Pod1 Blog

Wow how quickly time flies! Here is a picture of ‘Team Amanda’ all glammed up at Net-A-Porter’s 10th birthday party – we had an amazing time.
Thank you Net-A-Porter!!

We have been keenly following the stories about the 10th anniversary as many are, but we were especially please to see that another of our clients ‘Kurt Geiger’ appeared in the outfit chosen by the NAP Facebook fans for 2010. Well Done KG!

Happy Birthday to all at Net-A-Porter and long may you reign!

Six of us girls at Pod1 have downloaded a fashion app each and went through a mini user survey. Here are the results;

14/20

Presentation 4/5   Navigation 3/5   Content 4/5   Functionality 3/5

Good points great content and quality of images (although zoom is pretty limited)

Bad points The app required WiFi connection to download (and for optimal browsing),you can’t shop nor add to wish list

10/20

Presentation 3/5   Navigation 3/5   Content 2/5   Functionality 2/5

Good points none

Bad points selecting country you’re in at the outset provides you with an unordered list from which to choose from, the app not only doesn’t offer the ability to shop but doesn’t really do anything useful. Finally, there are no product details either

10/20

Presentation 3/5   Navigation 2/5   Content 2/5   Functionality 3/5

Good points you can shop

Bad points confusing to work out size selections in particular for bikinis and trousers, product descriptions were pretty useless

13/20

Presentation 3/5   Navigation 4/5   Content 3/5   Functionality 3/5

Good points well presented and easy to browse the collections, you can also shop from the look book, the “mix and match” is a cool idea (take a photo of yourself and drag and drop the items onto your photo)

Bad points shopping from either the look book or the actual ‘shop’ is not a smooth experience; poor navigation and limited and poor quality images, the “mix and match” function only allows you to try a few items and has a weird body-to-item size ratio so you either look too huge or too small in the items, not useful at all, the app requires email address to add item to favourites

18/20

Presentation 4/5   Navigation 4/5   Content 5/5   Functionality 5/5

Good points great image zoom, ability to search by type, colour and price, nice smooth interaction
Bad points just a bit annoying to have to register when using your iPhone

15/20

Presentation 4/5   Navigation 4/5   Content 3/5   Functionality 4/5

Good points good navigation, well presented magazine, ease to complete transaction (except the phone stalled when added item to basket)

Bad points only gave ‘what’s new’ items couldn’t search in another way such as, by brand, colour etc., clicking on an image gives no zoom instead screen flips to reveal product details and when you click again nothing happens you need to use the tools at the bottom of the screen to go back to the image.

The overall winner is Karen Millen with 18 out of 20 stars. Competing for second place are  Net-a-porter and Chanel.

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Saturday 19^th June, three in the afternoon, Milan at the Burberry Menswear Spring/Summer 2011 fashion show. The show is fashionably late waiting for chatty fashionistas, pushy photographers and sleek models to settle down.  Twenty-five minutes later, the lights dim, music starts to play and the boys hit the catwalk.

I turn on the sound and I’m ready to click to buy that manbag for my bgf (best gay friend)’s 30^th birthday. I watched the cool live streaming while keeping an eye on the black space around it. (I didn’t dare expand to full screen should I miss the buying button or instructions or the most talked about lookbook).  But nothing happened. Anxious to get my hands on this new collection I clicked the video and guess what, another browser window opened on Burberry’s homepage which displayed a huge message about the show on http://liveburberry.com (which link, by the way was not clickable!) and “available to order exclusively from the runway”.

Disappointingly, the Collection was only made available for purchase after the live streaming of the show.  See what happens when I played the fashion show video the second time round and clicked on it;

A few faux pas;

• Clothes for sales were only available post live show.  This is only possible if you click the video while it’s playing (and there was no where saying that)
• Video usability; where were the basic functions? No pause or re-start buttons. No time length of the footage in minutes. This could have made sense for the live streaming but not for the subsequent video content
• There’s no commentary during the live show to describe and make the collection items even more desirable

Given the hype I was not expecting any of the above for starters. If anything, I was expecting a Net-a-Porter videos type of experience, only in real time.  A hint of slow motion could have not only given me more time to absorb the fashion but also presented me with the individual items adjacent to the video.

