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Facebook’s new AR ads getting more face time

Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal

After a successful beta test last year, Facebook augmented reality (AR) ads opened for use by all advertisers just before the holidays. This exciting new format is already posting some impressive results.

Before AR ads, the previous gold standard for ad performance on social media was capturing 6 seconds of time from a fast-scrolling consumer. But AR ads are creating engagements that are three times longer.

Facebook’s Spark AR platform allows anyone — from big brands to independent producers — to create AR experiences that can reach more than 1 billion active daily users on Facebook and Instagram. It’s a great way to create more consumer engagement without creating your own mobile app.

AR ads work for many product categories

Wearables, whether sunglasses or makeup, were among the first products to use the technology to show their products on users’ faces. But now, AR ads are expanding among destination and hospitality marketers, construction and real estate and furniture makers—any category for which an immersive experience will help the customer to decide to buy.

Just imagine: If you sell products, you could let people place those products in their environments in AR to see how they look or work. If you are marketing a location, you could do an AR portal to transport people to and immerse them in the experience.

Before creating or promoting Facebook AR ads, it’s important to establish goals and be aware of Facebook’s ad manager ability to optimize your campaign using its machine learning performance capabilities. The powerful Facebook ad manager tool offers you four choices to optimize your campaign: brand awareness, reach, traffic or conversion.

An exponential growth expectation to $200 billion

Some market forecasters believe the AR market for all applications will grow to $200 billion by 2025. Whether or not they are right, we are bound to see a significant increase in current numbers with the AR ad market, which can contribute significantly to that number.

The number of AR viewers grew to nearly 60 million last year and are projected to approach 80 million this year. While younger audiences have made up the majority of the viewers, Facebook AR ads also give marketers an increased presence with the 50+ age groups that can garner more vacationers, and health care and senior products users.

The cost may be lower than you think

You can spend from $2,500 to $100,000 on AR campaign creation. To keep costs on the lower end, consider what creative assets you may already have.

For example, if you have 360-degree photography or architectural renderings of a destination or a building, you could immerse users in that environment with a portal-style AR ad (try here or here). The same principle applies with prototype or manufacturing models for products. Any 3D art that you have of your product or subject can substantially reduce the cost of creating your AR experience.

AR ads make sense as part of your marketing mix

Incredible targeting capabilities and a lower cost per placement than traditional media make AR ads an attractive prospect. Considering that video is expected to exceed 70% of social content this year, making the leap to AR is a way to capitalize on the current trend—and get ahead of it with ads that are more engaging than your competitors.

In addition to Facebook, Snapchat and soon Instagram, your AR assets and ads can also be used in the New York Times, and predictions are that the number of more traditional publishers’ digital magazines accepting AR ads will grow.

AR ads place emotion over promotion

AR ads are more engaging, inherently more involving and relate more intimately to your customer base. They reward attention and engagement in a very human way for customers who are spending time on a social platform when they are bored or enjoying some downtime. In return, you get quality time with your customer base—unlike when they are in a hurry, distracted or searching for information.

Excitement and emotion come with the immersive experience of AR ads so they can give you higher returns on digital advertising—definitely a competitive advantage.

Starmark Brings Home Gold at the 2020 American Advertising Awards Gala

Starmark was a big winner during this year’s American Advertising Awards (ADDY) Gala for Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County.

The team took home two Gold ADDY Awards and six Silver ADDY Awards. To top it off, two Starmark entries received Judge’s Choice Awards. All winning entries head on to the district competition.

Judge’s Choice Award Winners

Two Starmark entries were selected for special recognition by the judges for this year’s competition. The Judge’s Choice Awards go to work that a judge felt was particularly noteworthy and impactful.

Judge’s Choice: NSU Mission Possible Video

This blockbuster video celebrated the opening of NSU Florida’s Tampa/Clearwater campus with a story starring Drs. Kiran C. and Pallavi Patel as secret agents.

Judge’s Choice: Riptide Music Festival

Starmark put together an ambitious indoor/outdoor activation during the 2019 Riptide Music Festival for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. The interactive experience featured oversized playable instruments, DJ sets, a media lounge and a record wall full of cheeky album art alterations featuring all 31 municipalities of Broward County.

2019 Gold ADDY Awards

The team took home two Gold ADDY Awards — one for NSU Florida (Nova Southeastern University) and one for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Gold: Riptide Music Festival Activation

The Riptide activation selected for a Judge’s Choice Award also won ADDY Gold in the Ambient Media/Single Installation category. It now advances to judging at the district level of the competition.

