The below is a post by Joey Nelson, Rockfish's Creative Director of Mobile & Emerging Platforms. At Rockfish, Joey leads the creative execution of all mobile projects ranging from iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and recently iPad apps and emerging platforms.
As digital agencies grow their capability, new skill sets are surfacing to accommodate client needs, technology advancements and agency demands. In agencies like Rockfish that have moved to a more flexible team model, Creative Technologists are adding their varied expertise across the entire organization. These Creative Technologists come from backgrounds of all kinds: marketing; advertising; branding; programming (engineering); strategy; and all have a deep understanding of technology and how it can be used in the context of communication and design. Creative Directors, System Architects, Strategists and Social Media Gurus are all working as an extension of the forward thinking agency thus becoming solution oriented partners for our clients and their products. Traditional agency models worked in a very siloed process moving from ideation, to planning, to marketing and thus in the end throwing the functional hardcore code work over the fence and hoping the outcome was what the creative and strategy envisioned. In today's model, successful projects are engaging experiences that connect people and brands and evolve through agile development and good user-centered feedback. Creative Technologists influence the research, the business, the design, and the human behavior of the products. While traditional marketing will focus more on the messaging, Creative Technologists will dissect the API's, rethink and develop the business model, and design the UX and IA based on user interaction-thus creating a holistic experience that encompasses many different touch points.
Creative Technologists are on top of the latest in technology from devices to platforms and code and can be found sitting next to programmers engaged in discussions around HTML5 vs. Flash, web services and looking at various data models that help ensure the best user experience. Traditional marketing conversed around sensory perceptions and what brands and products tasted and felt like however, while CTs were thinking about these parts too, they were more focused on the whole. Engaging experiences are not one offs. We have seen the evolution of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and iTunes that have matured and grown based on user feedback and interaction. With enhanced feature sets and solid performance that weren’t conceived as a marketing idea from some brand group.
Those who haven't immersed themselves in digital feel terms like UX and Agile are buzzwords when in reality they are keys to success metrics for digital agencies which have led us down a path of constant tinkering to enhanced experiences. If a non-digital agency wants to go digital, they typically throw the IA in first without ever understanding the channels the message will be deployed through. New devices like mobile, tablets, touchscreen kiosks each have a custom tailored experience where the knowledge of CT’s can play a vital role in making sure that experience is custom tailored and unique.
So where do we go from here? I would say when I grow up I want to be a Creative Technologist, but I feel I've already assumed that role along with my role of Creative Director here at Rockfish. We belong to a group that focuses on successful technology that people use that helps our clients business grow. As digital agencies mature new roles like that of the CT will play a vital role in the success of clients, their brands and their evolution online.