Agency

I lead Arcadia Communications Lab, a global collaborative solely focused on helping established businesses get value from communicating about innovation.

It’s tough pretending you’re a startup. So don’t.

Standing out on innovation is harder than ever, especially for established businesses. The word is overused, vague, and most often associated with startups or consumer tech. Since the real innovation that impacts customers and employees is often nuanced, and draws on what your business is (and not what it isn’t), those stories don’t get told.

Worse, when they do get told, they're often shared with other innovators, in a feedback loop that is as limited as it's closed.

We specialize in sharing stories via diverse media with stakeholders both inside and outside your company.

ResearchA Big Data Context Engine

We see journalists, bloggers, and other opinion-makers as customers, not simply messengers, which means we strive to understand not only their personal proclivities, but what qualities constitute their understanding and expectations for innovation. Our proprietary Context Engine collects and aggregates this data, and then informs our clients’ strategy development. We call it ‘outside-in’ strategy.

 

Reality-Driven StrategyReal-World Integration

Once we understand the context for innovation in a particular industry, we partner with our clients to develop a strategy that directs and links its activities to that reality. This means we work with operations, not just communications and marketing, to identify the content that will accomplish our differentiation goals. Nothing has intrinsic value for us, yet everything has potential uses. Actions speak louder than words.

 

CreativeStrategic Creative

Our approach to creativity isn’t to focus only on tactical techniques to deliver content, but net new creative approaches to how it’s produced. This can include recommendations for new partnerships, programs, or even changes in product functionality or services offerings. The overriding purpose is to maximize our clients’ opportunities to participate meaningfully in conversations about innovation. Less ‘me too,’ and more ‘only us.’

 

RoadmapActionable Roadmap

We don’t deliver plans promising “to work with key media,” or “position you as so-and-so.” Our initial engagements produce actionable roadmaps that start with communications goals — what, where, and when we want outcomes — and then work backward to specify the actions, required work, cost, and likelihood of success for each step. Clients can use it on their own, or we are ready to help deliver it.

 

Untitled 2.001 copy 3A Higher Likelihood of Success

Unlike agencies that expend endless hours ‘working’ with media to try and make clients stories fit their needs, we get most of that work done via our Context Engine at the start of our engagements. This means we have a far better understanding of who will use what (and when), and rely on our Content Tool to aggressively manage its delivery.

 

ExperimentationExperimentation

We’re a “lab” because we’re constantly innovating communications technologies and approaches, and our clients get visibility into this work (and often participate). Our latest project is called arcadialab.news, and is a self-serve ‘outlet store’ for media to shop innovation content. We are also developing additional proprietary algorithms for our Context Engine and Content Tool client offerings.

Here’s the link to Arcadia Communications Lab