Gold: The NSU Edge — Brand Essence Video

As part of the recent NSU Florida rebrand, Starmark created a video, The NSU Edge, to bring the new brand position to life for prospective students and the community. This entry won ADDY Gold in the Cinematography category.

We’re so proud of and excited about the great work we produced together this year. The big wins really add to our gratitude and pride.
— Kyle Fisher, Vice President, Nova Southeastern University Public Relations and Marketing Communications

2019 Silver ADDY Awards

The Starmark crew won six ADDY Silver Awards for Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, NSU Florida and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Silver: Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Catch the Love Campaign

Starmark’s work for the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital won ADDY Silver in the Public Service/Campaign category. The Catch the Love Campaign is designed to showcase the impact of the hospital and attract new supporters.

Two Silvers: NSU Razor Mascot

Starmark helped overhaul and modernize the NSU mascot, Razor, in 2019. The mascot won ADDY Silver Awards for both Art Direction and Guerrilla Marketing.

Silver: NSU Razor Mascot Reveal Campaign

Starmark created a social campaign and video series highlighting the origin story of the character and building intrigue ahead of the Homecoming pep rally reveal event for NSU Florida’s updated Razor mascot. This entry won ADDY Silver in the Social Media Campaign category.

Silver: NSU Mission Possible Video

The Mission Possible video that won a 2019 Judge’s Choice award also received an ADDY Silver in the Film, Video & Sound — Non-Broadcast category.

Silver: Pride of the Americas Teaser Campaign

Starmark created a teaser campaign to promote Pride of the Americas, the inaugural Pride festival for North, Central and South America, to be hosted in Fort Lauderdale in Spring 2020. The teaser campaign took ADDY Silver in the Card, Invitation, Announcement Campaign Category.

We’re so proud that our work is making an impact in tourism, higher education and healthcare. It’s an honor to be recognized among the best in the area.
— Dale Baron, Starmark Executive Creative Director

About the American Advertising Awards

The American Advertising Awards, informally known as the ADDYs, is the largest creative competition in the advertising and marketing industry. Each year the competition receives over 35,000 entries. Winners at a local level proceed to district judging, followed by the national American Advertising Awards. Winning a national ADDY is one of the industry’s highest honors.

A Destination Music Festival Activation for the Record Books

For the 3rd year in a row, Starmark and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB) teamed up to create a rockin’ brand presence at Riptide Music Festival on Fort Lauderdale beach. The Nov. 2019 activation took over the entire beach, cementing Greater Fort Lauderdale as a music destination.

The Challenge

This was the first year Riptide Music Festival was branded a “Broward County Signature Event.” GFLCVB needed to make a big impact throughout the whole event’s weekend, in order to fully own the new title. The activation’s message had to encourage travel throughout the rest of the destination, as well as celebrate its reputation as a place where creativity and the arts thrive.

Competition was another notable challenge — there is a sensory overload for attendees throughout the entire beach with brands galore. Festival attendees were ages 18-49 and comprised of a local and national audience. These were music fans and trendsetters that attended multiple concerts and music festivals a year. At Riptide, they are constantly moving, not staying in the same booth for a long period of time. Attendees typically remember one “cool factor” about a booth and are willing to give out their information if the activation is exciting enough.

The Booth Heard ‘Round the Beach

The Starmark team ideated the “Visit Lauderdale Music Beach House,” a concept that welcomed music fans with open arms. The two-story booth painted Greater Fort Lauderdale as “the soundtrack and backdrop to your vacation.” With a vintage record store sign and a “Let’s Make Music Together” banner at the top, it featured multiple activations that seamlessly tied aspects of the destination and music together.

Vinyl Record Wall

Since this was the first Broward County Signature Event, Starmark thought it was important to highlight the entire county at this activation, not just Fort Lauderdale beach. All 31 municipalities in Broward County were represented in both an exterior and interior decorative record wall.

In the last few years, vintage record stores and vinyls had made a big comeback within the music industry. To leverage this insight and connect with fans, the creative team put a clever spin on the famous bands and artists we all know and love. Artist names like Kanye Weston, Bruce Coral Springsteen, Linkin Parkland, Macklemiramar, Deerfield Beach Boys, North Lauduran Duran each got their own album cover on the wall, featuring editorial-style destination photography. In the center of the wall was a “Visit Lauderdale” neon sign, making the brand name clearly identifiable to attendees as they admired the wall, waiting in line for the booth’s other activities.

