WPP has launched a new offering called big aimed at fostering growth in the Australian market through new product development (NPD).
The company will create new categories, markets and, most importantly, sources of revenue for clients, using data to define the opportunity, an understanding of people to create desire then using all that intelligence to build a real product or service.
“Many Australian businesses and organisations have exhausted cost-cutting measures,” says big founder chief creative officer Giles Day says.
“While it’s important to always review the cost of operations, it’s also important that organisations also look at other revenue streams to drive top-line growth. That’s where big can come in – with NPD.
“big reduces the risk within NPD by first proving a commercial opportunity, then establishing what people desire in this opportunity then making that idea real. Ideas that are actually wanted by consumers.
WPP AUNZ CEO Jens Monsees says big is an example of where the holding company is heading, following his appointment last year.
"It’s also about putting the client at the centre of what we do,” Monsees says.
“By collaborating with clients through NPD, we are providing a true partnership that meets their changing needs in a fast-changing market.”
The big team will come from engineering, design and technology, with Clara Klaassen, head of industrial design, onboard with the backing of chief strategy officer Rose Herceg.
The team has previously worked together to develop innovative new product categories including MilkLab - a product developed in collaboration with Freedom Foods to create new revenue from new consumers for a commodity product; UHT milk.
"We used data to establish a white space for `barista milk', a category that didn’t exist before," he says. "Once the opportunity was identified, the team worked with baristas to co-create the product now known as MilkLab, a useful product with cultural capital that generates well over $50 million of new revenue per year."
While Day admits that “good innovation costs money”, big will operate under an entirely new business model which will see it partner with businesses in return for a royalty, success fee or flat percentage after milestones are met.
"This business model will focus on creating NPD that includes tech solutions that can be both scalable and provide recurring revenue," he says.
“In this way our success is our client’s success. We have created big to launch profitable products and services. We’re going to try harder and we want to be rewarded for that."
Herceg says the big team will not just be looking to improve products in categories that already exist, but to create entirely new categories and ideas.
“Put simply, we use our vast data pool to define where the money is, we use our strong understanding of people to create the product desire, then make really useful, really wanted products that create new revenue,” she says.
“It’s like nothing our industry has ever tackled before.
“That’s big thinking."
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