Three Key Takeaways from DesignThinkers Toronto 2022.
I was so happy to be back to RGD’s DesignThinkers in person this year at the Meridian Hall in Toronto. Here are my top three takeaways from this year’s event that I will be brining back to our clients.
What do you need?
This came from the lunch round table session on day two and it’s talking about making sure a client gets what they need.
Sure a TikTok may be the latest and greatest social media platform right now but does a seniors residence need to have one? They may be better off and better served by having a Facebook page if they need to be on social media. When you are looking at what assets your business needs think about whether it fits with your goals for marketing and promotion. Ask yourself is that where my target market is? If not, should you really be there? Will you see a return on your investment?
What I’m bringing back: I am bringing this advice back in the form of curiosity. We already do our best to work with our clients to understand their needs and markets, but what I will be thinking about more is having a discussion with our clients about why they feel like they may need to be visible in a given format and better fitting their promotions to their target market.
What’s Your Shoe?
From the session You Don’t Know SWOT by Robert Smith RGD, this question came from an example of ways individuals could promote how their interests aligns with jobs.
The rough scenario was this, a student had worked with a shoe company that made really unique designs. The question is how could they translate that into a valid strength for a career in graphic design. The answer is having their landing page show an image of a shoe and say something along the lines of “This is UX.” or “This is Branding,”, whatever the student was interested in. The connection , is that a lot of the research and background work into putting a new design of a shoe on the shelf can also be translated into UX or Branding or other types of design work.
What I’m bringing back: I am bringing back the question, what’s your shoe? How can you showcase your businesses strengths in a unique way?
Wow, How, Now.
Another nugget from the You Don’t Know SWOT session by Robert Smith RGD. Wow, Now, How is a guideline on building websites but it can pertain to any type of marketing communications.
In short when a potential customer views a promotional piece from you, you want to wow them (maybe with something like the shoe story above), you then want to tell them how you are going to make it happen for them, and then you want to tell them to hire you now with a well presented call-to-action or CTA.
What I’m bringing back: I am bringing back the strategy of Wow, How, Now to make sure it is a standard format where applicable in our own promotional materials as well as our clients promotional materials.
Last Words
It was an interesting conference overall, it was a little strange to be back seeing everyone in person and be with a crowd of people. It was great to connect with people who I had only connected with via video screen over the past 2 years! I also found it interesting where I heard little nuggets of wisdom that I could apply to our clients and practice.