Larger-than-Life Instruments

These days, if you went to a music festival without taking a picture, it didn’t really happen. Starmark felt that creating “Instagrammable moments” at Riptide not only would engage attendees, but also their followers. Give attendees an epic background, and they won’t be able to resist posing, posting and sharing.

Three oversized instruments were dispersed throughout the festival, tempting attendees to snap a photo. The first was interactive—a “Big” piano placed inside the Visit Lauderdale Beach House that people could play with their feet. As they tickled the ivories with their toes, other attendees could hear and be inclined to join in.

Two giant guitars were great photo-ops, one 16-ft guitar placed outside the booth and the other greeting attendees at the VIP entrance. The VIP guitar featured destination photography, while the other embraced an artistic aesthetic, and both included the @VisitLauderdale handle to encourage social follows.

Booth Activities

Attendees could make their own music videos in the video booth complete with neon lights and funky music. The booth captured leads when the attendees filled out their information in order to receive their video. The email they received encouraged them to share their videos on social media tagging @VisitLauderdale, and a second follow-up email asked them to opt-in to Visit Lauderdale’s monthly newsletter, as well as promoted additional upcoming festivals and events in Broward County.

People could also get free temporary flash tattoos, applied by the GFLCVB street team. Each tattoo was custom designed, from an octopus wrapped around a guitar to the Riptide logo.

The second level of the booth was a balcony lounge positioned directly in front of the Underground Stage, which Starmark also designed the skin for. Attendees with special wristbands had access to sit upstairs and enjoy the music from the stage. The balcony had couches with branded Visit Lauderdale pillows and vinyl record coasters featuring the municipality album names. GFLCVB also arranged for DJ Citizen Jane to play music in between sets to attract passersby to the booth.

Social Media Promotion

Starmark and GFLCVB partnered with Entercom to promote the Visit Lauderdale booth. Instagram stories and In-feed Facebook and Instagram organic and paid posts highlighting each booth feature were shared on Entercom’s pages, in addition to Visit Lauderdale’s accounts.

Starmark also created custom Visit Lauderdale branded Instagram stickers, including a spinning octopus guitar and a Riptide guitar pic, uploaded to Giphy. Users could add them to their Instagram stories and post all the fun from the festival.

Broadcast Lounge

Riptide performers, from The 1975 to The Killers, were invited to the broadcast lounge to be interviewed by the press, do meet and greets and enjoy cocktails. Starmark designed the entire lounge, placing Greater Fort Lauderdale branding throughout. Aerial photos of the beaches and other destination hotspots served as backdrops on the wall and branded pillows on each couch and chair.

Music to Our Ears

Visit Lauderdale’s activations took Riptide Music Festival by storm.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the talented Starmark team that has pulled off such a cool and creative activation for Riptide Music Festival.” — Kara Franker, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications at GFLCVB

All weekend long, fans lined up outside the Visit Lauderdale Music Beach House to get in on all the action. Attendees starred in their own music videos in the Bosco video booth, exchanging contact info for their footage and generating 305 videos, 325 emails and 766 SMS. In addition, a total of 96,008 social users were reached with paid social media assets: 30,548 on Facebook and 65,460 on Instagram. The event was covered by acclaimed media outlets, from Rolling Stone Magazine to Good Morning America, while a number of social media influencers posted footage and photos at the Visit Lauderdale booth. It’s safe to say the first Broward County Signature Event was a hit.

Agile creates a better work-life balance for employees

Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal

Companies moving to an Agile work environment is a growing trend. Of 3,130 project managers surveyed by the Project Management Institute, 75% say their companies use Agile at least some of the time. Among these are knowledge-based professional organizations, as well as many other categories including software and manufacturing.

There are many benefits for companies using Agile—a work methodology that gives ownership of the work to each individual team member. From planning and defining to producing each work element, the work process is transparent to all. The result is higher productivity and happier, more motivated employees.

Employees want to work smarter

As one ad agency employee put it: “Before Agile, the workday used to be filled with distractions and interruptions. People breathing down your neck or stopping by every 5 minutes. [Agile] setting the expectations lets you focus on the work. Everyone understands better what has to happen for the work to complete.”

Having ownership of the work improves productivity

The first thing that the millennial generation is said to require to be happy in their job is collaboration. Agile is an inversion of the traditional department silo approach. In an Agile environment, multidisciplinary teams complete work together in close collaboration.

