As brands continue to move toward more integrated marketing models and are being guided by more data-driven decisions, it is essential that their agency partners are similarly aligned. DC-area agency, LMO, recently announced bold, progressive shifts in both leadership and organizational structure in order to more closely align with today’s marketing landscape. LMO has broken down traditional silos and formally combined their Creative, Web and Technology/Engineering departments into one unified group known simply as ‘Creative Technology’.
The integration of the agency’s creative and technology services will help it maximize the level of support it provides to clients, allowing it to be agile enough to look at each of its client’s customer journeys and create innovative, personalized tactics to convert the customer. LMO has already been experimenting with creative technology through augmented and virtual reality, Snapchat marketing, Amazon’s Alexa and personalized content.
“We knew that we’d been ahead of the curve when it came to several practices, such as programmatic buying, marketing automation and the technical acumen of our in-house web development team. Formally combining our Creative, Web, and Technology departments was a logical next step in what has been an organic evolution in our business” says Mike Kapetanovic, president, LMO.
When LMO’s longtime founder and creative director, Dave Marinaccio, retired early this year, rather than hire a replacement, a new department and a new role was born. The agency promoted their former director of UX, Cory Magin to a newly created role - director of creative & UX. Magin is responsible for bridging isolated teams and disciplines together and bringing a more integrated, forward-thinking offering to their clients.
Magin’s impressive client roster of over 17 years includes Under Armour, The Baltimore Ravens, Kellogg’s, Dos Equis, VISA, Liz Claiborne, Fisher Price, Walmart / Sam's Club, Discovery Channel and US Airways. His vast expertise in both creative and technology skillsets, such as information architecture and UX, digital strategy, high-end creative and emerging tech, as well as augmented reality and virtual reality, all make him ideally suited for propelling the agency in the direction the industry is moving.
“Regardless of the technology, emotion and human connection continue to be the primary drivers of behavior – they’re ultimately what connect us to the brands we love and trust,” says Magin, “but new technologies empower us to craft more personalized, customized narratives based on clear understandings of varied audiences and their specific needs. Today, ideas can come to life in more experiential ways than ever, but it requires teams that are collaborative, cross-functional and who use more iterative processes. This is why our Creative Technology team was born.”
Creative technology will continue to play a large role in how many brands do business and we’ll begin to see it more in how we work and play - virtual reality was one of the hottest topics at South by Southwest this year, after all. LMO’s goal is to continue a forward trajectory in establishing those connection points between brands, consumers and businesses in new, innovative and integrated formats, with creative technology at the helm.
