We are D. BEE.S and our team consists of Sarakis Grigoris, Chantzara Konstantina, Galaiou Katerina and Sertsidis Gkeragkis. D. BEE S. actually stands for Do not BEE Square, which means that we strive to think outside the box and bring innovative ideas and implement them as an advertising/marketing agency and not only.
Let us dive into our completed projects.
Take a look at our past successes.
UX REVIEW
We were called to play the part of UX heuristics reviewers in the second workshop’s framework. This was a two lab session micro module that gave us our first introduction to the concept of usability. The sessions were clarifying but it wasn’t enough. We had to implement the ideas and learning we were previously shown to fully grasp the context. More specifically, our assignment was to investigate a website or app of our choosing, carry out a heuristic review, record the results, and apply them. We discovered throughout the session how crucial it is for the design to reflect the demands of the users. What is notable is that, unlike usability testing, the heuristic judgment is expert-based.
The first step in our work was to select the Greek version of Adidas’s website, a global leader in athletic wear. We made this decision because we wanted to determine whether and how many usability issues a huge company’s website has. But initially, we developed the proto persona, which is a persona built on presumptions and modeled after a target audience.
We developed two tasks for the website which were, what we thought then, the most common tasks a casual guest would do when visiting the website. The tasks which were then assessed in light of the 10 heuristics (as proposed by Nielsen). We first worked alone and then in groups. Our proto persona’s responsibilities were appropriate for his requirements. Giannis, our proto-persona, dealt with wanting to join the Adidas club after first choosing to buy various apparel items from the internet, as indicated. Clearly, it was difficult to identify usability problems. Yet, the main results were important. We discovered issues with plenty of heuristics not being followed, such as the following heuristics being broken:
Visibility of system status
Match between system and the real world
User control and Freedom
Consistency and standards
Error prevention
Recognition rather than recall
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from error
Help and documentation
Practically all of the heuristics — all except one — were broken. The lessons we learned from this session were priceless. It enabled us to gain the basic understanding of usability required to use a heuristic evaluation.
We gained knowledge about usability principles and how to identify usability issues. Overall, running a student-run agency has been a tough and gratifying experience that has helped us advance both personally and professionally. Working with actual clients and resolving actual difficulties helped us gain vital expertise. We also gained a profound understanding of the ability of marketing to forge strong ties between brands and customers. Also, we acquired crucial abilities for job success at the end of this voyage, including collaboration, dispute resolution, creativity, the capacity for meeting deadlines, and presenting abilities.
MOBILE APPS
We were required to develop a smartphone app containing at least three questions as part of our college work. More specifically, we had to use the internet application proto.io to build an interactive prototype. Although being the first one we would work on as individuals rather than a team, this would just be one of many projects we would finish. In addition, this project helped us build a solid platform for our future work and gave us crucial teamwork and problem-solving experience.
We made the decision to go forward separately but helping each other when and if problems were showing up. Our agency took on the exciting task of developing a mobile app as we continued to work concurrently on the different tasks we had at the same time. The task was straightforward: develop a quiz that would interest people and foster more discussion on a range of subjects. Research and brainstorming meetings were the first steps in our journey, which let us to identify intriguing details about our project and generate original ideas. But when we dug more into the project, we found a number of obstacles we would have to get beyond.
The initial difficulty was to develop enticing and captivating queries that would draw in users. We carefully considered the difficulty level and made sure the questions were factual and current over the many hours we spent studying the subject we would utilize and coming up with possible questions. The second difficulty was becoming used to this new workplace. Even though we had problems figuring out the right instructions / commands to use in our quiz, we ultimately made good progress very quickly. The learning curve was steep, but once we understood how to continue appropriately, the quizzes we were creating were essentially done.
We faced the difficulty of developing a quiz structure that would be simple and user-friendly after we had completed our questions. We chose a multiple-choice style because we thought it would be simple for users to utilize and enable us to give fast feedback on their answers. In addition, we took the effort to create a visually appealing interface for the test. We gained important knowledge regarding the value of research, teamwork, and creativity in the projects.
At the conclusion of our project, we were pleased to have developed plenty mobile applications of many broad topics while considering our most important realizations and learnings. We came to the conclusion that effective content production and interaction require a thorough grasp of the topics we chose as well as a desire to be innovative and creative. We also discovered the value of cooperation and teamwork because every member of our team was essential to the accomplishment of the many different projects whether as individuals or as a team. Also, we got invaluable experience working as a team to address challenging problems and deepened our awareness of the potential and challenges associated with developing apps.
MARKETING / ADVERTISING PROJECT
We were requested as an advertising/marketing agency to take on the client Costa Coffee. We stepped into the shoes of the marketer and the advertiser. Determining the brand strategy and coming up with communication ideas were our tasks.
As marketers, we used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to learn more about Greek consumers’ coffee tastes and to determine how many individuals are familiar with and how many actually favor Costa Coffee as their go to brand of coffee. Consumer research is a crucial phase in the decision-making process. In addition, we identified Costa Coffee’s advantages and disadvantages in comparison to its principal rivals. We sought to create a special and distinctive approach for Costa Coffee through the competitive analysis.
As advertisers, we made the choice to uphold the active optimism that this brand stands for after learning that the campaign’s goal was to raise brand recognition and demand for Costa Coffee goods. We wanted to emphasize this unique standing in relation to the competitors. Our primary target audience for the commercial was both the general public and, more particularly, college students and/or white-collar workers. We used the phrase “Making the day a little brighter” which is the same as Costa Coffee’s. After engaging in a creative process that helped us create ideas and consider a campaign that was smart, pertinent to the plan, and simple to comprehend, we ultimately settled on this concept. We considered the target group profile, the touchpoints, the communication areas we intended to expand into, and the tone of voice of our ads while developing our communication strategy. In addition, we offered suggestions for TTL and digital advertisements with the aim of developing a 360-degree campaign. For the TTL efforts, we suggested TV commercials for the broad audience and social media advertisements that used cookies for a more individualized experience. At our presentation, we also advocated for supermarket product tasting, the emergence of pop-up shops, and other ideas.
We had excellent communication throughout the whole study process as we put our knowledge and thoughts together to create a presentable end approach that was well-received.
In general we, as a team, cooperated very fluidly. The minimal problems that were present before us were quickly disarmed and we overcame the difficulties with relative ease. We managed to successfully complete all the projects that were thrown our way despite the fact that the deadlines were so close together and the numerous projects often were one on top of the other. With little time to spare, as we all have different responsibilities such as work, study, different classes etc., we managed to finish and present with minimal time wasted all of the college work that was required by the ADPR LAB.
We hope our work as an student-led agency has/will inspire every person watching us. Inspire to BEE creative. Inspire to think outside the box. Inspire them in finding new ways to accomplish their sought-after achievements.
We are D. BEE S.
Thank you for reading.