In that sense, Agile is all-inclusive of not only those who produce the work,but all of those—from senior management on down—who have an interest in a project’s success.

It’s about collaboration and personal development

Collaboration is closely followed as a millennial job requirement by personal development, both of which Agile promotes among the team. Everyone on the team speaks about their work, not only in planning meetings, but in 15-minute “stand up” meetings every day. Each team member discusses accomplishments, reports a plan for the day and calls out any resources needed to be able to complete that work. Senior management can see project deliverables every two weeks, which result from carefully preplanned work sprints.

This Agile worker pretty much summed it up:

“There’s a personal feeling of accomplishment. You feel good when you’re able to get it done. And, at the end of the sprint, we all feel that. It’s that sense of accomplishment as a group.”

Another employee said: “I would never go back to how I worked at previous companies. With Agile, I’m in command of the promises I make and the work I deliver.”

Agile transformations take resources and time

Unfortunately, you cannot snap your fingers and create an Agile work environment. It requires training and coaching from the top down and a willingness to change how work is produced. Some people who have had bad experiences with Agile were following the processes without adopting the change in mindset. The good news is that this training helps employees understand and adopt ownership of the overall goals for the business. As a result, teams become more united, cohesive and valuable.

You might try Agile first by using consultants or agencies that can facilitate your planning with their teams and yours. You may want to contact your local CareerSource office to apply for training grants to help you fund this effort.

Agile can be a major contributor in recruiting and retaining a happy workforce and, therefore, happy customers. Yes, it takes planning. But in today’s low-unemployment business environment, workforce satisfaction is definitely a competitive advantage.

What’s Broken About Briefs

Creative briefs. Love ’em or hate ’em, these one-page assignment summaries have been one of the most widely used tools in advertising and marketing since the days of Mad Men. But just because a practice is old doesn’t mean it’s sacrosanct.

In fact, there are a few things that are pretty broken about creative briefs. Over the course of our four-year Agile journey, we’ve actually moved away from using them. Here are a few reasons why and how we communicate work differently.

Problem: Briefs are written from a single point of view

A brief is generally written by an industry generalist, like an account manager or project manager, to communicate to a team of practitioners, like copywriters, art directors and developers. And that’s an inherently flawed process.

Here’s a better idea

At Starmark, the team plans the work by discovering and cataloguing the details that each subject matter expert deems important. This creates a shared understanding of the project that’s more well rounded and circumspect.

Problem: Briefs create an illusion of simplicity

It’s right there in the name — brief. These documents are inherently reductionist. They have a tendency to minimize or ignore complexity and complication if it doesn’t fit within the confines of an 8.5×11″ sheet of paper.

This is another way

The subject matter experts who do the work understand that the messy insights, peculiarities and unknowns of an assignment are often what define the best solutions. Allowing a fuller understanding of the context allows for bigger, more effective solutions to the problem.

Problem: Integrated campaign briefs lack substance

A brief is absolutely the wrong tool to kick off big campaign thinking. Many agencies have created campaign briefs, which are just creative briefs that are simultaneously less brief and more vague. Usually, this just results in a constellation of baby briefs that attempt to split up an integrated challenge into a series of discipline assignments—like media, creative and SEO—that are tackled by siloed teams in a waterfall sequence.

Try this instead

A huge multimedia solution to a genuine business challenge is irreducibly complex. Like a living cell, the customer journey doesn’t work without all its parts. By creating a collaborative roadmap, both the team and the client can understand and address the challenge holistically and avoid the slow, siloed waterfall process.

Briefs don’t adapt well to change

In general, part of the purpose of a brief is to define the scope of a marketing effort. The client signs off on it, and then the team goes off to work. This is designed to prevent change in direction with phrases like, “You signed off on the brief,” and “That’s not what we agreed to.”

There’s a smarter solution

Each story in a roadmap is both detailed and negotiable. Our clients know what each story is and why it’s important during the roadmap walkthrough—because we discuss these things in plain English. No spin, misunderstandings or mumbo-jumbo. And when priorities change during the course of the project (because change is inevitable), we’ve planned for that, which gives us the flexibility to reprioritize the sequence of work or brick out old stories in favor of new ones.

Here’s the bottom line: Briefs aren’t the only way to define work

Being able to adapt to change is an essential tenet of Agile Methodology here at Starmark. When we roadmap a project, an entire team of experts is involved in defining and solving a client challenge. And that means the entire team defines and understands the full context in a way that simply doesn’t fit in a traditional brief. It’s a more collaborative, flexible approach that allows a team to own the work and respond to change for a more successful project.

