Finding digital inspiration with Ireland’s top 10
We find it important to find happiness in small things and to find inspiration around us. This has been an extremely rewarding exercise, as fortunately, there have been so many companies making a breakthrough in digital thanks to and despite COVID-19.
Therefore, we asked 10 of Ireland’s largest companies that inspire us, who inspire them in terms of their digital achievement and why. In this article we are featuring just some of their answers, but you can find all 10 responds to this question and more in our recent “10 Opinions for 2021” report.
Ronan Smith, Content and Insights Manager at the Central Bank of Ireland has admired the BBC’s digital presence for over two decades. Although it has of course evolved over the years, the BBC is a good example of how to implement progressive, iterative change at scale rather than big-bang change-everything approaches, which often sees companies “throwing the baby out with the bath water” in their quest to achieve digital perfection. Whether you are looking for football gossip or to catch up on international news, the BBC website has provided me with a reassuring, consistent experience over a long period of time – which is, according to Ronan, something of a holy grail in user experience.
In aviation and travel, Sinead Quish, Head of Consumer and Digital Marketing at Dublin Airport, admires Ryanair and Airbnb as two of the great disruptors, leaders, and innovators. Ryanair democratised air travel through consistent low-cost air fares and Airbnb transformed the traditional experience of holiday and city break lodging through a global network of community hosts and curated ‘discovery’ travel experiences. Long before we heard of Amazon, Ryanair recognised the role of digital to create simple and cost-efficient direct transactions and travel documents between the airline and passenger. Sinead loves that you can book a flight within less than 2 minutes on my Ryanair app, and that it stores all my key information such as passport details, saving me precious time. The reward is the simplicity and speed of digital experience and the very positive in-flight experience too. With Airbnb, Sinead appreciates how they have personalised the foreign travel experience, allowing people to discover and stay in cool neighbourhoods and communities with the guidance of a welcoming local host, a very different experience from the more conventional and formal hotel locations and experiences. She also admires the simplicity, the modernity but the solidity of the Airbnb business model, where the power of community ratings, reviews and management and great insurance allows for a consistently pleasant experience for both the host and visitor.
Sarah Moriraty, the Head of Brand at Goodbody, is inspired by Personal Capital. She thinks some of the digital tools that they have created on their platforms are notable examples of a truly customer-centric marketing strategy at work.
Paul Prior, the Head of Digital at Three, has the whole list of companies he finds inspiration from. Three’s motto is to “forget everything you think you know and be open to what others know.” Everyone from Bob Moesta and Clay Christenson, to Dan Cable at London business school and digitally native companies like B8ta, Amazon Go, ASOS, Alibaba, Adore Me, Birchbox, Casper, Outdoor Voices, and Ikea amongst others. Anyone who understands we need both digital and physical but both are complimentary, those who are looking at how customers want to hire companies from a digital perspective in the future and those that are actually enhancing people's lives.
Cathal McCarthy, the Head of Digital Marketing at Morgan McKinley, is inspired by InVision, the digital product design platform. It helps to bring his team’s digital concepts into reality by helping everyone internally to visualise what their end goal is at the very early stages of a project. This helps Morgan McKinley to collaborate across multiple functions to optimise the online experience before development ever begins, which saves them time and more importantly it makes the end-product highly tailored for their customers. InVision also produces inspiring documentary content that Cathal would highly recommend for Digital Marketers to use to gain internal buy-in on user-centric projects.
We would love to hear which companies and people inspire you! Tag us on twitter @arekibo and share your thoughts.
If you want to start your digital journey with us, reach out today.