5G will radically change digital services and security by enabling decentralized, intelligent networks that can react to individual user needs. It will allow mobile network operators to host vast quantities of data and applications. 5G will deliver faster networks through multi-access edge computing and network slicing, which creates virtual slices within a single physical network to meet different user needs. 5G will also usher in changes to how and where data is stored and delivered, shifting the focus from centralized data centers to network edges.

1. Smart insights for a digital world
Issue 1 2018
ARE YOU READY FOR GDPR? • HOW BIOMETRICS MAKE SOCIETY SAFER • THE CONNECTED CONSUMER
5G is going to radically change the way we think
about digital services, access and security
GAME CHANGER?

2. 5G will radically alter how next-generation mobile
data services are delivered, fundamentally
changing our thinking about service access,
security and how data is managed and distributed
THE GIGABIT
SOCIETY
Last year, Netflix alone was responsible for over a
third of all the downstream traffic over the internet
across all of North America, according to figures
compiled by statistics portal Statista. It’s evidence, if
any were needed, that data, and the ability to move
vast quantities of it to and from digital devices, is now
defining what mobile networks need to be of service
their customers.
As networks have developed from 2G (launched in
Finland in 1991) to 4G (launched in the US in 2010),
the focus has been on the ability to handle increasing
amounts of data and delivery speed. When 5G arrives
in 2020, better performance will be part of what it will
deliver. However, it will also usher in bigger changes
to how and where data is stored, and how this is
delivered to customers and the countless number of
devices that will be connected using this network.
Operators will see a shift in their role from
providers of voice services to hosts for not only vast
quantities of data, but also the applications that
rely upon this information. The rapidly expanding
autonomous vehicle industry will be one of the first to
exploit 5G networks. Entertainment services will also
see rapid expansion, and the digital infrastructure of
cities will enable them to deliver advanced services
to their inhabitants. And as machine learning and
artificial intelligence (AI) expands in every sector from
healthcare to retail, 5G is vital to ensure these new
applications have the network capacity they need.
For example, 5G will enable the realization of the
smart city vision, in which multiple types of data are
collected about things such as air quality and the
number of cars and pedestrians on the road. Then, AI
and machine learning is used to automate decisions to
improve the quality of life for residents – for example,
redirecting the traffic flow of autonomous vehicles to
avoid polluted and congested areas.
5G will of course deliver faster networks, but
also the development of intelligent networks that
are increasingly decentralized and able to react to
the needs of individual users. 5G is a completely
new way to securely manage access to data over
multi-access edge networks. These networks feature
multiple cloud-based IT environments that exist
at the edge of a cellular network, and which allow
mobile network operators to deliver services closer
to their customers, reducing network congestion and
improving the performance of applications. As 5G
networks proliferate, the channels for potential attack
will also expand. 5G and its operators will enter a new
age of data and network security, which will need new
approaches to ensure the network infrastructure and
the data it carries is secure.
The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN)
Alliance defines 5G as “an end-to-end ecosystem
to enable a fully mobile and connected society. It
empowers value creation toward customers and
partners, through existing and emerging use cases,
delivered with consistent experience, and enabled by
sustainable business models.” 5G is not being built
as a standalone radio network technology, but rather
as an open platform enabling digital transformation.
For more from Gemalto on 5G, visit
tinyurl.com/Gemalto-5G
5G is a completely new
way to securely manage
access to data over multi-access
edge networks
9

3. INNOVATION
5G
It does this by providing ubiquitous connectivity in
converging licensed and unlicensed radio technologies
such as LTE, NB-IoT, and Wi-Fi with its new high-
speed cellular radio options.
A FLATTER NETWORK
The current network infrastructure is extremely
hierarchical, with devices connected to content
that can often reside in distant servers, resulting in
slow connections and high latency. 5G moves away
from this to create a flatter network that can deliver
advanced and integrated user experiences. In addition,
functionality shifts from hardware to software.
This means that many of today’s hardware servers
will be replaced with virtual servers that can be
thought of as building blocks that can be grouped
together to deliver specific services.
In addition, these virtual servers can be used with
Software Defined Networks (SDN) to create ‘network
slicing’. Network slicing creates virtual ‘slices’ within
a single physical network. When it comes to levels of
data being used and the speed at which that data is
required, users have different needs. Network slicing
allows operators to cater for those different needs via
different slices within the same network. Put simply,
it delivers highly flexible and agile networks that can
adapt to users’ needs and data demands.
Paul Bradley, Head of 5G Strategy and Partnerships
at Gemalto, explains: “The fundamental component
of 5G is the virtualization of the network. That means
in practice that the current physical servers that the
telcos have been deploying to make up a network
service move to virtual functions that can be run on
generic server boxes. The other main component
of 5G is that the virtualized functions making up a
network service will exist in centralized data centers
and, more importantly, will also exist on the edge
of the network. What this means in practice is that
services that require low latency, such as gaming and
autonomous vehicle tracking, will be possible and will
have excellent performance because the network and
its data is localized.”
Michele Zarri, Technical Director of GSMA, the
global trade body for mobile network operators, agrees
that the critical development will be in virtualization
and the ability to do network slicing, because this
allows mobile operators to generate multiple types of
networks from the same infrastructure and support
multiple types of businesses associated with them.
“For us,” says Zarri, “virtualization and the new
architecture that is designed around it is the major
revolutionary aspect of 5G, which is otherwise more
evolutionary. Virtualization and network slicing will
help to deliver value across a wide range of verticals,
such as automotive and transport, energy/utilities
monitoring, security, finance, healthcare, industrial
and agricultural.”
Each vertical will have its own independent
network, which is customized according to its needs.
For example, an IoT sensor in a package delivered by
a courier company may indicate where the package is
until it is delivered and then trigger an alert once it’s
opened. The amount of data and frequency needed
for this would not be high, nor would the latency
requirement be an important consideration. However,
an autonomous vehicle would need to be alerted
in real time about an accident ahead so that it can
anticipate the appropriate emergency stopping time.
This will require a medium amount of data bandwidth
and low latency.
The multi-layered approach to networks is at the
heart of what 5G will deliver. Ericsson and DoCoMo,
for instance, have already shown how network slicing
We’ve been selling 4,000 different business
packages with 3G and 4G. When 5G arrives, we
think we can drastically reduce that number”
DOUG ENG, TECHNICAL ARCHITECT, AT&T
Virtualization and network slicing
will help to deliver value across a
wide range of verticals, such as
automotive, energy and finance
WHY BREXIT THREATENS 5G ROLLOUT
IN THE UK
Alan Patterson, a consultant at FarrPoint, the digital network and
telecommunications consultancy, warns that Brexit could represent a
major stumbling block for 5G rollout in the UK. “Spectrum allocation
is governed by Ofcom in the UK, which has led the way in Europe on
the pioneer bands, but the UK is not in a position to do its own thing
when it comes to 5G,” Patterson says. “Spectrum coordination with
near-bordering countries such as Ireland, France, Belgium and the
Netherlands is essential. This is also needed for interoperability
reasons. The UK needs to retain good links with the EU 5G initiatives
to secure roaming access that is not cost-prohibitive for UK
consumers traveling to the EU, or for EU consumers visiting the UK.”
10

