CURIOSITY STOP:
INNOVATE OR DIE
Post event wrap-up: February 2016

INNOVATE… OR DIE?
In the fast-paced world of marketing, standing still is the same as going backwards. Innovation
is a necessity, not a choice.
On 9th February 2016, in partnership with SpredFast, we held Curiosity Stop: Innovate or
Die at our London HQ. We gave the audience practical advice on how to innovate, and guest
speakers from BBC Match of the Day, London College of Fashion and Shazam, along with
some of We Are Social’s team, spoke about their perspective on innovation.
If you missed the event, fear not. Here are a few of the evening’s highlights.

Brand case study: Shazam
Speaker: Sam Woods,
Vice President - UK & Head
of Strategic Partnerships,
Shazam

Shazam
Using data to enhance the user experience.
Beacons make any environment interactive
Shazam is where the world discovers music. It’s evolved
into a presence in almost every environment since launch.
In the future, Shazam will be positioning itself in this
always-on world as a tool connecting you first hand to the
brands you want to connect to. Concerts, retail locations,
tradeshow booths, bus shelters - practically anything will
become Shazamable.
Shazam uses data to discover new artists early
Shazam classifies trending artists in three categories -
watch, trending and hot. It’s often ahead of Radio and
Sales when it comes to identifying new artists - Fetty Wap
was first Shazamed in June 2014, six months before
opening a Facebook profile. It first detected Galantis’
potential 17 months before his peak within Shazam, and
20 months before his peak in the Billboard Dance chart.
CLICK TO TWEET:

“We were sat on a sleeping giant - our data.
I can tell you what's going the number one six
weeks ahead of time in most economically
developed countries... Easily.”
Sam Woods @Sam_From_Shazam
@Shazam
#CuriosityStopLive

Social Innovations:
Curiosity Stop Live
Speaker: Charlotte Miller,
Writer, We Are Social

Social Thinking Innovations
‘Social Thinking’ is understanding how and why people
communicate. We use this insight to provide value for our
clients. This understanding is an ongoing passion-project
at We Are Social.
Our team keeps a keen eye out for intriguing changes in
the social landscape. We take the best of these
innovations and compile them in our monthly Curiosity
Stop Reports.
The report’s author, Charlotte Miller, gave event attendees
a sneak preview into some of the upcoming social
innovations featured in the next edition of the Curiosity
Stop Report.
CLICK TO TWEET:

Social Thinking Innovations
Mobile Lorm Glove
Lorm is a tactile alphabet spelled out with strokes to the
hand. It’s used by deaf-blind people as a way to
communicate with others, but obviously it can’t be used
unless you’re actually with the other person. Now, a
researcher in Berlin has designed a glove with fabric
pressure-sensors, so online messages can be translated
directly onto the glove, and then the glove-wearer can
reply. The amazing thing about the Mobile Lorm Glove is
that it gives deaf-blind people a whole new community to
engage with.
Babypod
Babypod's research found that when you play music (in
the regular way) to a fetus, it doesn't physically react
because the sound is muffled by the abdominal walls. But
if you play it through Babypod’s vagina speakers, babies
DO react to the music. The best (or worst) bit is that on the
other end of these speakers is a pair of headphones, so
you can listen along too, enabling a social experience with
your baby before you even meet he or she face-to-face.
CLICK TO TWEET:

“Social innovation needn't break your budget.
Sometimes the simpler, the better."
Charlotte Miller @LotMill
@WeAreSocial
#CuriosityStopLive

Brand case study:
BBC Match of the Day
Speaker:
Chris Hurst,
Digital Development Editor,
BBC Sport

BBC Match of the Day
How embracing social media can positively impact even the
most long-standing, traditional media formats.
Taking risks on social can pay off
Match of the Day used social media to reflect the nation’s
conversation about the importance of the MOTD running
order. Which teams will appear first and last on the show is a
topic of heated debate, but instead of staying away from this,
MOTD embraced it. It was the first Facebook brand page out of
the US to get access to Facebook Live, where Gary Lineker
revealed the show's running order ahead of time, with deeper
insight on why one team had been chosen over another. It was
such a huge success - 1.3 million views - that MOTD now runs
this on a weekly basis.

1. Take calculated risks.
2. Make the most of your distinctive content.
3. Keep innovating, or you’ll be left behind.
Chris Hurst @ChrisHurst
@BBCSport
#CuriosityStopLive

Hacking it:
Creating Sing Chat
Speakers: Matthew Payne,
Head of Creative
Technology &
Tom Ollerton, Innovation
Director,
We Are Social

Hacking It
Don’t be afraid to experiment - even short-term failure can
lead to long-term benefit.
Hacks in Practice: Creating Sing Chat
Last year, Facebook Messenger opened up its API to
developers, allowing non-Facebook companies to
integrate their mobile apps with Facebook Messenger
itself. So We Are Social decided to dedicate a hack day to
experimenting with this new function. The agency asked
its 11 offices what kind of app could it create, and the best
response was this: “Have conversations in messenger
using only lyrics from songs. You type in any word and
several lyric suggestions will pop up”. So it created
Singchat, which allowed you to do just that.
Why hack?
Hack Days allow agencies to continually evolve, ask
questions, learn and explore. Sometimes, they allow them
to fail fast, so that when they’re presented with a similar
problem for a client, they know their way to a better, more
efficient solution (and what to avoid doing). And of course,
they’re a lot of fun - fast prototyping and guerilla testing
isn't something people get to do every day in agency life!
CLICK TO TWEET:

“Innovation is a necessity, not a choice. Just look
at Blockbuster and Kodak.”
Tom Ollerton @MrTomOllerton
@WeAreSocial
#CuriosityStopLive

Brand case study:
London College of Fashion
Speaker:
Matthew Drinkwater,
Head of Fashion Innovation
Agency

London College of Fashion
How technology is changing the way designers show and sell
collections.
Fyodor Golan x Nokia
Nokia approached the London College of Fashion’s Fashion
Innovation Agency last year to “do something disruptive at
London Fashion Week”. FIA teamed Nokia with designers
Fyodor Golan, who designed a super smart skirt, combining 80
Nokia Lumia 1520 mobile phones. The skirt was created by
tech studio Kin and it used static pictures captured by the
phone, as well as live feeds - allowing it to change around
the wearer and their day.
Richard Nicoll x Disney
Disney’s collaboration with Richard Nicoll saw his catwalk
show inspired by Tinkerbell. The collection used pastel
colours with metallics and louche, washed fabrics. Star
of the show was a standout technology dress, made
in collaboration with London Fashion Laboratory
Studio XO. Made from fibre optic fabric, activated
by high intensity LEDs tailored within the dress, it
created a magical digital pixie dust effect down
the catwalk.

“One in three people think wearable tech makes
you look ridiculous. How can the fashion industry
bridge this gap? We need to focus on
collaboration and co-creation.”
Matthew Drinkwater @DrinkMatt
@LCFLondon
#CuriosityStopLive

To find out more about We Are Social’s
forthcoming events, visit our Eventbrite page.

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