The Challenge 

 I run a small marketing consultancy and some of my clients are only just entering the digital   marketing space . Some have websites , but they do n’t know anything about driving traffic and lead   generation . I recently landed a new client who had a small interior - decorating business and wanted   to grow her client base using digital and social marketing . She had a company website but had no   social media channels and personally knows nothing about digital marketing – she ’s not even on   Facebook ! She wanted a digital marketing strategy to drive new business , however the challenge   was that she did n’t know what that was or how it would work . In this sort of scenario , with clients   such as she , it ’s hard to manage expectations ; they expect that once their platforms are set up , from   day one their phone will ring off the hook and new quote requests will flood in . In addition , her   media budget was very small , so organic would play an important part in the rollout of this strategy . 

 A segment in Angela Meyer ’s video showing a person standing up and talking about a concept , while   the people in the meeting each understood it differently , perfectly illustrated the challenge with this   client . I needed to get her and her whole team on the same page , to “ align ideas ” , as Meyer puts it   so well . 

 This illustration of Meyer ’s shows how tenuous the situation was , with me thinking one thing and   each member on the client ’s team , having their own interpretation of my words . 

 ( Images copyright Design Thinking for Innovation video on visualisation tools by Angela Meyer ) 

 Selection 

 It was clear that showing the client and her team content and ads that were being placed and the   traffic , audience growth and engagement they were generating was pretty meaningless to them .   They could n’t picture how all of these digital marketing elements came together and worked to   generate new sales leads . Being highly creative people and designers in their own right , a   visualisation tool seemed to be a good choice to make these ethereal digital activities tangible and   concrete . I needed to take my clients beyond the language ; a visualization tool can remove the   ambiguity of words , and the many meanings we can derive from them , providing instead a clear   picture . 

 We all needed to be on the same page , as Meyer ’s illustration shows . 

 ( Images copyright Design Thinking for Innovation video on visualisation tools by Angela Meyer ) 

 Application 

 At our next meeting I gathered the client and her team and prefaced the meeting by saying that the   different parts of my digital strategy all work together towards a common goal . They all agreed that   the goal was to drive traffic to the website and thereby generate leads for the business . How that   happened was what needed definition . “ It ’s like when you ’re designing a room , ” I told them .   Immediately they started to look interested . 

 First , I drew a little coffee table in the middle of the page . The table was the website . I then added a   sofa facing the coffee table and called that Facebook ( FB ) and a chair and called that Instagram ( IG ) .   After this I added a big oval mirror and called that their social media advertising ( SMA ) . I explained   the difference between organic social where people are visiting by choice ( as followers ) and are in   the room , either sitting on the Facebook sofa or the Instagram chair ; and social media advertising ,   where people had n’t entered the room ( signed up as followers ) , but could see the room reflected in   the mirror and that they also represented potential clients . I then added a big window and drew   some faces looking through the window . I called this their Google Ads and told them that these were   people who were searching for a room that they would like to be in , and would enter by choice . By   this stage there was a lot of nodding of agreement among the team members . Then the client   jumped in and said , “ You need a carpet ! ” And she took my pen and drew a line under all the   elements in the picture . “ That pulls the room together . ” 

 I agreed and said , “ The carpet is your messaging , which gives one consistent voice across all the   elements , holding the entire communication plan together . ” They all nodded . By now they were   quite animated and enthusiastic . 

 Finally I drew a little tray on the coffee table in the middle of the room and added a teapot and cup   and told them that what we wanted was for the people who sat on the sofa and the chair , or looked   in from the mirror or the window , to feel so at home in this space , that they would reach out and   pour themselves a cup of tea . And that moment of taking tea is when they submit a quote request   on the website or pick up the phone and call the number on the contact page . Those were the   qualified leads we were looking for . 