4. The arrival of 5G will enable new
innovations in the automotive and
healthcare sectors, with many
industries leveraging the IoT to
deliver new products and services.
But how secure will they be?
Gemalto’s Paul Bradley, Head
of 5G Strategy and Partnerships,
says: “With 5G, the security
landscape changes. The move to
edge data centers will require a
different approach to security.”
As a core component of the
networks forming the foundation
of 5G is open flexibility based on
Software Defined Networks and
Network Function Virtualization,
the security these networks
require must evolve. With more
use of virtualization in particular,
security protocols will have
to improve. They must detect
anomalies, stop malware and
include intelligent DNS to prevent
incidents such as the Mirai
botnet attacks last year. With
the IoT exponentially increasing
the potential access points for
malicious code to enter networks,
secure connections become vital.
In its 5G security whitepaper,
mobile operator Ericsson explains:
“A multi-stakeholder approach
involving operators, vendors,
regulators, policymakers and
representatives of 5G users …
is fundamental to the security
baseline of trustworthy, cost-
efficient and manageable 5G
networks. Pre-standardization
consensus building, such as
joint research by the different
stakeholders, will be important.”
Clearly, the threat landscape
is about to radically change. The
open and integrated nature of 5G
requires a new kind of dynamic
security that reacts second-to-
second as the network is accessed
by users and devices.
“Mobile operators cannot
afford to let security weaknesses
undermine the compelling benefits
of 5G and virtualized networks,”
says Bradley. “We are partnering
with a major industry player to
provide actors deploying cloud-
based virtualized networks with
all the tools necessary to address
the dangers posed by network
disruption or data breaches in the
next phase of our connected world.”
tinyurl.com/Ericsson-5G
can support augmented reality applications, as well as
voice and data exchange across the same network.
5G will need a new approach to how networks
are constructed. This Slice-aaS (Slice-as-a-Service)
was discussed at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress
Americas in San Francisco in September 2017.
Speaking at the Future Networks Seminar, Doug Eng,
Technical Architect of Wireless Network Architecture
and Design at AT&T, explained: “At AT&T, we’ve been
selling around 4,000 different business packages
with 3G and 4G. When 5G arrives, we think we can
drastically reduce that number.”
Developing the 5G network is being driven by key
use cases. There will be three phases to the rollout of
5G. The first is to meet the core use cases, to enhance
mobile broadband. This is clearly the focus for the
entire industry, as more efficient data delivery is
being driven by consumer need. The second phase is
the ultra-reliable and low latency services needed by
autonomous vehicles and networks for the emergency
services. The last phase is to support the Internet of
Things (IoT). This is last because the IoT already has a
number of communications platforms that can service
it, so it’s not a priority for 5G development.
DATA ON THE EDGE
The decentralization of data is already happening
as customer demand and behavior changes. The US
is witnessing the creation of ‘edge data centers’ that
are designed to extend the reach of centralized data
centers, to improve overall performance and delivery
of services to customers outside of large urban areas.
Whereas the main data concentrations today are
in cities such as New York or San Francisco, which
have continued to push to improve bandwidth, in
a 5G environment, the ‘edge’ becomes the focus for
data delivery to end users who don’t live in large
cities that have well developed broadband and
cellular connections.
Companies including Google (YouTube), Netflix,
Akamai, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft
together represent 80% of all internet traffic,
It’s a fundamental concept that
5G will be as inclusive as possible
and support the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals
PERVASIVE SECURITY
As 5G is likely to use network slicing at its core, security must also be
sliced to deliver robust, secure and trustworthy connections.
Source: Ericsson
5G trust model
5G common baseline enablers
Security
function
High assurance
virtulization Data security Privacy
SIM/IoT AAASecurity SLA
Security
function
Slice 1 Slice n
API
security
API
security
To external
security
services (e.g. ID
management)
A common network platform with
dynamic and secure network slices
according to research from Quartz. It’s plain to see
how a more reactive and dynamic network is essential
to maintain and expand the services these companies
offer to their customers.
One of the first tangible tests of 5G – managed
by Korea Telecom (KT) – was at the recent Winter
Olympics in South Korea. The Games used
pre-standard network infrastructure. 3GPP – a
collaboration of telecommunications providers – isn’t
scheduled to release the first incarnation of 5G until
June 2018, which was too late for implementation at
the 2018 Winter Olympics. However, the Games did
11