However, different to Net, the thumbnail would have presented a single quick action ‘add to my basket’. So while I’m enjoying the objects of my desire parade in front of me, it only requires the effort of one finger to get the item I fancy. Then when the show ends a big button tells me to continue shopping the collection online while an even bigger one tells me to go to checkout my basket.

Now how exciting would that experience have been if only it was thought and rehearsed as much as the fashion show itself?!  It could have even been better than Net-a-Porter’s Videos experience where the item thumbnails take you to the products page directly, so the only way to get back to the video you were watching is via the back button on your browser. Not very cool. Well, at least the video resumes from where you left.

With today’s ‘future technology’ I was thinking of a video-camera zooming effect on the catwalk models’ clothes or 3D viewing online. And like the geo-tagging apps, have details of the item displayed on the screen including the price while the model is strutting down the catwalk.

When it comes to fashion, the element of fun is part of the game.

We spend endless hours browsing through shops taking our time mixing and matching to create our own style so we expect to do the same online. H&M’s Fashion Studio has almost done it for me. I love the way you can pick and chose and combine items to make your own look; the dress, the shoes, the bag.

Here’s a recording of my summer creation  (sorry guys no naked stripping. The closest you get to see are her panties and bra or in this case bikini!) -  try it !

Save to desktop, share on facebook, share on twitter but what about buying the complete look? There’s the basket isn’t there? I mean the prices for each of the items I’ve chosen but no checkout!  It’s almost as if I were taken for a ride.  I became so engaged with the interaction and enticed by it, I almost felt I won a prize, only to be deprived of it.

The online shopping experience is taking different dimensions.

Net-a-porter does it both ways. Look for an item by collection or category, then choose size, colour and designer, add to basket, job done – slick, quick and easy.  The other way is down the catwalk. As you play videos of catwalk shows whatever the model is wearing is displayed in thumbnails adjacent to the video, all you need to do is click and buy. So you’ve seen it on a real life model walking down the catwalk, heard the tempting commentary about it, enjoyed the vibrant background music and now you just want to buy it.  It’s emotion-driven shopping. You might not necessarily be looking for something in particular but the visual and audio experiences stimulate the senses which in turn create a want-to-buy affect. And yes, straight from the catwalk into your basket.

Now some fun for the boys. Have you experimented with NikeiD’s custom footwear? Not only are you buying branded shoes but you also get to customise them. Check it out and the T-shirts too. I couldn’t help it and got myself a pair of Nicky’s Nikes.  So cool!

Adding a playful interactive environment in your online shop could expose customers to new products as well as strengthen the relationship with the brand; increase sales and marketing – when people enjoy an experience, they share it.

Back to the girls, and well the boys too, if you’re looking for a personalised gift for your girlfriend. Daisy Jewellery sell a unique collection of rings which you can mix and match to create your own stack of rings and even see them on a hand that matches your skin tone and nail varnish

There are no hard and fixed rules when it comes to play interaction as long as it’s self-intuitive, fulfils a goal and is fun.  One thing that doesn’t change however, is the check out; it’s one lane, the fast one; quick, easy, transparent, secure.

There are so many ways to enrich interactive experiences. The more personal they are the more engaging. Now how about creating my avatar and replace that model with myself?!

Happy shopping!

Kick up your Heels with Net-A-Porter.Com’s latest display campaign!  The Pod1-designed rich media Shoes campaign launched last week; the fourth in a series of creatives supporting Net-A-Porter’s SS10 digital advertising strategy.

