"How do consumers engage with brands in an increasingly digital world?" is the question, that the FEED09 report published by Razorfish, is hoping to answer.

If you have the time, the report is well worth a read and is an experience in itself (the art direction on the report is quite comical at times).

However, the assumption of this post is that you don't have the time to read it all, and as such we'll boil down what we believe the key takeaways are.

• The takeaway: Digital brand experiences create customers.
  Digital brand experiences are not just "awareness" or "conversion" plays, but customer-creation plays. According to the research, the overwhelming majority of consumers who actively engage with a brand digitally show significant upticks across the entire marketing funnel. Marketers, therefore, need to dramatically rethink their future strategies, shifting the majority of their efforts toward actively engaging consumers and not just paying for eyeballs (eyeballs are not enough, engagement is). 64% of consumers report making a first purchase from a brand because of a digital experience.
• Digital can make or break a brand.
  65% of consumers report having had a digital experience that either positively or negatively changed their opinion about a brand. Of that group, a whopping 97% indicated that their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.
• Action-ize, don't advertise
  According to the report, branded experiences (or actions) are the new advertising. And consumers are increasingly insatiably hungry for them.
• People, in general, want to be marketed to
  Conventional wisdom holds that consumers don’t want brands encroaching on their personal lives this is far from the truth. According to the study, nearly 40% of consumers reported having "friended" a brand on Facebook and/or MySpace and 26% have followed a brand on
  Twitter
• Conversation, Is Overrated
  Social Media consultants and strategists will always tell you that social media and digital experience is about "conversation". Not true, says the report. One insightful finding of the report was the observation that a good chunk of consumer don't actually want conversations.... they want deals. On Twitter, 44% of respondents indicates they follow companies for special deals and bargains. On Facebook or MySpace, this accounted for 37% of respondents. Is your organization one where you could be offering deals?

Though we already knew these facts anecdotally from our clients' successes, the report brings a well needed quantitative consumer perspective to the digital engagement discussion table.

After all, these days consumers spend, on average, as much time online engaging with digital as they do watching television. Digital experience matters.

If you are interested in finding out what your organization can do to create compelling digital experiences to engage your current and future customers, contact Work at Play today

Burnaby, B.C. (November 24, 2009) – Today Knowledge launched a new, interactive space for British Columbians.

With a fresh look and creative design, Knowledge.ca extends the television experience by streaming full length programs and promos, motivating interaction with programming, and providing new revenue opportunities. For users of all ages, Knowledge.ca offers exceptional functionality, navigation and search capabilities for an intuitive and easy-to-use experience.

“Knowledge.ca is an experience that will deepen user engagement with our broadcasting service”, says Rudy Buttignol, President and CEO of Knowledge. ”By delivering digital broadcast content in an interactive environment anywhere, anytime, Knowledge is connecting British Columbians to local and global perspectives, and most importantly, to each other.”

Knowledge.ca offers a compelling new design and content showcasing Knowledge programming. Key features include:

* View program schedules integrated with on-air video promotions
* Rate and comment on specific programs
* Browse upcoming programming and sort by title, topic, video or viewer ratings
* View a selection of full-length programs online
* Set email reminders for upcoming Knowledge programs
* Donate or renew your partnership with an improved donation process
* Design complements the broadcast experience of Knowledge

Today Knowledge also entered the world of social media with the launch of its Facebook and Twitter pages. Both are accessible from Knowledge.ca. Fans and followers can receive the latest news from the public broadcaster and interact by sharing ideas and comments. Mobile applications are currently in development.

Knowledge partnered with local digital agency Work at Play to build Knowledge.ca. Work at Play specializes in digital strategy, design, development, social media and applications for the music, gaming and entertainment industries. Working with major brands and entertainment properties around the world, they offer clients strategic consulting, website design, online development and user experience services.

“We are very excited about the new Knowledge.ca and we are honored that Knowledge has chosen Work at Play to be their partner during this transformation,” says Jordan Willms, Digital Strategist for Work at Play. “Through this new website, Knowledge is able to service their existing audience better and truly capture the engagement-generation via interactive features and full length online programs.”

Work At Play built the site using several open source software products and is powered by Drupal, a content management system.