5. INNOVATION
5G
Network slicing will give businesses access to highly
customized networks tailored to their very specific
requirements in a cost effective, timely and efficient way”
MICHELE ZARRI, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, GSMA
Agriculture is one of the most
interesting industries that will
be transformed by access to
5G networks
act as a test bed for the new platform, with 5G radio
using the available LTE core network.
The current 3G/4G network is estimated to reach
59% of the global population, according to the
GSMA3. It’s a fundamental concept that 5G will be as
inclusive as possible and support the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals. The date set for 5G to become
widely available is 2020. Already, Verizon and AT&T in
the USA, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, Etisalat in the UAE,
China Mobile, and KT and SK Telecom in South Korea
have announced plans to support 5G with a wide range
of services. 5Groningen has also established a testing
area in North Groningen, Netherlands, for various
5G-related projects, from autonomous vehicles and
smart ambulances to smart agriculture.
The ability to develop new network architectures
is the foundation on which 5G will be built. Critical
systems and communications, together with new
security protocols, will converge to create a new
network that can serve all its users. Gemalto calls
these ‘secure chains of trust’, which ensure that each
slice of the 5G network is isolated and secured for the
use case. As the customer or device switches between
services, they may also switch network slices. Security
in a 5G environment needs to be agile and dynamic
to authenticate each customer, connected device or
object as their tasks change.
Simply delivering more efficient access to data will
also transform many industries. Smart medicine and
personalized healthcare is increasingly becoming a
data-based industry. 5G will enhance many of the
services already on offer, but will also create many
more opportunities as services get fast and efficient
access to the information they need. GlaxoSmithKline,
for instance, is developing an implant that could treat
arthritis and diabetes. Technologies to treat and relieve
the symptoms of dementia are based on available data
and need networks with the performance, reliability
and availability that 5G can deliver.
Industry will be able to advance the concepts of
Industry 4.0, which can become a reality with 5G
networks. The 5G-Enabled Manufacturing (5GEM)
project aims to explore the possibilities that 5G
could deliver to industry. Funded by Vinnova, the
innovation agency within the Swedish Government,
Chalmers, Ericsson and SKF aim to demonstrate the
powerful influence 5G can have on all areas of industry
and manufacturing to realize the vision of the IIoT
(Industrial Internet of Things).
Sergio Falletti, Technology Partner and Head
of Mobile Specialism at DigitasLBi, says 5G’s most
significant impact will come from its support for the
IoT. “The rapid growth of low-power communication
technologies like LoRa shows that there is already
significant demand for IoT connectivity. While the
standardization process is already in progress, 5G
will be its culmination, acting as an enabler for IoT
adoption across agriculture, transport, logistics,
health and more.”
Agriculture is one of the most interesting
industries that will be transformed with access to 5G
networks. Vast quantities of data that can now be
collected from a wide range of sensors, allowing the
UK Centre for Crop Health and Protection to use
advanced data analysis to identify threats to crops.
Vodafone already provides drone connectivity across
5G technology
is driven by
8 specification
requirements
5G SPECIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
Source: Gemalto
99.999% availabilty
100
%
Up to 10Gbps data rate
10 to 100x improvement
over 4G and 4.5G networks
90% reduction in
network energy usage
1 millisecond latency
1000x bandwidth per unit area
Up to 10-year battery life
for low power IoT device
coverage
Up to 100x number of
connected devices per unit
area (compared with 4G LTE)
12

6. Go online to see our video interview with Dr Hamid
Falaki, Technical Architect at Digital Catapult, on how
5G will enhance the IoT: tinyurl.com/HamidFalaki-5G
The GSMA expects 5G
connections to reach 1.2 billion,
some 12% of total mobile
connections, by 2025
its 4G network. This can be used for precision farming
that will be linked to other machinery, such as
harvesters, that can take drone data and couple it
with GPS to give farmers an unprecedented overview.
5G will make these connections more robust,
more reliable and faster.
The burgeoning autonomous vehicle industry
will be one of the first mass-market examples of 5G
in action. In Germany, Vodafone is testing vehicle-
to-vehicle communications along the A9 between
Munich and Ingolstadt. The test currently uses 4G, but
will see major enhancements once 5G becomes widely
available. Autonomous vehicle development is a focus
of the transport industry, but 5G offers the ability
to create communications networks that become
dynamic, reacting to changing driving conditions.
If you add AI to further analyze the information
available, predictive systems then become a reality
for all drivers, enhancing their journeys.
OMNIPRESENT CONNECTIVITY
The GSMA expects 5G connections to reach 1.2 billion,
some 12% of total mobile connections, by 2025 and
overall operator revenues to grow at a CAGR of 2.5%
to reach US$1.3 trillion in the same year. The GSMA’s
aspiration is for 5G to drive annual growth to 5%. The
greater affordability of smartphone handsets, all of
which are mobile broadband capable, will further
drive the expansion of the 5G network.
Whether you’re supporting entertainment
streaming services, which show no sign of slowing
their growth, or new products and services that require
fast and localized data centers, or whether you’re
doing something else, 5G is a new way of thinking
about the data that needs to be exchanged. When 5G
networks are considered, they are highly modular.
The use of CDNs (Content Distribution Networks) is
well understood. However, under 5G, the concept of
localizing content access goes much further.
GSMA’s Zarri says: “Network slicing will give
businesses access to highly customized networks
tailored to their very specific requirements in a cost
effective, timely and efficient way. It will mean that
they can also have the potential to optimize their
current services and create new offers that otherwise
wouldn’t have been possible. Businesses need to get
ready to take advantage of these opportunities.”
The Winter Olympics in 2018 were the first major
test of pre-standardized 5G technologies. At the
moment, apart from the initial phase of ‘early drop’
releases to enable limited scale pilots based on some
existing core network infrastructure, standards have
not yet been clearly defined and accepted. Many of
the incumbents in the telecoms sector are pushing
forward with their own trials. The promise of 5G
needs to be met with realistic targets for spectrum
allocation and the need for an integrated approach
to how the underlying network that 5G represents is
commissioned, and then implemented. The usage
scenarios will drive the initial rollout of 5G.
The expectations for 5G are high. Pre-standard
testing is already under way, with formal specifications
commercialized from 2019. 5G isn’t just the evolution
of 4G. Several technologies are being developed in
parallel to deliver the high performance at low latency
that 5G demands. The 4G radio interface (LTE-
Advanced Pro) is likely to be used to provide a coverage
layervia macro cells, with a new cellular radio interface
being developed by 3GPP to deliver the high data rates
needed based on their initial Release 15 specification.
The agility 5G will deliver marks a watershed moment
for mobile communications, across multiple industries
from transport to healthcare.
13

7. Spring 2016 ■ ISSUE No.62
MAGAZINE
CRONER’S
Powering the future
Design is for life

8. 20 Croner’s Environment Magazine ■ Spring 2016
Industry views the options
The industry view
T
he energy landscape in the UK
is transforming. Subsidies to
renewables have changed, the
first new nuclear power station in
decades has been commissioned and with
an uncertain future for the long-term energy
security of the UK, what does the future hold?
In essence, there is a trinity of factors that
will influence Britain’s energy needs and
energy production in the medium to long
term: the UK’s dependence on imported
energy as North Sea oil and gas have
continued to decline; the capacity margins
of power station continue to fall, with few
new power stations being built; and lastly,
the environmental commitments made by
central government, which demand double-
digit reduction in emissions over the next
15 years. All this is within the context of
lowering energy bills as the numbers in fuel
poverty rise.
Lightsource, Good Energy and the
Foresight Group, in their report on
decentralised energy, say: “The way we
produce and consume energy could change
dramatically over the next decade. Just as
the mobile phone changed the nature of
telecommunications, so breakthroughs in
the costs of solar and battery technologies
could offer new ways to power and heat our
homes and our businesses.”
What the future holds for energy in the UK
is the subject of the future scenarios report
from the National Grid, which attempts to
assess the energy landscape of the UK with
headline grabbing statements such as a
potential doubling of energy prices by the
end of the decade. Of course many dispute
the conclusions made, with the Grid itself
clearly stating that its conclusions are based
on a wide range of data and evidence.
The Government has announced
that it will consult on the UK’s
energy future beginning in the
spring. Energy and Climate Change
Secretary Amber Rudd said: “Our
consultation will set out proposals to
close coal by 2025 and restrict its use from
2023. If we take this step, we will be one of
the first developed countries to deliver on a
commitment to take coal off the system.”
Energy for all
Britain’s energy future will need a hybrid
approach to generation with some
advocating more decentralised production
that is near its consumers, with more focus
on renewables; but government and the
private sector (thanks mostly to the cut
in subsidy for renewables) will need to
co-operate more closely to ensure energy
production is secure.
Green Business, in its
assessment of energy over the next decade
states: “The coming decade will be crucial
for the development of an affordable, low
carbon energy system in the UK, according
to the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI). In
a new report released last week, the public-
private ETI outlines how the UK can drive
a transition to a low carbon energy system
by 2050 by developing, commercialising
and integrating known, but currently
underdeveloped, clean technologies and
solutions. The contribution of bioenergy
and CCS (carbon capture and storage)
is seen as particularly crucial for the UK’s
future energy system.”
Phil Grant at Baringa Partners, an
award-winning management consultancy
Dave Howell asks those
in the energy industry
what the options are
for the UK.

