Building an innovation practice from scratch

In 2013 I joined FutureBrand to create their first product & service innovation offer - the FutureBrand Lab. A new capability that set out to prove that brand agencies could do meaningful innovation work, win its own clients and extend branding relationships beyond short-term strategy engagements.

We built the team, the design approach, and the commercial offer from scratch, running multidisciplinary delivery across strategy, design and experimentation, and competing for pitches against pureplay digital agencies. We carried full profit-and-loss responsibility for the practice, which grew to $2.3M in 2016.

During the first six months, the team developed a connected hydration prototype, a smart water container that sensed how much you had drunk and tracked it to an online dashboard, which drew interest from Nestlé Waters and Strauss Water. We later created a connected-machine loyalty concept for Nespresso, showing how a digitally connected coffee machine could link consumption to rewards, brought to life as a concept film presented to the Nespresso CMO in Lausanne.

Four years later, we had designed the narrative experience for a VIP visitor to Cadillac's Shanghai House brand centre, created the experience design for Zurich's London business centre, delivered Vizient's new digital platform and helped many clients bring their new brands to life, wherever they turned up.

The Lab established digital product and service innovation as a standing capability inside FutureBrand, with its own clients, its own revenue and a $2.3M P&L.