The Iphone has been a great catalyst for surging forward the relevance and importance of mobile devices in North America. Until its release, other phones "could" surf the web, but the quality was very sub-par. In short, they sucked.

Now all mobile vendors are packing their devices with rich browsers, making web on mobile an agreeable and almost pleasant experience.

And so the dawn of the mobile web is upon us, where consumers nomadically interact with the web, truly experiencing your brand when and where they want.

This new expansion into the capabilities introduces a number of critical questions, which are raised by Jacques Bughin in his article called "What shape will the wireless Web take?".

As a conversation starter, he asks:

"Will most of the content, interactions, and organizing principles of the wired Web simply migrate to the wireless world?"

When the commercial web began back in the 90s, companies during the initial goldrush threw up what were effectively online marketing brochures, thinking that what worked in print would also work for the web.

And here we are again, roughly 15 years later, faced with another large change. Mobile ad companies are popping up left and right. Mobile service developers are flooding app stores with lots of 99 cent pleasures. Money is pouring into mobile and app startups.

Thus, our question to you is:

Curt Cherewayko over at Business in Vancouver recently wrote a great article on how virtual worlds and digital goods are now delivering genuine business opportunities.

Here is an excerpt from his article:

As video games, social networks and virtual worlds increasingly star as stand-ins for reality, development shops are exploring new ways to monetize fantasy by creating virtual marketplaces replete with digitized goods and services.

Fuelled by micro-transactions in which users buy virtual goods and services for as little as pennies, virtual marketplaces are not only driving user engagement for technology companies, but also adding new revenue streams.

During a recent panel discussion at the Mobile Monday Vancouver event, where local Internet entrepreneurs gather monthly, roughly 90 attendees heard how B.C. companies are monetizing virtual goods.

“I can tell you that, from working with our clients, every single one of them is strongly considering micro-transactions, have micro-transactional products in development or already have micro-transactional products and virtual goods on the market,” said Jordan Willms, senior strategist with Vancouver’s Work at Play Ltd., which builds interactive social-networking applications for companies like Mattel Inc., Viacom Inc. and Rocky Mountain Bicycles.

Read the whole article on Business In Vancouver.

Beeline Labs, Deloitte's Media & Tech practice, and the Society New Communications Research, recently released their 2009 Tribalization of Business Study which "evaluates the perceived benefits of online communities and identifies how enterprises believe they may better leverage them."

In non-corporate speak the study is really all about using online tools for user engagement. Survey respondents included over 400 companies, including Fortune 100 organizations.

The underlying tone of the study is that organizations are still under utilizing social media, and not unleashing its full potential.

Work at Play is an amazing place. Rarely do you see such an interdisciplinary blend of strategists, designers and technologists working so well together.

Part of what I believe makes us successful is our "Rules" of brainstorming". It goes without saying that before you jump into a brainstorming session, the issue to address in the session needs to be clearly articulated and communicated to all parties.

A few weeks back I was casually visiting my brother, and we got to talking about email. He'd just finished off his Master's Degree in Leadership, a program he completed about 80% online in a distance learning program.

Alex's thesis on leadership in community gardening involved a lot of interchange with his adviser over the internet. He's a very social guy, and reasonably technically savvy.

He has a problem. Turns out that with his email completed he was going to need another email account because the university account would eventually expire. He does have email for his day job, but he needs a personal one.

I offer a simple solution... why don't you sign up for a gmail account?

This is when he says, "I NEVER sign up for anything online".

We are thrilled to announce BC Hydro's launch of Power the Games, their new Facebook application.

Work at play is stoked to have been part of this project, working together with Social Signal.

Inspired by last year’s very popular Green Gifts application for Facebook, Power the Games asks you to commit to reducing your energy use by 10% over the next year, and pledge your conservation efforts to your favourite 2010 Winter Games sport.

Work at Play is always thinking about making money =)

That is -- helping out partners optimize their web presence, monetizing their digital content, and getting quick payback periods on any investment. Helping our partners make money through online channels is part of who we are.

We also care about being socially responsible -- not only locally but to the world. So it is only fitting that we love kiva.org.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals [and work at play] to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

My hope is to energize the company (Work at Play) to get aboard helping the rest of the world.

Work at Play is excited to be attending BarCamp 2009 Vancouver this year (and also to be one of the great sponsors of this event).