 Insight 

 This visualisation exercise made the concept tangible for the client and her team . It proved   successful in two ways : firstly , the client jumped in and started to participate . She did n’t get all the   way there and call it the messaging herself , but I facilitated this and gave the carpet a purpose as the   message in the digital room . Secondly , once the room was completed and the idea became concrete ,   the team started to open up about their business , describing various elements that they had n’t   mentioned prior to this exercise ; such as how they see themselves in relation to their competition ,   or aspects of their business they ’d like to expand on . The visualisation tool did n’t just help them   understand a concept , it facilitated the generation of ideas . These ideas and insights are now proving   very useful in creating content and crafting the messaging as I roll out the digital strategy . They   have n’t yet led to any great lightbulb - moment innovation so far , but importantly these responses   from the team and their input have helped to steer the language and tone of the communications ,   both on social media and search advertising . The accounts are gathering good traction and the   client ’s phone is starting to ring . Tea is being served ! 

 The insight that I gained from using the visualization tool is that the tool needs to be relevant and   meaningful to the audience for it to be truly useful in describing the “ what is ” in the Design Thinking   process . The picture I drew resonated with my client and her team , which in turn inspired their   confidence in both the process as well as the concept . They then felt that they were in a safe space   in which to explore other ideas and expand on the concepts all the while providing me with valuable   ‘ ethnographic data ’ on their business . 

 Approach 

 Although I chose to use a visualisation tool , I could also have applied the same concept as a   storytelling tool . In a way I did , because the process of creating the room was also telling a story .   However , I think the pictorial aspect of the visualisation tool is what made it successful , and the   storytelling was more like ‘ window dressing ’ . 

 One thing I could try doing differently next time , is to make it more of a team - decorating - the - room   exercise . To encourage more participation in the process of creating that picture to inspire even 

 more of a sense of ownership of the outcome that might generate even more ideas and lateral   thinking . However , while this client can clearly decorate a room , she and her team need my input to   make the analogy work and tie it all back to their digital communications . 

 For my own little marketing business , this has inspired me to turn this analogue , hand - drawn   visualization into a video showing the room being created , that I can use with other clients and in   new - business pitches , since decorating a room is something most of my kind of clients have some   familiarity with . This wo n’t resonate with every client , one of whom is a men ’s fashion watch   retailer . Visualising a room would be less meaningful to him and I would need to adapt the way I use   the tool so that the visuals resonate with him and his business . In this case , I could recraft the   analogy in the visualisation tool to create , for example , a new trendy outfit or to build a watch . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: The Challenge 

 I run a small marketing consultancy and some of my clients are only just entering the digital   marketing space . Some have websites , but they do n’t know anything about driving traffic and lead   generation . I recently landed a new client who had a small interior - decorating business and wanted   to grow her client base using digital and social marketing . She had a company website but had no   social media channels and personally knows nothing about digital marketing – she ’s not even on   Facebook ! She wanted a digital marketing strategy to drive new business , however the challenge   was that she did n’t know what that was or how it would work . In this sort of scenario , with clients   such as she , it ’s hard to manage expectations ; they expect that once their platforms are set up , from   day one their phone will ring off the hook and new quote requests will flood in . In addition , her   media budget was very small , so organic would play an important part in the rollout of this strategy . 

 A segment in Angela Meyer ’s video showing a person standing up and talking about a concept , while   the people in the meeting each understood it differently , perfectly illustrated the challenge with this   client . I needed to get her and her whole team on the same page , to “ align ideas ” , as Meyer puts it   so well . 

 This illustration of Meyer ’s shows how tenuous the situation was , with me thinking one thing and   each member on the client ’s team , having their own interpretation of my words . 

 ( Images copyright Design Thinking for Innovation video on visualisation tools by Angela Meyer ) 

 Selection 

 It was clear that showing the client and her team content and ads that were being placed and the   traffic , audience growth and engagement they were generating was pretty meaningless to them .   They could n’t picture how all of these digital marketing elements came together and worked to   generate new sales leads . Being highly creative people and designers in their own right , a   visualisation tool seemed to be a good choice to make these ethereal digital activities tangible and   concrete . I needed to take my clients beyond the language ; a visualization tool can remove the   ambiguity of words , and the many meanings we can derive from them , providing instead a clear   picture . 

 We all needed to be on the same page , as Meyer ’s illustration shows . 

 ( Images copyright Design Thinking for Innovation video on visualisation tools by Angela Meyer ) 

 Application 

 At our next meeting I gathered the client and her team and prefaced the meeting by saying that the   different parts of my digital strategy all work together towards a common goal . They all agreed that   the goal was to drive traffic to the website and thereby generate leads for the business . How that   happened was what needed definition . “ It ’s like when you ’re designing a room , ” I told them .   Immediately they started to look interested . 

