meeting people.