1) Who is 90octane, and how would you describe your relationship with Oracle Marketing Cloud?
90octane: 90octane is a marketing and consulting agency who helps clients navigate complexity to make their indelible mark on the world. We’ve partnered with Oracle Marketing Cloud on a number of projects, ranging from content creation and strategy to highly targeted Account-Based and Lead Generation Campaigns.
“90octane provides invaluable help in researching, designing, and producing content for our campaigns. They provide resources that we need to keep up with the digital marketing world and all its advances. We would not be able to create either of our Ignite and Spark Thought Leadership series without them.”
– Michael McNichols, Oracle Marketing Cloud Senior Content Manager
2) Tell us a bit first about the Spark Series. What are they, and what sort of topics do they cover?
90octane: The Spark Series is a collection of guides intended to partner with our Ignite Guides. While the Ignite Guides take a deep dive into the major disciplines of digital marketing (marketing automation, database management etc.), the Spark Series is more of a quick hit on more specialized marketing topics, which are full of tips, best practices, and strategies you can implement right away.
3) What do you feel are the problems that the Ignite Guides and Spark Series are produced to solve? In short, why do they exist?
90octane: The guides aren’t meant to promote specific products, but rather help the marketer who’s looking to push their campaigns further. Ultimately, this content exists to help marketers market better. Oracle Marketing Cloud was already known for their great technology, but we wanted to help continue to position them as a thought leader in their space.
4) Visually speaking, what makes for good mobile content in a Spark Series?
90octane: Visually, we wanted to make these guides as mobile-friendly as possible…it’s hard to talk mobile best practices without thinking about them ourselves! We designed them in a vertical format with a mobile device in mind, making it easy to flip through the guides in one hand while you enjoy a coffee the other. We also added a timer in the corner, so you know exactly how much time the guide takes to read, and always know how much is left as you go. Additionally, we developed our own “spark” icon for the series to complement the already robust set of icons Oracle already had developed.
“You can’t talk about producing content without factoring in mobile. You have to realize how anything will look on someone’s phone and what their experience with it will be like. You have to make it as reader-friendly as possible, and keep in mind how much time someone will spend with any piece of content.”
– Michael McNichols, Oracle Marketing Cloud Senior Content Manager
5) Do you feel that some topics make for better mobile content than others?
90octane: Most definitely. No one wants to read an extra-long form or technical content on their phone, so we avoided anything too advanced in these guides. The topics we chose were brief overviews, often dealing with mobile marketing itself.
6) When creating an asset such as an Ignite Guide or Spark Series, what is the agency’s role and what is the client’s?
90octane: The client plays a huge role in coming up with the topics we talk about, and once we’re in agreement, the agency takes over the research, writing, editing and design load. After that, the client also plays an important role in the overall strategy of the piece: how it’s distributed, where it lives, and how to promote it. It’s a total team effort all around.
7) How important is the client’s support and feedback to the agency? What are the benefits and strengths of a strong agency/client collaboration?
90octane: Without the feedback and support of the client, we couldn’t do our best work. Our client’s marketing brains are just as important as ours, and it’s vital that we have an honest, trusted relationship with each other. We all bring our own diverse strengths to the table, and the output at the end is better and smarter than either could do on their own.
“We treat 90octane as an extended member of our team. Every asset we produce together is a complete collaboration, utilizing all our strengths to produce a better end product.”
– Michael McNichols, Oracle Marketing Cloud Senior Content Manager
8) What advice or helpful tips would you give to others who are looking to incorporate mobile into their campaign strategy?
90octane: Mobile device views make up well over 50% of all website views. If you’re not thinking mobile first, you’re missing out on most of your audience. Talk about mobile first when executing campaigns, and then see what bells and whistles you can add in for desktop users later. Also, consider content formats that work better on mobile—for instance, a responsive website or blog post with rich media is much more enjoyable on mobile than your standard PDF.
Take a look at what OMC and 90octane have produced together and learn more insights into responsive design and optimizing emails for mobile with this “Mobile Email Guide.”
Have a look à