Weekly Recap #8: “Woot? Two months already?”
Hi, this is Harry from diesdas.digital and you’re reading our 8th weekly recap. We’re now two months into this adventure of running our own company and it still feels unreal. Sometimes I wake up and can’t quite believe that I’m not gonna go to work for someone else. Anyways, time flies and so does your attention span, so we better get started! 🐢
Little bits and pieces
We’re looking back at a packed, but extraordinary week … many meetings, even more email, but also steady progress, our first salaries, and a few interesting developments for new projects. As always, we’d love to say more, but have to keep the new things under wraps for now. Instead, here’s a picture of Lorenz enjoying a brownie and a damn fine cup of coffee:
By the way, about that brownie: my photo doesn’t do it justice, because it was way more epic — recipe and better pictures right here! Cool. Next! ☕️
Facebook ads: a highly subjective 5€ review
For last week’s recap I couldn’t resist Facebook’s screaming “BOOST YOUR POST” buttons and threw 5€ into the Facebook advertising machine. Feeling kinda dirty knowing that the post would show up with a “sponsored” label, we were a bit worried it might make the article appear less authentic. You tell me if that was the case.
Anyhow, we targeted it at everyone who liked our page already and their friends, set it to run for one day and waited. In the end it turned out to go exactly as you would expect: Facebook shows you glorious numbers about how many more people you reached, how many engagements happened (whatever that means); all of which make you feel really good, but in the end don’t mean much.
Looking at the Medium stats there was no noticeable difference in visits, but the visit/read ratio went down significantly. So presumably the clicks we got through the ad were of less value than the ones we got organically. Anyhow, we couldn’t expect 5€ to make much of a difference, I was mainly curious about the tools Facebook would give you to monitor the ad’s performance.
Main learning: Facebook does a fantastic job of monetizing their platform … psychologically the “boost your post” buttons are super effective because obviously you want your stuff to be seen by more people, after you spent a day to write that article. And when you actually spend money, they give you lots of numbers to obsess over, build presentations upon and create a general sense of activity around your ad. When looking at independent statistics though, the effect was negligible. I do understand better how social media agencies justify their budgets now, so the whole exercise was definitely worth it.
Buying glasses during lunch break: YUN Berlin
Mind blown moment of the week: At YUN Berlin you can buy beautiful, customized prescription glasses for reasonable prices within 20 minutes. The whole in-store experience was a UX masterclass: From the interior design that puts all emphasis on the glasses, to the brightly lit room with huge mirrors, friendly personell, all frames being unisex and their impressive machinery that customizes the lenses in front of your eyes. It only took a few minutes for Lars to find the perfect frame.
Lorenz muttered “glasses within 20 minutes” in astonishment for the rest of the day and ended up buying new ones as well. My bank account was only spared because my vision is still excellent. The power of thought-out UX in retail. Amazing.
My physical Firewatch photos arrived!
If you’ve played Firewatch you know that early in the game you find a disposable camera that lets you take photos from that point on. At the end of the game you get a link to your camera roll on the web … however, the magic happens when you realize that you can order your shots as physical photos. It cost $15 (almost as much as the game itself), but I was curious how far they would take the idea. Pretty far it turns out … take a look:
Quality-wise it’s exactly what you’d get, had this been a real camera. The whole execution is flawless, down to the paper envelope they come in. And it turns out that there were already a few shots from the previous owner on the camera that tie into the game’s story … I’m not gonna spoil anything (you can probably google them easily though), but they made me pause and gave me goosebumps. Super well done, kudos. I’ll definitely put one of these photos in a frame somewhere in my apartment to remember my trip to the Wyoming wilderness. #phygital #lolIactuallysaidthat
And speaking of games: the next hot thing is Superhot! No really, that’s the name of the game. I’ve been following the development since their Kickstarter days and can’t wait to finally play it. Released yesterday on Steam, earning praise in all the reviews. 🔥
pub’n’pub: “Text sells” with Sonja Knecht
It’s been a busy week, not just in the office … on Wednesday #pubnpub was happening at Club der polnischen Versager, a meetup lovingly organised by Leander Wattig. Sonja Knecht gave a talk about selling text and naming-projects in an agency environment. The specific project she presented (from the good old Edenspiekermann days when we were still working together regularly) was super interesting in itself, but the talk was about so much more: The importance of tonality, overly specific briefs vs. creative freedom, the difficulties of working with demanding clients, dedication to your craft and continuing work on a project until everyone’s satisfied and happy, regardless of budget. Afterwards there was a lively discussion with lots of people from the audience chiming in and sharing their experiences.
Overall the atmosphere was super friendly, light-hearted and infused with curiosity and open-mindedness. My personal highlight of the week! Some impressions:
Speaking of events involving Sonja … this happened yesterday:
50th Creative Morning Berlin
I’ve been attending the Creative Morning Berlin on and off since 2012 and even gave a talk there at some point. Being there this week was unlike any other CM before … it’s absolutely amazing to see how much the audience has grown in numbers. I mean, look at this:
Adam Fletcher’s talk about the future of work was an entertaining, super well presented summary of developments changing the workplace and how we can stay sane and worry less about our future, but the real highlight of every CM are the people you bump into. We finally met Nik Stohn, saw Björn from Moccu, several students from the HTW, chatted with Ivo and Jürgen and of course Norman was there taking photos. Best start of the day and happy birthday CM Berlin! 🎉
And that’s it already … as always: have a nice weekend, get some time away from screens, maybe read a book (I can’t put down Ready Player One right now) and in any case, see you next week! If you want to stay in touch, consider following us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook! 🤖 👌