9. Croner’s Environment Magazine ■ Spring 2016 21
that specialises in the energy, financial
services, utilities and telecoms and media
markets in the UK and continental Europe
told Environment Magazine: “We should
be pursuing a range of technologies to
enable us to meet both baseload and peak
capacity requirements in a cost-effective
and sustainable way. In reality that means
government will need to pick some winners.
It has already done this in the case of nuclear
and offshore wind and has also strongly
hinted at its support for new gas plants.”
Grant continued: “Interconnectors are
also a key part of the strategy and there
is a regulatory regime in place that will
encourage investment in this technology.
One exciting embryonic technology that
has a role to play is batteries. These can
provide critical Grid services, but also
‘smooth’ the residual load profile by
generating at peak times and absorbing low
cost renewable power at times of system
surplus. This technology is rapidly becoming
commercially viable.”
In its report, npower concluded: “Future
uncertainty makes energy a more
strategic issue than it has been in the
past. Energy supply and demand
management in energy-intensive
businesses should be of
interest not only to the
energy team, but also to
senior management
and the board. For
those with direct
interests in the
power sector and
its technologies in
particular, there is advantage
in being positioned flexibly to cope
with both feast or famine, although policy
might in due course provide more certainty
about the market opportunity.”
Britain’s energy future does have a level
of uncertainty that past generations have
not experienced. However, new energy
sources such as shale gas are being actively
developed albeit with strong opposition
from some areas, but energy generation and
the environmental impact it has will continue
to be a hot topic for government and the
electorate alike long into the future.
Q What is your general view of what
the Government should be doing to
secure energy security in the future?
A The Capacity Market is a start.
However, we believe that the Government
should also do more to encourage demand-
side initiatives.
The Government acknowledges demand
response, assets that can adjust consumption
on request, but we do not believe that it has
been fully embraced at this point, and needs
encouragement to avoid the need to build
those last, expensive megawatts of capacity.
We believe that it will be beneficial overall to
have those large industrial organisations that
can switch off or limit their energy to do so,
rather than building generators that run for
only a few hours a year.
In our experience, security of supply is
not just about generating more energy or
consuming less; we believe that secure and
economic operation will also need customers
to manage when they use energy. While
we believe that the Government should be
encouraging the lowest level of consumption
possible, we think that it also needs to
ensure that those customers that have the
flexibility receive full value for the service
they are providing.
Q Which types of energy generation
should the UK be pursuing to ensure long-
term energy supplies?
A We believe that the best answer for
national long-term security is a mixed
portfolio that includes nuclear, gas and all
types of renewables, from solar and wind
to biomass and heat pumps. For some
customers, the optimum position will include
onsite generation, local heat networks and
so on.
Q How do EU directives affect the
decisions made in the UK about energy
generation and security?
A EU directives are already having an
impact on the UK and are expected to
continue to do so. ESOS is just one example
of a directive that businesses are having
to comply with, which should encourage
further energy efficiency. We expect that
wholesale markets will also have to adapt so
that customers can participate more directly
than is currently possible.
The public sector is expected to be
affected as energy efficiency targets
increase. We’re also seeing legislation that
is already a feature in Europe – such as
Energy Performance Contracts – becoming
more common in the UK. Many European
countries are increasingly focused on energy
efficiency but we are certainly seeing a
stronger influence in the UK.
Q In your view is the Electricity Market
Reform (EMR) programme a workable
option to secure low carbon energy
generation over the next decade?
A It is a workable option but we don’t
believe it’s the right one for the long
term. Wholesale markets are meant to be
competitive, yet over 90% of the generation
capacity in Great Britain will be receiving
administered payments as well. The Capacity
Market is intended to support investment
decisions, yet no explicit account is taken of
carbon intensity.
The EMR design is in essence a solution to
the environment as it was expected to be
three to five years ago. It takes a long time
to get these things set up, yet the uptake of
renewables has been faster than anticipated.
It seems unwise to set up 15- or 20-year
commitments when the energy landscape is
changing quickly.
Industry views the options
Environment Magazine talks to Kath Chapman,
UK Managing Director of energy solutions
provider, Ameresco
Dave Howell is a freelance writer,
journalist and publisher. He specialises
in technology and business subjects. He
can be contacted via his website, at
www.nexuspublishing.co.uk

10. I LIKE TO
HATE THESE
GAMES, BUT
I COULDN'T
FAULT THIS
ONE
WITHTHE
GREATEST
RESPECT
You are
doing an
awesome
job
of totally
screwing
this up
I want a
burrito
IJUSTHADA
BURRITO,ITWAS
SO BAD
THIS VACUUM
SUCKS
IF THEY MAKE A
beautiful
AND EVEN MORE
reliable bike,
I WILL BUY IT
My food was great, my partner had a different view
I THOUGHT
THIS WAS
GOING TO BE
A FANTASTIC
CAR BUT
INSTEAD OF
BEING THE
BEST EVER
IT WAS
JUST LIKE…
THE STAFF WERE
FANTASTICHOWEVER THE VENUE WAS NOT VERY
INTERESTING
MY FRIEND
SAID IT
WAS THE
BEST GAME
HE EVER
TRIED BUT
I DISAGREE
It's one thing to watch a
Wes Anderson film,
but another thing entirely
to pay for the experience
THISISTHEMOST
AMAZINGPIECEOFSHIT
I’VEEVERSEEN