The Kick Up your Heels creative follows the Wedding Boutique, Surf’s Up Sports Couture and Vogue Front Row Fashion.   All creatives are served through the dynamic Flashtalking template, which allows Net-A-Porter to serve up-to-date rich media campaigns with multi-channel share functionality to encourage social media engagement with the display ad’s.   Pod1 will be rolling out three further creatives for SS10 over the next 6 weeks.

NET-A-PORTER.COM have ventured into the world of white and launched their first online Wedding Boutique this month.  The Boutique sells luxurious, chic bridal and wedding fashion from a number of designers including Lanvin Blanche, Alexander McQueen, Temperley London and more. To promote the online Wedding Boutique, we’ve worked with Net-A-Porter to launch a rich media advertising campaign.

Pod1’s brief was to create the campaign messaging, and design and produce a number of rich media ad formats within an interactive template. The camapign is the first of its kind for Net-A-Porter that uses an exciting new rich media format.  We’ve teamed up with Flashtalking to create dynamic templates containing a share panel that all ad formats will use.  The panel allows the Net-A-Porter audience to interact with the ad in a personal, engaging way.  Gone are the days of traditonal formats, static impressions and boring click-throughs; make way for multichannel sharing, social media engagement and behavioural tracking! Check out the Ad’s in action on the following sites:

http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/
http://www.weddingmagazine.co.uk/
http://www.bridesmagazine.co.uk/planning/default.aspx

Net-a-porter extends our Wonderland concept into their latest Cruise campaign. This time though, we were tasked to create banners beyond the traditional formats such as the push down unit on sites like Elle UK and Style. With a combination of supporting media formats and branded graphics we’ve completely taken over Elle UK today!

Net-a-porter Cruise Campaign. Elle UK Take Over from Pod1 on Vimeo.

Creative digital agency Pod1 has announced the opening of its worldwide technology and innovation centre in Cape Town, South Africa. This announcement is inline with the agency’s expansion into different territories and a need to push forward with innovation in ecommerce.

Pod1 co-founder and London CEO Fadi Shuman comments, “South Africa has an extremely strong internet pedigree so it was a natural choice for us to open our technology centre there. With our current growth strategy we hope to become the international leader in full service ecommerce services (covering all technology and marketing areas), and with the strong calibre of internet specialists in Cape Town, we felt now was the perfect time to do it.”

First established in London in 2001, the agency is a strong collective of creative, strategic and technical experts, specialising in ecommerce solutions for leading brands from an array of industries. In 2007 Pod1 became one of the first UK independent ecommerce agencies to open an office in New York, and are now considered to be the leading agency in the retail space, with clients including Matthew Williamson, Marks & Spencer, Net-a-Porter, Jigsaw and Uniqlo.

Marc Caudron, Pod1 co-founder and New York CEO comments, “This is going to be extremely beneficial to all our clients, in the UK and the USA as it allows us to scale up very very quickly during the busy periods providing cost effective, burstable capacity when needed.”

The new office will be run alongside Fontera, Africa’s leading mobile development agency, who will be providing Pod1 Cape Town management support and local expertise.

A monthly snapshot of what’s going on out there in the world…

DESIGN

My favorite advert of the month – Virgin Backlot

Microsite of the month

Type encyclopedia some beautiful type examples here

Made of Myth how video games were inspired, real deal or not, you decide.

A guide to visual advertising (Designers must read)

Underwater photographs – how underwater shoots are done, referenced in our Net-a-porter presentation.

Chris Cairns for Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs

Beautiful packaging and graphic design

Some magical shots of natural phenomenons of the universe

Selfridges windows by W+K LDN

Publicis buys Razorfish, just off the back of Sapient buying Nitro

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MARKETING

Getting Twitter followers – What do you do to get more followers?

The initiator – Are you daring enough to lead?

Why? because it’s not straight, slick and clean but inspirational and fun.

Net-a-Porter alumnus Sojin Lee and British music mogul, Simon Fuller, have cooked up a sweet, stylish concoction. The duo have created an interactive fashion entertainment website called Fashionair.