Digital Minds: 60 seconds with Foviance's Catriona Campbell
- Added:
- Feb 18, 2010
From eye-tracking to live user observations, Catriona Campbell has lead the way in making the ‘un-measurable measurable’- putting user experience into tangible marketing metrics. Here, the founder of Foviance talks with Danny Meadows-Klue about overpriced agency projects, iPhone apps and the need to specialise in a technology saturated world….
How does your business help people or markets be more efficient or more effective vs traditional approaches?
We work for 43 of the FTSE 100 helping organisations improve their customer’s experience. Be it online, on TV, in print, on mobile phones or in call centres. We believe that customer experience is business critical and have evolved a suite of services to provide you the information you need to make clear decisions, from user experience research to analytics management. Our proven framework helps organisations to understand their customers, define their experience, improve their experience, and measure the business impact over time. We’re focused on delivering measurable bottom-line results to organisations.
How did you get into the digital sector?
I started out in 1995 at Barclays helping their digital banking strategy team, and I ended up being their first Head of Ecommerce.
What's most impressed you recently and why?
The number of businesses like ours, who worked harder than ever, to achieve their targets in last year’s recession.
What frustrates you most at the moment in digital?
One pet hate is the fact that there are so many agile projects going really badly. Agile as a development technique needs to be managed with User Experience at it’s heart...and it’s just not!
What’s over hyped and under hyped right now?- and why?
Brands creating social media campaigns and iPhone apps with little or no research in the first place – so much money wasted on the “in-thing” just like the dot com boom all over again! Agencies charging a fortune for things that will never drive bottom line profit for brands.
What was the 'ah!' moment for you - the moment where you suddenly realised the scale the web or digital marketing would play in your business?
Sounds corny, but I think I always knew, which is why after Barclays, and GE, I jumped ship and founded the agency in 2001.
Many senior directors still just don't get the scale of what’s happening. How do you convince them?
We convince senior clients by showing them their typical customers in action (from behind one-way mirrors) literally tearing their hair out trying to buy something using their site/call centre/mobile app. We also use analytics data to prove the same point if we have access to that.
What's different in the formula for creating successful teams / companies / products in the digital space?
I think the differentiator has to be the Customer Experience...and the amount of books out now in the experience space proves the point. Some of the world’s most successful companies are appointing Customer Experience Directors.
What’s the most common mistake people make in digital media or marketing?
The most common mistakes are having so much information (from analytics, data sources etc.) that they don’t know what to do with any of it. It can become disinformation very quickly.
If you could go back in time to a key 'digital moment', where and when would it be – and why?
I guess for me it was the lesson learned in 2000/2001 that so many in our industry have forgotten. In the dot com bust, thousands of businesses went under because they were founded on disinformation in the first place. There was no real research into how the user might or might not use certain sites, and there was little or no understanding of the customer’s journey through good analytics reporting.
Where do you spend your time most online, and why?
I spend most of my time on User Experience and social media sites
What are the big changes yet to come, in marketing, media and beyond?
A shift of focus from guess work on how and what the customer is doing to really letting the customer be at the centre of the organisation “customer-centricity” will be the next management trend.
Social media that creates value: If applicable, what’s the role for consumers in creating content and value in your sector?
As long as the information is useful and generates brand or customer value, then a social media strategy is imperative for a brand.
Who should own digital strategies in an organisation (brand/marketing director, agency, technology team, CEO, operations director) and why?
My understanding of nearly half the Top 100 FTSE is that the Marketing departments should and are taking ownership of digital strategy. It is a channel in the marketing mix.
What’s will be mainstreaming by this time next year?
Customer-Centricity as a mantra across channels
And any final words of advice to people developing their own digital careers?
Ensure you specialise and fast – there is too much to become a Jack-of all-trades now...so learn one area and fast!
Catriona Campbell, 37
Founder, Director
Foviance
- Worked at BP, Barclays and GE
- Founded The Usability Company
- Merged with the analytics specialists Webabacus to become Foviance
To view Catriona's full biography, click here.
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