11. SENTIMENT-TRACKING TOOLS
INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2016 53
I
n 2013, Argos
introduced
its new digital
concept stores,
complete with
60-second ‘Fast
Track’ collection.
It was a dramatic
upgrade to Argos’s familiar high-street
look. As it rolled out the new stores,
Argos wanted to stay attuned to what
its customers felt. Would they embrace
the new stores? For its answer, the
company didn’t turn to traditional
market research. Instead, working
with Brighton-based analytics firm
Brandwatch, it undertook sentiment
analysis based on a library of rules,
created using natural language
processing (NLP), to understand
how shoppers felt towards its stores.
“Using social insights, we can
understand which stores are performing
well for customers and identify areas
for improvement,” says James Finch,
Argos’s customer and digital insight
manager. Argos discovered that
customers missed printed catalogues.
So, today, a number of Argos digital
stores still carry catalogues.
Whether you’re a high-street retailer,
financial-services company or chain
of garages, sentiment analysis – usually
conducted in real time and supported
by bucket-loads of historic data – has
become perhaps the single most
significant reputational metric. How
are people feeling about our brand?
What’s causing shifts in sentiment?
What can we do to stem negative
spiralling? Questions such as these
reverberate around comms teams
and public relations agencies.
However, sentiment analysis is
hard and fraught with the possibility
for error. Tiny misreads can result in
large and mistaken conclusions.
Nuances of language, sarcasm and the
fact that different people use the same
words to convey different meanings
make it devilishly difficult for algorithms
to conquer sentiment analysis. At the
moment, anyone wanting to draw exact
conclusions about a campaign or media
coverage will probably still insist on
some human linguistic analysis.
Context is everything. The sentence,
‘My bank does a great job of stealing
money from my current account with
high charges’ would mark the word
‘great’ as positive, but that would clearly
be a misread in the context of the
sentence. The phrase ‘damn good’ could
be interpreted as positive and negative
simultaneously. None of this prevents
super-smart geeks training super-smart
machines to have a go at sentiment
analysis – uberVU via Hootsuite, for
example, accesses real-time data from
more than 100 million sources in more
than 50 languages across more than
25 social networks and other platforms.
Brandwatch, Attensity, Crimson
Hexagon and Synthesio all have
automated sentiment-analysis features.
They rely on assigning a measurement
to the positive and negative words that
are used, and then placing them into
a context for greater and more accurate
sentiment identification. The tools are
evolving almost daily, blending big data,
semantic understanding and artificial
intelligence. These, in turn, will feed into
machine learning so that, eventually,
all marketers may be able to automate
sentiment identification in campaigns.
In 2014, Facebook ran an experiment
into what it calls ‘emotional contagion’.
Specifically, it looked at how a positive
or negative sentiment can be amplified
by other members of a group, and how
a sentiment can be reinforced across
just one social media network. The
study showed how the ripple effect
of “emotions expressed by friends,
via online social networks, influence
our own moods”.
One initial message, seeded on one
social network, can grow and influence
others across multiple networks.
To borrow an analogy from physics,
sentiment analysis is the gravitational
wave of communications, shaping and
expanding reputation. No wonder the
industry is taking it so seriously.
Sentiment analysis has
become perhaps the
single most significant
reputational metric
WHEN TRACKING SENTIMENT, IT’S NOT ALWAYS
APPARENT WHAT PEOPLE REALLY MEAN…
BY DAVE HOWELL
WHY BOTHER WITH
SENTIMENT TRACKING?
FIVE REASONS
1You can analyse brand reputation
to determine the health of a brand,
especially after a new product or
service launch
2Negative sentiment can indicate
a pending crisis
3Use sentiment as a market
research tool to sense-check
whether or not a new product or
service will be well received
4Marketers can use sentiment
to track and analyse the
effectiveness of their marketing
campaigns – are they reaching their
intended audiences?
5Identify and cultivate key brand
influencers and advocates for
future campaigns
Dave Howell writes about technology
for TechRadar and others, and is author
of The Small Business Guide to Apps

12. Salesforce Social Studio
When Salesforce acquired
Radian6 in 2011, the
company added a powerful
set of social media
monitoring and analytical
tools to its already market-
leading platform. The
Social Studio component
of Salesforce is where
sentiment tracking is
located. Named as a leader
in its market sector by G2
Crowd, the level of sentiment
tracking has continued to
be developed.
Having access to reliable
tools within Salesforce,
and then the ability to
expand these with Radian6
and Social Studio, is a
great advantage for PRs
and marketers. By adding
its Buddy Media publishing
application, and an insight
dashboard, marketers
can track their activity
and the reaction it gains
from target audiences.
The simple way that
information is presented to
the user is one of Salesforce’s
strengths. However, critics
have pointed to a limited
range of functionality.
Sentiment is just one metric
that can be tracked with one
of the pre-built widgets that
form Salesforce’s platform.
Users have complained that
these widgets have little or
no ability to customise or
further interrogate data that
is presented. The roadmap
for the development of
Social Studio in particular
should ensure more
customisation is possible,
and add an increased
opportunity to drill down
into the data collected.
If you already use Salesforce
and were a previous Radian6
user, you’ll be familiar with this
tool out of the box. However,
Salesforce has chosen to divide
all of the main features and
functions you would use on a
daily basis into separate areas
of the application. Data is clearly
presented, but more integration
is needed to make this multi-
faceted tool the marketing
powerhouse it could be.
salesforce.com/uk
alva
The alva Reputation
Suite consists of three
applications: alva Live,
alva Alerts and alva Insights.
The company’s approach
is to monitor all publicly
available content to give
the truest picture of an
organisation. The alva apps
monitor more than 80,000
news sources, including
print and broadcast outlets,
three million blogs and
forums, and 100-plus social
media platforms. This
is probably the most
comprehensive content-
monitoring system
available. Carlsberg
used this kind of insight to
analyse how its reputation
is impacted by its exposure
across the media. Drilling
deeper into the analytics,
it is possible to understand
on a daily, weekly, monthly
or quarterly basis the
directional trend for a
company’s reputation
and, most importantly, the
events and issues that are
causing reputation changes.
Alberto Lopez-
Valenzuela, founder and
CEO of alva, says: “Our
scoring is based on an
algorithm combining
sentence-level sentiment
scoring, influence weighting
by source and measures of
likely reader recall rate.
Our algorithm goes beyond
traditional tone analysis,
as we score perception of
entities (companies, issues
or any specific entity), and
within an article we can
have multiple sentiment
scores for multiple entities.
Having correlated our
sentiment scoring over
time with business KPIs
such as sales, retention
and share price, we are
highly confident in the
accuracy of our approach.”
Sentiment as part of
reputational intelligence
is a key strength of the
alva suite. Partnering with
Santander, alva was able to
deliver a 15% improvement
in reputational performance
with key stakeholders. The
bank also receives early-
warning alerts of emerging
reputational risks and can
quantify their impact; and
it consolidates all suppliers
into one provider, reducing
management time.
Alva offers strong reputational
intelligence to brands through
its breadth of media monitoring,
vast array of data and sentence-
level analysis.
alva-group.com
SENTIMENT-TRACKING TOOLS
INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2016 55