 First , I drew a little coffee table in the middle of the page . The table was the website . I then added a   sofa facing the coffee table and called that Facebook ( FB ) and a chair and called that Instagram ( IG ) .   After this I added a big oval mirror and called that their social media advertising ( SMA ) . I explained   the difference between organic social where people are visiting by choice ( as followers ) and are in   the room , either sitting on the Facebook sofa or the Instagram chair ; and social media advertising ,   where people had n’t entered the room ( signed up as followers ) , but could see the room reflected in   the mirror and that they also represented potential clients . I then added a big window and drew   some faces looking through the window . I called this their Google Ads and told them that these were   people who were searching for a room that they would like to be in , and would enter by choice . By   this stage there was a lot of nodding of agreement among the team members . Then the client   jumped in and said , “ You need a carpet ! ” And she took my pen and drew a line under all the   elements in the picture . “ That pulls the room together . ” 

 I agreed and said , “ The carpet is your messaging , which gives one consistent voice across all the   elements , holding the entire communication plan together . ” They all nodded . By now they were   quite animated and enthusiastic . 

 Finally I drew a little tray on the coffee table in the middle of the room and added a teapot and cup   and told them that what we wanted was for the people who sat on the sofa and the chair , or looked   in from the mirror or the window , to feel so at home in this space , that they would reach out and   pour themselves a cup of tea . And that moment of taking tea is when they submit a quote request   on the website or pick up the phone and call the number on the contact page . Those were the   qualified leads we were looking for . 

 Insight 

 This visualisation exercise made the concept tangible for the client and her team . It proved   successful in two ways : firstly , the client jumped in and started to participate . She did n’t get all the   way there and call it the messaging herself , but I facilitated this and gave the carpet a purpose as the   message in the digital room . Secondly , once the room was completed and the idea became concrete ,   the team started to open up about their business , describing various elements that they had n’t   mentioned prior to this exercise ; such as how they see themselves in relation to their competition ,   or aspects of their business they ’d like to expand on . The visualisation tool did n’t just help them   understand a concept , it facilitated the generation of ideas . These ideas and insights are now proving   very useful in creating content and crafting the messaging as I roll out the digital strategy . They   have n’t yet led to any great lightbulb - moment innovation so far , but importantly these responses   from the team and their input have helped to steer the language and tone of the communications ,   both on social media and search advertising . The accounts are gathering good traction and the   client ’s phone is starting to ring . Tea is being served ! 

 The insight that I gained from using the visualization tool is that the tool needs to be relevant and   meaningful to the audience for it to be truly useful in describing the “ what is ” in the Design Thinking   process . The picture I drew resonated with my client and her team , which in turn inspired their   confidence in both the process as well as the concept . They then felt that they were in a safe space   in which to explore other ideas and expand on the concepts all the while providing me with valuable   ‘ ethnographic data ’ on their business . 

 Approach 

 Although I chose to use a visualisation tool , I could also have applied the same concept as a   storytelling tool . In a way I did , because the process of creating the room was also telling a story .   However , I think the pictorial aspect of the visualisation tool is what made it successful , and the   storytelling was more like ‘ window dressing ’ . 

 One thing I could try doing differently next time , is to make it more of a team - decorating - the - room   exercise . To encourage more participation in the process of creating that picture to inspire even 

 more of a sense of ownership of the outcome that might generate even more ideas and lateral   thinking . However , while this client can clearly decorate a room , she and her team need my input to   make the analogy work and tie it all back to their digital communications . 

 For my own little marketing business , this has inspired me to turn this analogue , hand - drawn   visualization into a video showing the room being created , that I can use with other clients and in   new - business pitches , since decorating a room is something most of my kind of clients have some   familiarity with . This wo n’t resonate with every client , one of whom is a men ’s fashion watch   retailer . Visualising a room would be less meaningful to him and I would need to adapt the way I use   the tool so that the visuals resonate with him and his business . In this case , I could recraft the   analogy in the visualisation tool to create , for example , a new trendy outfit or to build a watch .
### Output: 