Starmark gets in the Holiday Spirit with Clients and Friends

Starmark hosted its annual holiday party at its downtown Fort Lauderdale winter wonderland headquarters. With 2019 winding down, it was the perfect time to celebrate and reflect on the year’s successes among clients and friends in a festive atmosphere.

Various evening highlights include:

Alexa Skill
Alexa is for more than just checking the weather. With an Amazon Echo on-hand, we demonstrated our custom voice skills with functionalities that can grow any business. We can develop skills for both Amazon Echo or Google home technologies.

Website Work
Our recent web work, created by Starmark, were on display for all to see. This particular site included exciting offers with optimal UX design, blog posts with editorial content suitable for SEO and more interactive features.

Augmented Reality Apps
AR experiences can initiate and accelerate selling processes for your business. Across from our sushi bar, guests could get a good look at our newest AR app which featured with trivia questions, games and brand videos. Starmark is especially proud of this one; it took home a SMARTIE Award from the Mobile Marketing Association, making us the only agency in the U.S. to win one in the Augmented Reality category.

Ad Campaigns
Guests were able to see our various campaign work, from Facebook Instant Experience ads, digital banners, print ads and even a digital billboard that is soon to debut in Times Square. They also viewed the video that earned Starmark our very first Emmy award.

In her remarks, Starmark President Jacqui Hartnett congratulated our clients on 10 International Marcom Awards, welcomed 8 new clients and thanked everyone for making 2019 a year to remember.

With an office full of people, the tone of the room was merry and bright. We truly mixed and mingled all the way. Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

View the Party Photo Album on Facebook

Starmark Wins 10 Marcom Platinum and Gold Awards in 2019 Competition

After a strong 2018 showing, Starmark again took home a spate of MarCom awards in the 2019 competition.

MarCom Platinum Winners

The Main Las Olas Branding

Starmark took a Platinum award for The Main – Brand Platform, Naming and Brand Mark. This effort was created for Stiles Development to reflect the unity and duality of a a new residential/commercial development in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The NSU Edge Brand Essence Video

Another Platinum award came back for the NSU Edge Brand Essence Video Starmark created for NSU Florida (Nova Southeastern University). This video demonstrates the university’s new brand position through a story of a young woman who develops the NSU Edge in the form of a Shortfin Mako.

Azul Beach Resorts A-List Campaign and Website

The “A-List” Campaign and Website for Azul Beach Resorts won MarCom Platinum. The campaign and site reposition the brand as an upscale Millennial destination and differentiate the A-List experience from the rest of the Karisma portfolio of properties.

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Catch The Love Fundraising Video

Another Platinum win came for the Catch The Love Fundraising Campaign Video created for Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. This touching campaign video was created to help donors and supporters understand the impact of their gifts on children and families throughout South Florida.

FLL Airport Brand Awareness Signage

The Brand Awareness Signage for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) took home MarCom Platinum. Starmark helped create clear signage to identify the destination as FLL and assist visitors from 185 countries establish a sense of place in Fort Lauderdale.

Greater Fort Lauderdale Weekend Getaway Instant Experience

The Facebook Instant Experience – Weekend Getaway for Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau also won MarCom Platinum. This social experience specifically targets travelers with an immersive story of the perfect weekend getaway.

MarCom Gold Winners

Broward College I Can Campaign

MarCom Gold came home for the Broward College I Can Campaign. This summer campaign empowers students with more possibilities that they can pursue at Broward County’s largest institute of higher ed.

Elegant Hotels Experientialists Campaign

The Elegant Hotels Experientialists Ad Campaign also won MarCom Gold for its clever plays on the transformations the experiences of Elegant Hotels create for guests.

Azul Beach Resorts A-List Photography

Campaign photography for the Azul Beach Resorts A-List Campaign also won a Marcom Gold for capturing the feeling, uniqueness and experience of a resort specifically for its new Millennial target.

Nickelodeon Resorts Global Website

The final 2019 MarCom Gold came for the Viacom: Global Nickelodeon Resorts Website. This site for Viacom and Nickelodeon – one of the world’s largest entertainment brand and the world’s #1 brand for kids – creates a content-driven portfolio for global Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts properties. The site captures the spirit and essence of the world’s only five-star Nickelodeon resort experiences.

MarCom Honorable Mention

Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts Punta Cana Billboard

This :15 second animated billboard helped drive holiday bookings during the cold New York winter months. The playful creative stood out amidst the clutter in Times Square — and really made an impression on MarCom judges, too.