13. 56 Q2 2016 INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK
Brandwatch
Sentiment tracking and
analysis is a powerful
component of Brandwatch.
Sentiment has been a focus
for analytical applications
over the past few years
but, as Joel Windels,
Brandwatch’s VP of inbound
marketing, told us, sentiment
is now itself being put into
context: “I think the age of
having sentiment analysis
as a differentiator has passed,
at least for now. A few years
ago, there was a real battle
between technologies.
Terms such as NLP, machine-
learning, hybrid and rule-
based classifiers were
commonplace, and vendors
seemed to constantly up
their accuracy estimates. In
my view, most of that hype
has gone now, and lots of the
people working with social
data face the reality that the
technology isn’t perfect.”
The ability to customise
the user interface and create
rules that display only the
information you want to see
makes Brandwatch Analytics
a powerful application.
“Consider the phrase
‘Bacardi is cheap’,” says
Windels. “Depending how
the brand hopes to be
perceived, this could either
be positive or negative.
For us, the solution is giving
brands like Bacardi the
option to craft rules and
tailor the system to present
the results in a way that’s
meaningful to them. Quite
often this also moves beyond
simple positive and negative
towards something much
more granular, such as
value perception, trust or
even excitement.”
Brandwatch has become a
market leader in the media-
intelligence sector because,
while it offers a cutting-edge
data analysis package, it also
recognises that sentiment
can be highly subjective. Its
pricing structure is based on
the number of mentions your
business wants to track and
the level of historical data
you need. Its Signals feature
can give early warning to
marketers and customer
services when sentiment
is changing. And keep an
eye out for the forthcoming
Audience feature, which will
“identify and engage the right
people and understand the
networks and audience
segments they influence”.
Brandwatch is a great tool
for delivering the information
marketers need, but you still
need to spend time learning
and contextualising sentiment.
brandwatch.com
Synthesio
Brand reputation is
constantly on a knife edge.
Spotting sentiment trends
is vital, and Synthesio is on
a rapid product evolution
to satisfy an increasingly
demanding user base.
It recently announced
Synthesio Beam for real-
time social-intelligence
tracking, as well as a major
overhaul to its application,
Synthesio 3.0.
The new Synthesio is
all about placing historical
data in context with current
trends – and enabling real-
time interaction. Listening is
taken to a whole new level.
Beam-generated reports
present what can often be
granular data in easily
understandable formats.
Synthesio is appropriate
whether you are using
social for customer care,
brand advocacy or sales
opportunities, says Leah
Pope, vice-president
of global marketing at
Synthesio. “Integrating
our social intelligence
and analytics platform
with the Hootsuite social-
relationship platform will
equip users with the most
comprehensive set of social
tools to fuel smarter
programs,” she claims.
“This integration will
help teams across all
departments provide
strategic, personalised
and targeted content, as
well as increase their social
customer-care capabilities.”
Synthesio uses NLP as
the basis for its sentiment
tracking and analysis. For
Synthesio 3.0, this has been
completely rebuilt and now
supports 70 languages in
220 countries. When you
become a customer, the
company will work with
you to create your own
bespoke dashboard.
Synthesio designs and performs
detailed queries on datasets. The
Listen tab creates queries and
displays them in visualisations
that aid comprehension and
show the link between keywords
and sentiment.
synthesio.com
SENTIMENT-TRACKING TOOLS

14. INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2016 57
Sysomos
Sysomos enables businesses
to track datasets across their
social media environment.
On sentiment, the platform
claims a high accuracy rate,
which it tests using third-
party applications. It
supports more than 50
languages, and sentiment
is also tracked within
the context of a brand’s
influencers/advocates.
Sysomos has recently
expanded its reach with
Optimize, which enables
you to measure and interpret
a campaign’s results; and
Influence, which offers
tracking features so that
you can monitor community
influencers. These are
powerful tools that can also
be used within the wider
intelligence platform and its
core applications Sysomos
Map and Sysomos Heartbeat.
Meltwater
Meltwater’s tool for
marketers consists of
several components:
Monitor, Discover, Engage
and Analyse. You can use
the real-time dashboard
to set up content filters to
include date, geography,
language and sentiment.
The firm sees sentiment
analysis as “more a client-
by-client measure than
an overall algorithm,” says
Heidi Myers, marketing
director. “We are developing
machine learning –
meaning that, when
a client goes through
a media search and
manually rates the articles
as positive, negative and
neutral, when the search
resaves, it will learn how
the client perceives articles
moving forward. This is
based on the themes of the
articles and the keywords
that surround the client’s
brand name, for example.”
If Twitter is your main social
channel, Sysomos will be very
useful. It gives accurate answers
to specific questions.
sysomos.com
Meltwater offers masses of
data tracking so you can see
how coverage is being perceived.
Asking the right questions
and then spending some
time analysing the results will
reveal the impact of sentiment.
meltwater.com/uk
MEDIA PLATFORM+
precise.co.uk
Media Platform+ (MP+)
offers a ‘Real-time
Interactive Presentation
Layer’, a live visual
analysis of the topics,
themes and issues
driving your coverage.
MP+ components
include Social,
Analytics and Connect.
SENDIBLE
sendible.com
Sendible can track
many data sources and
has great dashboards.
More than 200 modules
are built in, so you can
create all manner of
reports. Sentiment
analysis highlights
mentions and where
attention is needed.
SENTIMENT
sentimentmetrics.com
Sentiment, founded in
2007, has oodles of
tools to allow the
tracking and analysis of
social media-based
content. Collaboration,
content management
and reporting are just
some of the many
features available.
VISIBRAIN
visibrain.com/en
A Twitter specialist,
Visibrain’s tool is
sophisticated enough to
offer granular insights
by post time, content or
source. Detailed
semantic analysis
allows you to reveal
data that may otherwise
have gone unnoticed.
ATTENSITY
attensity.com
A new version of the
DiscoverCore customer
intelligence platform
was launched late last
year with customer
insights in context,
and an improved
NLP that can be
customised based on
specific dictionaries.
AND THE REST...
SENTIMENT-TRACKING TOOLS
INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2016 57

