Branded Utility: Nik Roope of Poke

Last week we wrote about a fun application called TeaBuddy - a utility designed by digital agency Poke in London. We thought we’d ask Nik Roope, a partner at Poke (and creator of Hulger phones) what his reaction was to the theory of Branded Utility:

As a company that makes applications for brands and off your own back, what’s your response to the Branded Utility theory?

On one hand I appreciate that the industry has found a vehicle to talk about ‘alternative’ means to attract attention other than simply talking at consumers. Yet I am also concerned that it might also divert attention from the fact that there’s a million different ways to attract attention and engage people and that a solution’s best fit should be defined by context rather than fashion. Buzzwords are our enemy but sometimes I admit that they sometimes help get more progressive things done.

Tell us about one of the applications you’ve developed.

We launched the globalrichlist three years ago now as what we thought would be a quick viral blowout. sure enough it did just that and got acclaim, millions of visits, international media coverage, thousands of inbound links, a few donations and an exceptional google rating but what surprised us and where there’s perhaps a lesson for marketeers is what happened next. the GRL has become a tool and the steady average of 70k unique visits a month is testament to the fact that it has become a common, shared reference point for conversations, lessons and teachings about wealth perspective and a very persuasive and impactful one at that evidence of this is also affirmed by the recent mention on daily andy and bigger still the top of Digg rating for monday and second most popular digg this week. 150k visits in less that a week and still counting. Marketeers are often all too willing to switch off the online bit when the campaign’s shadow has passed over the town. here’s a little piece of evidence of how that might be entirely the wrong thing to do.

If Poke hadn’t have got there first. Which brand do you think should have built the GRL? Why?

As we’re in what-if land then if it had been around at the time Goodmagazine or perhaps The Cooperative Bank in the UK who conduct ethical and responsible banking practices so could benefit from a credible foothold in the wealth debate just like Dove have just achieved in the beauty arena

How could you see agencies getting involved with an idea like Branded Utility?

I was at a discussion recently and the subject of brand’s possible role in forming social networks came up. I said pretty much the same thing about value and how just at the moment when you’ve built a large,valuable, engaged community, someone in marketing pulls the plug on the campaign, flushing the whole lot down the plug-hole. utilities face precisely the same problem. Turning the campaign tanker strikes me as one of the biggest challenges for old agencies if they’re going to exploit the power of good ideas in the new(ish) medium.

Any developments in the UK that we should look out for?

I don’t think the UK is any different from anywhere else right now. Social media and social networks are clearly all the rage as is user generated content. We’re expecting a 2% success rate for most attempts. Agencies and brands themselves should be asking “what’s right for us?” rather than “I want that thing that worked for them (e.g. myspace, youtube)”. At Poke we anticipate a 74% growth in AGC (Agency Generated Content) over the next quarter.

Poke

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