Welcome to the Digital Marketing Inner Circle

This week I speak to Jennifer Wilson from The Project Factory. In Australia, some folks may have seen Jennifer speak at various industry events as a renown mobile and social media specialist. I went up to meet her, like a star struck groupie, after she spoke at an AIMIA event – so am pleased to realize that she doesn’t disappoint and is equally as inspirational in the written word. Jennifer offers us a very insightful, and, I think, accurate glimpse into our future and how we will all consume media. But she doesn’t stop there – she also shares her thoughts on media in the present and then takes us way back to the mid 80’s to share her first encounter with Interactive Voice Response technology where her passion for digital started. So, sit back, get comfy and enjoy Jennifer’s wonderful story.

Name: Jennifer Wilson

Works: The Project Factory (was Lean Forward)

Job Title: not sure I have one! Director I guess?

1. How, where and when did the digital industry find you?

First started in what I think of as this digital industry in London in 1986. I was a computer programmer and wanted to be a stock broker. I got an interview with British Telecom to work on a share price information system. It sounded boring, but I figured you always did an interview for the experience. The system was using Interactive Voice Response – which no-one had really seen before. For the first time ever, a consumer could sit down at a device (the phone), press buttons, and the machine would respond to the request. This was the first public form of interactivity and I was incredibly excited. I could see a new world where consumers were able to make requests of things and get back a response to that request and nothing would ever be the same.
I was so excited I turned down an interview with Lloyds of London and spend the next few years creating IVR applications that provided share information, financial advice, chat rooms, sports results, music channels, news and weather and more. BT Supercall – wow!

And after all this time, I’m still in phone (only there are handheld mobile computers these days!)

2. What is your current role and what do you actually do?

The Project Factory specialises in cross-platform delivery of what are usually linear narratives, messages or stories. Our clients can be brands, agencies or content producers and we look at the web, mobile, virtual world, social media, widgets, games and email all as forms of getting the right message into the hands of the right consumers (in the right way, on the right screen, at the right time).

My role in The Project Factory includes being the mobile and social media specialist: I have experience in the delivery of both mobile site and services and social strategies, including developing viral campaigns, building social applications and using social networking as a driver for audience aggregation. We work with creative producers to take their (linear, heritage media) concepts and realize these in the digital space. In particular, I assist in rights discussions, negotiating and liaising with digital companies to secure space, coverage and promotion, as well as just coming up with new ways to promote concepts – being they narrative, brand or company related.

Specifically, I think about ways to generate audience, buzz or revenue in the digital space around a specific product or concept; design mobile services (applications or mobile web) which can help realize this, link these into a possible social media strategy (which might involve a Facebook or social media app) and work with other on what could be realized in the digital space. I speak fairly widely on where I see audiences going and try to explain what that means in terms of getting in from of the audience.

3. If you could have any job, what would it be (can be in and/or outside the industry)?

Independently wealthy comes to mind! If only so I could spend my money on some of my more (bleeding) edgy concepts that link mobile with social, location and personal services to create possibly native concepts. Other than that – I’m doing something I love right now!

4. Take a punt on the ‘next big thing’ in digital?

Big things will be mobile – we’ve seen nothing yet. And while it will be digital, we’ll see things we haven’t even dreamed of yet (Horatio). Computer will change form, from Siftable – small block computers that are sensitive both to their position in relation to others and their actual movement and angle, through to more generically wearable computers that start to influence what we do, and how.

I think we can never see more than a few years ahead. Moore’s Law is dead – we double every 12 months (and shrinking) so whereas a horizon of five years once was possible, I think we struggle with three these days.
Specifically – social will leave the service (ie Facebook/MySpace) and be seen everywhere we go. All services will become mobile intuitively and we will expect to carry our (single) identity around with us – and have the systems remember who we are and what we are up to.

5. Where do you see the digital industry in the next 5 years? (any forecasts and challenges)

Stronger, but still fighting for the corner we truly deserve. Right now, even Gen C (or Gen y or the iGen) still see the money being in old media. They make YouTube videos in the hope they will get on TV; they become Garage Bands and put music up on MySpace in the hope someone will give them a record deal. In the next five years – we’ll start to note success in the new media space in its own right – and not need to transfer that to old media.

