Recognizing a Need
FIZZ is a word-of-mouth marketing agency. Their job is to get people talking about brands. Really talking. When you bring FIZZ on, you expect dozens of well conceived ideas. Much like an incubator, not all of them will succeed. So, anything that can help them spot the winners faster–or fine tune them to perform better–is attractive.
Early Success
FIZZ asked us to stage a series of Human Prototyping trials for some of their best ideas. We roughly (and quickly):
- Mocked up the environments we were going to test
- Developed starter scripts
- Screened and prepared actors
- Found and invited real customers
- Tested each idea from several angles
- Used various Human Prototyping tools to find the sweet spot of each idea
- Captured everything on video
- Created an analysis-based deliverable with video clips
- Debriefed FIZZ on the reactions we got to each idea and ranked them
FIZZ participated in the Human Prototyping sessions and used them as a backdrop for ideation, customer understanding, and for fine-tuning their ideas prior to launch.
The Benefits of Human Prototyping
FIZZ discovered several hidden cultural nuances from customer reactions that they didn’t anticipate. (We knew they would ;-) As a result, there were able to adjust the language and specific promotional items for their idea before taking it to their client’s customers and prospects. Another idea involving the use of an expensive item was tabled due to unexpected complexity and liability. Yet another idea proved too complicated to explain to employees, so FIZZ adjusted the lead-in story to successfully win and keep the attention of early adopters.
A Proven Solution
FIZZ and its customers now have a method for testing market reaction and process efficacy of their ideas before spending the time or money to build them out, train their activation teams, or roll them into various markets. This saves them time, money, and keeps their stellar reputation intact as more ideas can succeed than before. Seeing how people will react and learning how they will share the stories that come from their experiences is priceless–especially to a word-of-mouth marketing agency!