MyGIFValentine, a project we conceived, planned, developed, and promoted within a week, was recently launched by Savvy. Yet it was not something that we had been recruited to do. We were our only client. Here’s the story of how we did it but why we did it is more relevant.
Overview of MyGIFValentine
As a different Valentine-related concept, the MyGIFValentine (MGV) service originated. The project emerged from the desire to relive in a new, interactive way the childhood memories of Valentine’s Day. We also wanted to offer a fun opportunity for some of the Savvy team members to begin a holiday-related experience. It would also push us to have a hard deadline by beginning it a week before Valentine’s Day.
We re-focused on a GIF-related idea after a day of testing ideas that we eventually thought did not fit. MGV became a web app where a Madlib-style message could be submitted by individuals. A funny GIF related to that word or phrase will automatically be associated with any custom input in the message.
With over 1,000 messages sent, it was received incredibly well, making it to the first page of Product Search, and people were just really having fun sending each other touching and clever messages. Be sure to take a look at the above mini-documentary footage. This gives you an insider’s look at how we at Savvy design, create, and develop products.
Why Did an Agency Work on Its Own…Work?
Agencies like Savvy are in high demand, which means that projects like MyGIFValentine can be expensive. We’ve set aside time to do our own work during Savvy’s past, though. There have been many advantages of doing so, including publicity and the production of revenue. While we will not complain about such advantages, agencies should take the time to do their own internal work for some other, more relevant purposes.
Internal Work Fosters Innovation
Whether it’s new technology, a new design process, or trying various marketing methods, internal work encourages Savvy to try new stuff. We tested a forum we had never used before on the first day of the project. The ultimate solution helps us to interact with GIPHY, learn the complexities of their framework, including how to get whitelisted for manufacturing, and link to their API and marketing teams. We have also tried a new bug capture tool and added it to some marketing platforms that we don’t activate often.
Internal Work Reduces Risks for Customers
We can potentially reduce risks for our customers in future ventures because of the creativity. Instead of our clients paying the bill for us to learn about new platforms, new tools, new channels of marketing, etc. It helps Savvy to do that, MGV and work like that. In addition, we did not just study those products, we put them in a complete product lifecycle through their paces, from the beginning all the way through the launch. That included the Valentine’s Day holiday, a highly visible, high-traffic production launch window.
Internal Work Can Stress Tests Processes
When you work in the sort of timeline we have done, your method gets stress checked for the positive with several different team members from different ability sets. In these cases, you will easily figure out what is working and what is not working. Thankfully, our method as a whole stood up, which is why we began with the progress we achieved on time. This time around the greatest lesson learned was that we needed to delineate roles more clearly across the team. Normally, roles should be spread more, but it was not possible because of the frenetic speed.
Internal Work Demonstrates All Capabilities
Savvy loves putting on show our full arsenal of abilities and internal work helps us to do just that. From branding, UX, graphic design, front and back-end creation, and marketing, MGV allowed us to do everything. These are what we call the disciplines of architecture, building, and creation at Savvy. Additionally, we had to exhibit our campaign-based marketing and storytelling skills. In a single day, having over a thousand shares was no small feat. Very few agencies will do something in-house to share our story on the MyGIFValentine.com website, social media, and via video. Many businesses can build stuff” or “market stuff”… few can do well with both.
Internal Work Increases Team Camaraderie
One of the objectives we had with MGV was to encourage more cross-pollination among members of the team who don’t communicate as much at times. We wanted our marketing team to get more exposure to our members of the product, design, and dev team and vice versa, in particular. We have seen a higher level of appreciation among teams coming out of the week. We also enjoyed providing some new options that some individual team contributors might not have had before.
Concluding Note
We hope you enjoyed looking at the making of MyGIFValentine from behind the scenes. Yeah, Valentine’s Day is over but give it a look if you haven’t done it yet. Ask them why if you feel that your department is not doing projects such as MyGIFValentine. Or just get in contact with us… Savvy, we’re all right.
Author Bio:
Eric has been helping start-ups and small companies to market unique ideas with best-of-breed bits of HTML/CSS, JS, Python, and C#, most recently as a professional software development consultant. Eric brings his professional and managerial expertise to full impact, values proactivity and outcomes, and enjoys a working style of “roll up the sleeves and get it done”.He currently works as app development in dubai.