So this is the ‘official’ press release from the event. But be sure to check out what Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo had to say about the event as well...
Almost 300 attendees packed Solera in downtown Minneapolis to see the latest in interactive innovations
MICROSOFT (Minneapolis) – January 19, 2009 – On the coldest day of the year, Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo teamed up to heat things up by stealing the show at the PhizzPop Design Challenge event in Minneapolis, the third stop on the nationwide tour to find the best digital talent in the country.
Teams from Colle+McVoy, Hanson, MOOV Worldwide, space150 and Zeus Jones/Sierra Bravo competed against each other to win the grand prize, roundtrip airfare to Austin, Texas, hotel accommodations and interactive passes to attend SXSW for a chance to compete against other regional winners on March 16, 2009.
The Minneapolis PhizzPop Design Challenge focused on developing strategies for a fictional retailer that would help product managers extend their brands and experiences and develop more meaningful and impactful relationships with consumers through the application of great ideas, social media and technology.
“The challenges for online and physical retailers have never been more vexing than they are today” said Chris Bernard, Microsoft User Experience Evangelist. “Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo’s solution turned our design challenge on its ear by suggesting that our fictional and nascent brand serve as a scalable platform for the existing brands their customers already use, and strengthened that relationship by combining the strong affinity that consumers have for brands with the authentic connections and dialog allowed by social media.”
How did Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo accomplish a vision for this in five days? By using the building blocks of Microsoft’s UX and services platform, which allowed the team to focus a majority of their effort on the experience versus building from scratch all of the necessary infrastructure required for today’s leading edge consumer experiences.
Mark Hines, Vice President, Strategic Services, Ratchet and one of the Minneapolis judges had this to say about the winning team, “Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo won because they distilled a complicated problem down to its essence, developed an effective, results driven strategy to solve it and then executed it extremely well with the right functionality and amazing design.”
Additional members of the judging panel were comprised of industry experts including David Reynolds-Gooch, Group Manager, Marketing Development Services, 3M; Craig Yolitz, Vice President, Customer Operations, Findlaw, a Thomson Reuters business; Jen Klise, Innovation and Strategy, Target; Andrew Banas, Director of User Experience, Allianz Life; Mike Gibbs, Group Creative Director, Fallon Minneapolis and Kathy Swanson, VP Marketing, Piper Jaffray.
The remaining tour stops include Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami, and the finalist competition in Austin, Texas. In addition to Minneapolis, stops have already occurred in New York and Chicago.
About PhizzPop Design Challenge
Each year, the PhizzPop Design Challenge tours the country to discover the best design talent from top agencies. PhizzPop was created by Microsoft to bring together designers and developers in a collaborative environment focused on creating solutions to today’s marketing challenges.
During each PhizzPop Design Challenge event, creative teams from local agencies go head-to-head in a competition of design, development, and creativity to solve a unique design challenge during a three-day event held in a major city. Visit www.PhizzPop.com for more details and to request tickets.
Comments