Online life, according to Fi
By Simon Fuller. Fi started out with a desire to make interactive experiences on the Net a whole lot better. Now with 10 years experience in the field and a raft of social media and microsite campaigns, along with numerous awards, under it belt, the US-based agency has accumulated plenty of know-how when it comes to interactive projects. So just how has the landscape changed since 1999?
“The biggest impact [on Fi as an agency] has been the number of specialized digital agencies that have risen over the years,” says David Martin, the outfit’s CEO. “When Fi started there wasn’t close to the number of agencies available to choose from now. Today, every major advertising agency has a digital arm, as well as every major PR and branding agency. In addition, we are competing against the large public digital firms – R/GA, Razorfish, Digitas – as well as the indies, [such as] Firstborn [and] Big Spaceship. … We’re constantly reassessing our talents and platforms and bringing new ideas and technology to our clients such as HTML 5, the iPad and social media campaigns.”
Recent campaigns have seen Fi construct family trees for Porsche, letting car enthusiasts share their brand memories, plus design micro-blogging experiences for every one of Norway’s citizens to describe the influence of their country’s oil resources on their lives, in a campaign for the Norwegian Oil Industry Association. So what key elements make an interactive campaign stand out?
“First off, it has to speak to the user,” says Martin. “We always place a large emphasis on usability and driving results rather than showing off our digital or design skills for their own sake. … Another key element is for us to harness all the new technologies and platforms available. We never want to get stale or find ourselves recycling ideas for various clients just because one project happened to be successful.
“After every project we ask ourselves what we could have done better, and this constant self-assessment pushes us higher for each project we take on,” adds Martin. “Last but not least, a successful project always finishes on time and on budget, which makes both us and our clients happy at the end of the day.”
This article is sponsored by Clustrmaps