About MarCom

MarCom Awards honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work and generosity of industry professionals. Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into one of the largest, most-respected creative competitions in the world. Each year about 6,000 print and digital entries are submitted from dozens of countries. For more, visit marcomawards.com

Turning Student Empowerment Into a More Profitable Conversation

Broward College’s 2019 summer and fall campaigns accomplished two key goals: (1) elevating its brand positioning into a more collaborative experience between prospects and the college; and (2) mining student data to enable more direct and successful targeting of the most promising prospect applicants.

Starmark’s Challenge

Broward College (BC) serves 63,000+ students annually, providing high-quality educational programs and services that are affordable and accessible to a diverse learner community.

The college’s leadership partnered with Starmark to evolve its existing brand positioning and create a tactical summer campaign. The goals: increase awareness of the college, drive higher enrollment through targeted lead generation and improve the quality of leads at application.

The college already liked the strong student empowerment message of their existing “I CAN” brand platform, but felt it was too general and didn’t differentiate BC’s top benefits and programs. They asked Starmark to elevate the positioning to the next level of effectiveness.

The Approach

Starmark recommended evolving the solo “I Can” empowerment message into a shared “I Can/We Can” conversation. Students can achieve their dreams because BC is the passionate, responsive partner in their corner. This allowed BC to emphasize their key strengths, while still prioritizing the empowering student “I CAN” voice throughout.

The visual strategy focused on candid, naturally lit hero shots of individuals with a compelling determination to succeed, against a local backdrop of recognizable Broward County locations.

The team recommended that the campaign focus on three core benefits: Transformation (New opportunities, better life); Affordability (Top-10 ranked education for less); and Guaranteed Transfer (Allowing students to save substantial money by spending their first two years at BC with a guaranteed state university transfer to finish up their bachelor’s.)

All options were preference tested with BC students on campus, as well as students in online national surveys matching the college’s targeted personas.

Using predictive analytics, we created a computer model of all their existing students to focus the media targeting and spend, and reduce the amount of unqualified leads the college received.

What’s Next?

Based upon summer campaign insights, Starmark and Broward College continue to optimize and calibrate the model so that it continues to support the initiative to increase high value students. The Starmark team recommended three specific optimization priorities:

Media goals: increase propensity to enroll while ideally cutting spend even more.
Data modeling: to drive even stronger social media and display results.
New student photo/video shoot: to build more strategic content for the college that would strengthen future brand and lead generation campaign efforts.

Agile Mythbusting: The truth behind four Agile misconceptions and myths

Agile Methodology has a lot to offer for marketing departments and agencies. But so much of the literature about Agile is dominated by the software industry, it leads to misconception about how Agile works within the world of marketing. That’s why we wrote about the biggest lessons we’ve learned in four years as an Agile Agency.

If you’re an agency or marketing professional who’s curious about Agile, allow us to save you some confusion by dispelling some common misconceptions:

False: Agile Is Only For Software

Well, we’re proof this Agile myth isn’t true. At Starmark, we are more than just an agency, but we also still do all the marketing work an integrated communications agency does — from branding and advertising to data science and media planning. Moreover, Agile is gaining popularity in the government, education and healthcare sectors. Clearly, this is bigger than software.

Yes, Agile works great for Starmark’s big, ambitious web assignments. But all of our work has benefitted from having an integrated Agile team. Everyone here — from copywriters to media planners to social media strategists — is Agile, rather than just our developers.

False: Agile is a Management Style

We run into this misconception often — a manager or leader thinking you can wave your hands in a certain way and chant Kanban, Kanban, Kanban over a pile of index cards and your work will magically improve. But forget what you’ve heard, project managers and agency heads. Agile is not a management spell you can cast in order to conjure a more productive team.

Agile isn’t about management telling a team to do stuff—use this process, have this kind of meeting. If anything, a high-performing Agile environment is characterized by management ceding some control to the team in favor of a self-managing system.

If you like telling people what to do all day, you’re not going to like Agile. — Brett Circe, Chief Digital Officer, Starmark

This distinction is particularly important in an Agile marketing environment where the work has a high degree of uncertainty and a need for specialized creative problem-solving. As our Chief Digital Officer, Brett Circe, says, “If you like telling people what to do all day, you’re not going to like Agile.” Instead, managers in an Agile environment are more participatory. They curate future work and protect the team’s sprint plan by resolving blockers and actively setting expectations with clients. The team runs its own meetings and sets its own workflow within the sprint. By removing themselves from the day-to-day running of the work, our managers are able to take a broader strategic view for our clients.

