Three things about Avenue A/Razorfish
While in New York this week, Brian and I paid a visit to Avenue A/Razorfish. A few things were notable:
- The space. AA/RF consolidated three separate offices into three floors at 1440 Broadway, formerly occupied by Google. We spent time in the Living Lab, a space currently set up for media clients to spark ideas like Flip. Brings the idea of understanding your customer to life.
- The work. We walked through a couple of sites that have been developed to make a couple of TED wishes reality: Pangea and the Encyclopedia Of Life. Very neat concepts that could turn into great commercial sites for some clients who are willing to be forward thinkers. Quick litmus test: if your site navigation mirrors your org chart, you need a redesign (exception: if you are a customer-centric marketing organization. few of these truly exist.).
- The social computing. Great to see an agency using the emerging technology that it's advising clients to implement. Knowledge management happens via a MediaWiki implementation. Employees blog about personal and professional matters, including the CEO. Individual's profiles live on user pages that present a personal story to the rest of the company. Easy to see the benefits beyond static intranets and all-hands email inquiries.
Ironically, we did run into some issues with Windows technology while trying to demo some sites. I thought that maybe a bat-phone had been installed with a direct connection to Redmond...maybe once the acquisition officially closes?
That is very interesting. Very cool that you were there.
Posted by: Insurance Blog | June 23, 2007 at 04:14 AM
Peter, next time you are in Chicago, we'll have to give you an office tour of the CM space. :)
Posted by: David Armano | June 26, 2007 at 03:18 PM
Hi David - would love to! Maybe this fall around Consumer Forum? (October 11-12)
Posted by: Pete | June 28, 2007 at 10:45 PM