15. Lowe’s Home Improvement
Google
Nike
TED
HBO
Keyclients
who Huge
what Huge help companies
become trusted parts of people’s
lives by creating products, services
and brands that people love
where 45 Main Street, Suite 220,
Brooklyn, NY 11201 United States
web hugeinc.com
34_____________________________________________________________________ profile

16. profile_____________________________________________________________________35
TRANSFORMING
THE DIGITAL
ENVIRONMENTTechnologists, designers and strategists come together at Huge to
change lives with new experiences that not only shape brands, but the
very culture they inhabit

17. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
reating new experiences is at the heart of
everything that Huge touches. The
agency’s skillset is wide, diverse and
dynamic, which is why many of the
world’s biggest companies and best-
known brands come to Huge to not only develop
next-generation marketing campaigns, but to help
them redefine what their company does and what
their brand means in a digital environment that
knows no boundaries.
Huge’s VP of communications Sam Weston
discussed how the company was founded:
“Huge was started as a web design studio in a
DUMBO apartment in Brooklyn. In 1999, the
internet and websites were decidedly uncool. User
experience was not something people talked
about. Brands didn’t really care about the internet,
and websites served little purpose beyond being
brochures and curiosities.
C
“Huge was founded on the belief that the
internet could do much more for what a brand
could be than was conventional wisdom at that
time – and that the ability to help people do things,
using the internet, was going to be transformative.”
Sam continued: “In its first five years, Huge
established a reputation for best-in-class web
design under the leadership of David Skokna, the
company’s first creative director. Word started to
get around that if you were a company that cared
about design, you went to Huge for your website..
Then, in 2005, when Aaron Shapiro joined the
company, we became the first agency to pair
digital design with management consulting and
business strategy.
“Aaron’s background was as an entrepreneur and
a management consultant, having been the
youngest person accepted to Columbia Business
School and working at Booz Allen. He joined Huge
after having hired the agency to design a logo for
Silverpop – a company he founded that would
eventually grow into one of the world’s largest
email technology businesses before being acquired
by IBM. It was this combination of user-centric
design and business consulting that made Huge
uniquely able to harmonise what users wanted with
what businesses needed.”
As every new business owner knows, naming
your company is an important thing to get right. “It
was more important for us to choose a great name
than base it off of whatever domain was available
at the time. Even back then we could only get
hugeinc.com,” commented Sam. “Since then, we’ve
had to watch huge.com play host to a series of
terrible business ideas, but with an asking price in
the millions it’s just not worth enough to us to care.
Our reputation is based on our work, not our
domain name!”
36_____________________________________________________________________ profile
At such a large company, you can expect
social events to be aplenty at Huge

18. To encourage people to get active, Nike sought an
intimate and personalised initiative that would take
the Nike FuelBand experience beyond the app and
into the real world.
Huge and Nike created the Nike FuelBox, a mobile
vending machine activated with Nike FuelPoints that
dispensed Nike products at locations throughout
NYC over the summer of 2014. The initiative
redefined loyalty programming as a truly integrated
digital/physical experience. The FuelBox was
designed to reward users for the sweat equity they
built each day: sweat a little, get a little; sweat a lot, get
much more. Working with Nike, Huge designed and
built the machine, led technical development and
integration, and created the custom packaging and
labelling for the rewards.
To make it even more exciting, the FuelBox was
deployed to locations around NYC. To locate the
FuelBox, fans had to follow the @NikeNYC Twitter
handle and use clues shared to determine that day’s
location. Once found, fans could connect their
FuelBand and select a product based on their score:
the more you move, the more products you unlock.
NikeFuelBox
hugeinc.com/case-study/nike-fuelbox
profile_____________________________________________________________________ 37
resulting work, but can also impact the very ethos
of the agency itself. Sam continued: “It’s really
important for us to be thoughtful about who we
work with. We try to partner with clients who are as
ambitious about digital as we are, who want to do
big things that make life better for users, and who
want to set the standard for digital in their industry.
“The projects we’re best known for and most
proud of are usually the ones that realise our vision
of how to go about making things. People like to
point to projects like TED.com, where we worked
collaboratively with the client as a single team, or
HBO GO, where we created a product that changed
how people thought about TV. In everything we do,
we’re trying to help companies enable that one
thing they can uniquely help people do better than
anyone else and to drive business transformation
around that behaviour.”
Huge operates twelve offices around the world.
As such, the work completed is highly diverse. Is
there a typical workflow that Huge has adopted
over the years? Sam explains their approach: “It
depends on the scale of the initiative. About half of
our work are now retained, ongoing, continual
evolutions of brand platforms and experiences, so
while projects may have start dates and deliverable
deadlines, there are no end dates for the work.
Digital is never done: as soon as you stop iterating
and pushing, someone else will beat you.
“For each account, we bring together senior
representatives from design, user experience,
technology and strategy as a core team. Then,
depending on the type of work, others are added
to help accomplish the work. We try to keep the
teams lean to give people as much responsibility as
we can and to eliminate bureaucracy. Project
managers help keep everyone coordinated and on
schedule, but the most important part of any team
is the client. We like to have clients work as part of
our teams as much as their schedules will allow.
Their input is invaluable and helps us to make
decisions quickly. Instead of saving their feedback
for presentations, we try to get it every day, in
real-time, to make the work as strong as possible.”
Clearly Huge has had to adapt to the rapidly
evolving digital world we all live in, and mobile
devices are an example of how technology can
fundamentally change what an agency has to do to
remain relevant. Sam outlined their methodology:
“Pretty much every design project we take on
these days includes responsive work. We’ve been
vocal about the benefits of embracing mobile web
for most companies. As browser functionality and
mobile bandwidth continues to improve, most
brands will benefit from getting their mobile web
experience right first.
“Many brands forget that without an explicit
value proposition for their users, most applications
are failures. When brands are truly committed to
becoming digitally led, they can pull off these
“We try our best to hire
people from diverse
backgrounds in order to get
more creative solutions. The
way we work requires people
who aren’t precious about
their ideas and who embrace
feedback even when it’s
painful. And perhaps most
importantly, those who can
listen to what clients and
users need
”
industryinsight
Aaron Shapiro,
CEO
Being founded on website design, Huge’s own
presence on the web clearly serves as a vital
component of the company’s own marketing. Sam
outlined how important Huge’s website is: “For us,
the site is incredibly important. It’s a point of pride
that we make something that others quickly copy If
you’re being hired to do this stuff and you’re known
for this type of work, then what you do for your
own company must be as great as what you’re
working so hard to do for your clients.”
What makes Huge stand out from the crowd is
clearly the cutting-edge work that the agency has
been producing since the company was founded:
“We were the first agency to be founded on the
idea that the principles of user experience should
drive not just design, but business and marketing
as well,” Sam continued. “It’s incredibly difficult to
sync up what clients need with what users really
want, but that’s what it takes to create things that
change industries – and that’s what we’re best at.”
Who an agency partners with is often an
important decision that not only influences the

