We’re in San Francisco meeting the diverse agency talent in this creative mecca. To make things interesting, we’re asking 3 questions, sharing 2 photos, and discussing a recent milestone.
Get To Know San Francisco Mobile Agency: Prolific Interactive in 3, 2, 1…
Core Service: Mobile
Additional Services: Digital Strategy
3 Questions
What makes Prolific Interactive unique?
Prolific has a really introspective culture. We’re constantly looking at how we can improve the way we work, even if it means challenging what seems like an indisputable standard. We’re not satisfied with “that’s just the way it works” or “that’s how agencies operate” or “this is how Google does it.” People here care more about developing a deep understanding than just following a process (not to say we don’t follow processes!).
We’ve also begun to model profitability for strategies that we recommend to clients, even including variables like client’s inventory costs and acquisition cost per user. Some of that information is completely outside of our domain, but it does matter whether or not a mobile effort is a good business decision for our client. We want to align our business goals with our client’s and help align their goals with their customers’ because then we have a whole system working together instead of having disjointed pieces to a puzzle. It’s a mindset that you can definitely find elsewhere, but not something that seems very common in an agency setting.
What should brands do differently when hiring a mobile agency?
Brands should take advantage of mobile agencies as long-term partners, not just vendors. Creating a mobile product should not be a one-shot thing, because if you ship and don’t follow up with measurement and optimization, you’re leaving money on the table. The most profitable mindset is treating the mobile product like a business, which the expertise of a mobile agency can facilitate and amplify the growth of. Even if you hire staff to maintain and grow a product in-house, you should still employ a mobile agency because it’s their job to stay at the cutting edge, and so they can point you towards emerging opportunities.
Brands [also] sometimes approach agencies with a specific technology or platform they want to develop on, or ask for a proposal against specific specs. Although the brand may be very confident in their ideas and assumptions, and they may very well be right, the discussion should be around desired business outcomes, because then the agency can work with the brand to find even larger opportunities than they may have been originally aware of.
The tradeoff here is that it’s less straightforward to write a contract for this kind of engagement. There has to be openness and trust for this to work. It’s well worth it: a reasonably open approach allows teams to make adjustments as new information unfolds. Our philosophy is to be as transparent as possible, which has led to the expression “No Big Reveals”. It’s a very effective way to manage risk.
If Prolific could give the power of mobile to one moment in history, what would it be and why?
All Paul Revere really had to do was send a GroupMe message, “the brits are coming” with an attached photo, go to the fridge, grab a beer, maybe some leftover Chinese food, and watch House of Cards on his tablet. Then, Google Now would tell him when it was time to head out with his musket and meet up with the militia.
In all seriousness, it just goes to show how much mobile allows us take communication for granted. It took a lighthouse signal, a horse ride, and paddling up a river just to communicate that the British were on the move.
2 Photos
1 Milestone
[With locations on both coasts], we recently released back-to-back 5 star apps with Modcloth.com and Rent The Runway.
Check out Prolific Interactive’s portfolio on Agency Spotter to learn more and see how you’re connected…
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Stay tuned as we continue to bring you fun profiles of great creative agencies in San Francisco!
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