When I first rejoined Arc as VP Creative Director, my charge was to help elevate new business creative solutions beyond the expected. After a couple of pitches, I realized that teams across the agency were continuously playing in the same creative sandbox while many brands had already begun experimenting with new shopper and consumer experiences through mobile and emerging technologies like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Near-Field Communication and Voice Activation.
I started feeling anxious that we’d be left behind in no time, and I wasn’t quiet about it.
Agency leadership agreed, and together we developed my new role as
VP Director of Creative Innovation
My mission?
Evangelize emerging technologies throughout the agency and evolve what Arc is known for in the industry.
I’ve always felt that the fastest route to passion and understanding is experience.
So in addition to collaborating with teams on pitches and assignment briefs, I developed opportunities for both agency staff and clients to experience the magic of emerging tech firsthand.
And I used industry ads and events to create a more overt connection between Arc and innovation while generating new business leads.
Below is a highlight reel of prototypes and concepts we built in the first 9 months of the innovation initiative.
Emerging tech can feel intimidating when it's unfamiliar and your day-to-day project briefs (and budgets) aren't explicitly asking for it.
So I created an internal innovation contest, affording Arc and Leo Burnett employees an opportunity to take a creative tech solution from wacky concept to functional prototype without the looming pressure of KPI's and industry awards.
Inspired by Google’s “Paper Signals” internet-of-things experiment, 40 hand-raisers from around the agency were divided into 6 teams, each with a clear goal: build a physical object… that uses internet data… to provide information at a glance.
Each team took a totally different approach and the final inventions are a fun, unique and inspiring look at the curiosity, creativity and collaboration that are possible when people are given the opportunity to play.
Click below to read each team’s description of their creation.
Which one would you have voted for?
"CUBSCAST"
Sometimes we just need a simple reminder or a good excuse to take a day off of work and enjoy an afternoon at the Cubs game. Luckily our smart signal does just that!
- 1:20 home game?
- Warm, sunny day?
- Wind blowing outward for lots of home runs?
- Cheap tickets available on StubHub?
This smart signal runs every morning between 8am-11am, and when the answer to all of the above is YES, the flag pops up to let you know!
"FEET OF STRENGTH"
You’d totally take 10,000 steps quicker than your friends. You know this. But does that make you a better person? Fitter? Happier? Popular-er? Yes—it does. So, challenge your inferior friends, and rub your scientifically-proven greatness in their faces. With our Paper Signal Feat of Strength, we’ll pull info every minute from any fitness tracker and show the progress via arm wrestling. They’ll see roughly how far behind they are all race long, up until they finally get pinned and cry a little.
"METEOR SHOWER FOMO NO MO"
Meteor showers are dope. What’s not dope? The FOMO from learning you just missed one from your Instagram feed. Using data from Google Maps, Dark Skies and the International Meteor Organization, our signal is the cure for meteor shower FOMO. It moves up and down, to create an optical illusion and alert you when it’s the ideal day, time and weather to grab a lawn chair and hit the nearest roof-top. The faster the signal moves, the better the view.
"INSTAFEELS"
Can a robot show emotion?
We asked Google to check #FACESOFCHICAGO on Instagram
and use facial recognition to show us how Chicago's feeling at any given moment.
"UP, UP AND SIGNAL AWAY"
Our Smart Signal is designed to alert when the International Space Station is overhead. In our example, an astronaut will orbit around the globe when the space station is detected above Chicago. Using your voice + Google Assistant, the signal can be customized to track any location within the International Space Station’s path.
"THE NOSE KNOWS"
The Nose Knows is a magnum opus of nasal technology that will transform the way you combat pollen allergies. This innovation notifies you every morning whether or not to take a prophylactic based on the pollen level you specify through Google Assistant. And if that pollen level is met, our revolutionary mechanical sinus system will be put in motion—illuminating red as it dispenses your allergy pill for poppin’. Welcome to the future.
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Hear the full podcast episode below.