The takeaway is that Agile isn’t by and for managers. It’s driven by and governed by a team that controls how work is planned and sequenced.

False: Agile is a Process

This myth is related to the one above. In actuality, Agile is a methodology based on a manifesto. The processes are a byproduct of the mindset and the methodology, not the other way around.

Things like daily check-ins, roadmapping and sprint retros are examples of processes that help enable a complex self-managing team to plan, examine and optimize its operation.

To put it another way, following a process doesn’t make a team Agile. If anything, this misconception is the #1 reason organizations fail to embrace Agile — because team members are expected to adopt another set of new processes without understanding the underlying rationale or enjoying any of the benefits.

False: Agile Stifles Creativity

At Starmark, we haven’t noticed any difference in the quality or quantity of creative work before or after Agile. The transformation also didn’t really change the way we go about coming up with creative ideas.

However, going Agile has changed creative life in one important way: giving the team control. While the relationship between stress and creative performance is complicated, a recent meta-analysis of studies on the topic did find a well established negative association between uncontrollability and creative performance. Translation: having a sense of control is important for creative performance.

Because Agile gives our team control over their time and the shape of their work, it’s now easier to make the space, collectively, for creativity to happen.

The team sprint plans and sets shared priorities. When we see the need for a big idea, we can sequence our work to a way that gives the ideas time to happen. Organizing concepting meetings is easier, and the entire integrated team can now contribute to the ideation process.

Now the big frustration is the right frustration — the thrill of confronting and tackling a business challenge in a creative way.

What Misconceptions Do You Have about Agile?

As Agile Methodology emerges as a hot topic in the business world, we encounter a lot of misunderstandings about how we work. Send us your questions. We’d be happy to answer based on our experience.

The freedom to think big for the mobile screen with 5G

Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal

Marketers are looking forward to the implementation of fifth-generation (5G) mobile communications in cities nationwide. It’s the moment when restrictions of digital file size and download speeds will become things of the past.

With 5G downloads up to 100 times faster than today’s 4G connections, the tedious work of editing, compressing and optimizing digital files gives way to a freedom for marketers to think big.

When will 5G be available?

It took a decade for 4G, first on the market in 2009, to become the dominant technology. Some industry watchers say 5G will make the transition by 2022. Others say it could be 2025 before we reach the tipping point, when nearly 50% of U.S. consumers could be using 5G handsets and 5G connectivity. Some U.S. cities have neighborhoods with 5G turned on now. Under 50 cities are said to be currently poised to support 5G.

Crown Castle International Corp. owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and 75,000 miles of fiber data lines in the U.S., which will support the small cells 5G requires.

“While we work closely with the wireless carriers to build out 5G networks, it’s the carriers themselves who ultimately decide where and when 5G will be turned on,” said Lonnie Maier, Crown Castle’s head of enterprise sales for the Southern region.

“That said, while South Florida cities do not currently have 5G access, we are seeing great progress in our work with the business community, our cities and county government partners to prepare for it,” she explained. “This, particularly, is the case with the Super Bowl coming here in early 2020, as that event needs a massive amount of connectivity that has yet to be deployed.”

When will phones be 5G capable?

Samsung, LG and Motorola all offer 5G-capable phones. Analysts have said Apple will introduce two 5G-capable smartphones in 2020, and others will undoubtedly follow.

This means marketers, who typically design for the “lowest common denominator” when it comes to bandwidth, may need to wait several years before 5G earns a significant percentage of the market. But it also means marketers have time to prepare for its coming.

Think ‘mobile only’ vs. ‘mobile first’

Digital designers and user experience experts can change their mobile-first mindsets to mobile-only mindsets. Even more than today, consumers will expect an end-to-end selling process available on their mobile devices. The entire sales funnel can be in your prospects’ hands.

Think rich media: Video, AR/VR

Full-length movie files can be downloaded in 30 seconds with 5G connectivity. Consumers can try new products digitally using augmented reality and receive virtual reality experiences in their hands. A higher bandwidth threshold means file size and speed optimization requirements are relaxed. It’s the freedom to dream big and think big for the mobile screen.