We’ll also work out where the money really is (which is key to this) and build repeatable, sustainable and truly measurable business models based on more than advertising, which can really start to deliver on our vision.

Commercially, companies will increasingly realize that both their revenue and their consumers are coming in through their digital door (just not always the front door – the power of search as discovery cannot be underestimated) and will start to pay more attention and spend more money on this. (Note: see the AIMIA Digital Service Index, of the $17.9b spent on digital services in Australia, companies allocate 14.3% of their budget on digital services; engage with 40% of the customers through this means; and receive 25% of their revenue from digital. Isn’t it time these started to balance out a bit more evenly, particularly in terms of spend. The ‘bang for the buck’ in digital is a lot better than in any other form of client contact.)

6. How do you see other media evolving in the next 5 years?

We’ll never lose cinema – as someone said, as long as there are first dates, there will be a need for cinema! It will just increasingly be about the experience of the big screen in a luxury environment. As distribution windows get shorter (compressing to day/date release) we’ll go to the cinema as part of a social experience, not just for the content.
TV will always have a place. There is nowhere better to veg than in front of the ‘idiot box’. However, Internet TV, IPTV and Video on Demand will mean that increasingly, we plonk ourselves down to watch the content we have curated ourselves. It will be the content we have selected, delivered when we want, and no on someone else’e schedule (but it will take some time).
Similarly, print will always have a place. Newspapers not so much for breaking news as for the news behind the news, the quality of the journalism and opinion (and for wrapping the rubbish). Magazine will stay relevant – as long as they remember who their audience is and also understand that experience is critical. We’ll see more experiments (in a few years) with different types of paper, format and even build in interactivity – there are already ‘wired’ magazines with interactive images that change as you watch, powered by tiny batteries that run for year.

Even old media will become ‘new’ in a whole lot of different ways.

7. Where do you see the digital industry going in the next 12 months? (particularly in light of the evolving financial situation)

We should see sensible mergers that make us stronger; we should see more cooperation that lets us all win-win; we will see those who don’t know what they are really doing fail (as they should) and those who are brave struggle but win. I think we will have a hard time until nearer the middle of the year, then we’ll realize it isn’t as bad as we thought, then we will continue to grow and develop.

Time of stress and change lead to new thinking. New thinking by business on now to use digital to its advantage (see above re the Digital Services Index) and new thinking from innovative and new companies on how to ride this wave.
The global financial crisis couldn’t have come at a better time. We need to pare back our excesses, including in media, assumption of consumer and assumptions of consumption and in marketing. Back to basics is needed, but bear in mind that your core business has changed, and your core business now includes reaching consumers through digital means (the screens and the worlds they are spending their time in).

8. Did you ever have a big digital idea you wish you pursued (or someone else’s idea you wish was yours)?

See above . I have a brilliant idea for a mobile content application which includes social, location, relevance, personalization and community. No – it isn’t a new mobile social network; yes, it is relevant mobile content delivered in a social context which gets smarter the more you use it.

Anyone interested in funding it? There is still nothing in mobile to touch it, but I do think that truly native mobile applications are still about two – three years away. We just don’t have the mobile natives yet for this (and I think I’m pretty close…..)

9. Where do you get your industry information from?

Reading, talking, thinking and my 19 year old – Lulu. Hanging out with other digital minds over dinner; going to industry events and watching the Twitter stream.

I have a lot of online newsletters that I scan, spend time Stumbling Upon things, hanging out in Twine and seeing what is Delicious or Dugg by people I know. Blogs are also a good source (if vaguely opinionated and conversational – even mine)

10. What industry groups or networks are you a part of?

Key: Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) – for all things digital and some great conferences and seminars.

AIMIA’s Mobile Industry Group (MIG) which I confess I chair and which represents the broader, non factional interests of the mobile industry, from carrier through developer via content provider to consumer.

Mobile Mondays (in most capital cities) for presentations and networking monthly.

Swedish Beers (Sydney) which I help organize and which has my favor motto “ drink beer, talk mobile, drink more beer, talk nonsense”.

Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA); Independent Producers Association; a few other film related ones.

Lots of groups in Twine (come join me).