Think any screen, anywhere

Think the Internet of Things. Qualcomm says it is already working with major car manufacturers to prepare for 5G service in upcoming models. And, since consumers are said to spend 70% of their time outside their homes, some vendors are approaching municipalities to install 5G capability on signs in bus shelters, on lighting poles and other infrastructure to leverage the technology for advertising and help defray the expense of installing 5G in U.S. cities by 2020.

As speeds increase, so will consumer expectations

The time is now to start to plan for and create the rich media that will guide your prospects to the sale. As one digital guru put it, it’s time to think like “The LEGO Movie”—which is, in essence, a two-hour branded content experience that has worked wonders. 5G accessibility brings with it the ability to merge brand perception with experiences and entertainment more than ever before. As consumer expectations rise, the marketers who start planning for 5G now will have the competitive advantage.

Starmark Takes Bronze at 2019 Smarties Awards

Starmark’s FlyGreen MIA campaign and augmented reality ARport app took third prize in this year’s MMA SMARTIES X awards — The world’s first marketing award recognizing innovation.

The FlyGreen MIA campaign was created to engage the community in a massive energy efficiency effort by partners FPL Services and Miami International Airport. The campaign includes large-scale installments and signage throughout the airport terminal, a digital timeline and a custom AR smartphone app. Users can create a miniature AR model of the airport on their tabletop, explore micro-animations, trivia and an interactive recycle toss game.

This campaign took third place in the SMARTIES X VR/AR category, sharing honors with work from Mindshare Vietnam and Mindshare China, gold and silver winners, respectively. Previously, the FlyGreen MIA award garnered a Platinum Marcom Award and Most Creative Display at the NextEra Energy Expo.

About FlyGreen MIA:

Starmark partnered with a major energy company to promote one of the world’s most ambitious sustainability projects at the largest airport in Florida. On top of that, the project eliminated mercury light bulbs and R-22 (freon) refrigerant from the ENTIRE airport. Coupled with monumental energy savings, getting people to understand and believe in the impact of the project was going to be a challenge. Both companies wanted to use this massive infrastructure effort as a springboard to engage the community in building a greener future together, and that’s exactly what Starmark set out to do.

About MMA SMARTIES X:

SMARTIES X from the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the highest achievement across the globe honoring and awarding outstanding innovation resulting in significant business impact for brands, agencies, media companies and technology providers. In 2017, Starmark was ranked #5 Creative Agency on MMA Global Business Impact Index.

Making the impossible possible at a university’s grand opening

NSU Florida (Nova Southeastern University) did the impossible: they built a brand new, state-of-the-art Tampa Bay Regional Campus — in only one year. How were they able to complete this inconceivable task? An extremely generous donation from medical pioneers Drs. Kiran C. and Pallavi Patel.

Starmark created an epic video to play before Dr. Patel’s speech at the campus’ grand opening event, and it was an introduction like no other.

Our Mission (Should We Choose to Accept It…)

NSU was planning a big bash to celebrate the opening of the new Tampa Bay Regional Campus and their expanded Florida footprint. More than 500 guests were invited to attend, and the university wanted to make a lasting impression.

Since the campus could not have been built without Dr. Patel, his speech was an important moment at the event. Starmark was tasked with creating a video that captured the essence of his role in the new campus, as well as all crucial players that helped along the way.

Special Agent Starmark Reporting for Duty

Getting a campus built in one year is not an easy feat…almost like the tasks in a spy movie. With that in mind, our team decided to craft a story inspired by the Mission: Impossible series.

NSU President Dr. George Hanbury would be the head of the agency calling in reinforcements, while Drs. Patel would act as the special agents getting the job done. College deans, staff, architects and construction workers were also featured in the action-packed montage sequence, depicting the mission from start to finish.

From Doctor Donor to Spy Master

In the video, Dr. Patel was the epitome of a movie star. He dodged an exploding Shark phone, hopped in a Lamborghini and jumped out of an airplane (sort of) — all with a top-secret briefcase in hand. Each of these actions led up to Dr. Patel arriving out of the sky (sort of) at the grand opening event, ready to give his big speech.

Mission: Possible

At the grand opening event on September 14, Dr. Hanbury joked to the audience that Dr. Patel was running late, instructing them to watch a brief video. Laughing and cheering as they watched, the crowd soon caught on that the video was hinting at an epic arrival.

Dr. Patel arrived on the scene to a standing ovation. As if the video happened in real time, he was dressed in the same outfit he was sporting when he jumped out of the plane. He brought the silver briefcase with him and unlocked it to reveal the giant scissors for the ribbon cutting ceremony. It was the perfect end to a mission well done.

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