19. development practices (continuous integration,
MV* patterns and so on) have only increased the
pace of advancement. Web standards that work
everywhere will continue to replace technologies
that only work on certain devices, going far beyond
‘websites’ and impacting every aspect of our lives.”
With Karl Stanton, director of engineering also
commenting: “HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery has
already evolved dramatically. HTML5/CSS3 is a
widely adopted standard for making things. JQuery
as a ‘framework’ is actually on the decline.
Whatever happens in the future, at the moment the
internet is app-based, which means we have to
think about our work as being application based.
Applications are built out of small components, not
pages. Designers design systems, not layouts.
Engineers are using whatever toolset necessary to
get their job done, and in six months after that,
they’ll use a better and more focused toolset. Web
technology and our industry are forever-evolving.”
And Jason Tiernen, product design lead at Huge
said: “I’ve been a big supporter of Sketch as an
interface design tool. The speed of iteration it
provides as well as the ease of transitioning to code
is great. We still are using Illustrator and Photoshop
for specific tasks, but it’s great to have an option
specifically for UI.
“I’ve also been playing more with Quartz
Composer and Avocado. It’s a noncode-based
interaction design tool made by IDEO. It’s great for
designing interactions and prototypes that feel
native. Marvel is also a great mobile and web
prototyping tool I’ve been using on a regular basis.
I’m really impressed with the speed of product
iteration they’ve adopted as well as the UX testing
tools they’re rolling out soon. It’s great for quickly
validating flows and look and feel.”
And of course social media has transformed
societies and how people communicate with each
other. How have these channels influenced Huge?
“Social media is obviously important, but the truth
is that social channels are now essentially paid
media channels. As long as shareholders keep
turning the screws on companies like Facebook
and Twitter to drive up ad revenue – if you’re trying
to do any sort of mass marketing on those
38_____________________________________________________________________ profile
“Webstandardsthatworkeverywhere
willcontinuetoreplacetechnologiesthat
onlyworkoncertaindevices
”built a reputation that attracts the clientele we want
to work with.”
The tools available to creative professionals are
now vast and diverse. Greg Whitescarver,
technology director outlined how Huge has
developed its toolset: “Web standards like HTML,
CSS and JavaScript are so important because they
are ubiquitous and free. And every day, standards-
based web technologies match more of the
capabilities of proprietary technologies like desktop
apps, Flash and native mobile apps. Tools like
jQuery and increased sophistication in
investments because they’re committed to
delivering utility to users in this way. But for most
companies – as they go through their
transformation into digital-first, user-centric
businesses – responsive solutions that can be
updated centrally across all platforms are often the
best place to start. However, every situation is
unique so decisions must be based on business
goals and the best way to deliver what users need.”
Sam continued: “We work with companies that
are as committed to shaping culture and defining
the future as we are – and we’re fortunate to have

20. TIMELINE
Number of
employees
07
Number of
employees
169
Number of
employees
1200
Number of
employees
34
HugecreatesAnna,one
oftheworld’sfirstAI
customerservice‘bots’
forIKEA.
Hugedesignsthe
firsttravelsite
withahomepage
bookingengine.
Hugeredesigns
CNN.com,boosting
trafficsignificantly.
Hugelaunches
PepsiRefresh:a
massmarket
socialcampaign.
AdvertisingAgenames
Hugeoneoftenleading
agenciesintheindustry.
Withtheopeningof
aSingaporeoffice,
Hugebreaksinto
theAsiaPacific.
TheCityofNew
Yorkwebsitegetsits
firstredesign
inadecade.
HBOGOlaunches
foriOS,Android
andRoku.
2004 2006 2010 20122009 201520132011
channels you’re only going to get what you pay,”
said Sam. “Social is great, but remember that
brands don’t own any of the connections they have
on those channels. We think the future lies in really
knowing and owning your own user base, and
developing smart interactions with users based on
their behaviour and individual needs.”
An agency is effectively only as good as the
people it employs. So what qualities do they look
for in a prospective employee and what advice
would they give to anyone looking to take a step
into the industry? Huge CEO Aaron Shapiro
explained Huge’s approach: “This is the most
important challenge for any company in our space.
When it comes to people, ‘you are what you eat’, so
it’s essential to get it right.
“When it comes to hiring talent, we look for
people who truly care about what they do and who
are uncompromising when it comes to doing
something that will change expectations in the
industry, make life easier for people, and drive our
clients’ businesses.
“We try our best to hire people from diverse
backgrounds in order to get more creative
solutions. The way we work requires people who
aren’t precious about their ideas and who embrace
feedback even when it’s painful. And perhaps most
importantly, those who can listen to what clients
and users need. This line of work requires people
who are selfless and tireless about getting to
something great and who aren’t willing to accept
‘okay’. People starting out should know that two
things matter: what you’ve made in the past and
whether people want to work with you. One of the
best ways to get started is to take the initiative to
make something that solves a problem you
personally care about.”
Finally, what does the future hold for Huge? Is
the agency looking to expand or diversify and what
exciting projects do they have on the horizon?
Aaron explains what they have in store: “The future
is so exciting for us… For years, we were kind of
outsiders. Now everyone is trying to fix their
business before someone comes along and makes
them irrelevant, so there is no shortage of partners
who want to do the kind of big things we care
profile_____________________________________________________________________39
about. [These challenges] keeps us on our toes as
well. We’re trying to build an agency that will be
able to do everything a client will need in 2020.
This is an enormous challenge, because we expect
the pace of change to get even faster.
“Right now, we’re focused on tying data and AI in
with technology and design to create smart
products and services. We’re thinking about what it
means for the way we design solutions when voice,
gesture and automated systems challenge screens
as the dominant interfaces. And we’re excited about
the responsibility we have now that companies are
relying on agencies like ours, which are built on
user experience and technology, to create the
digital brand experiences that define them.”
Defining the digital space that brands inhabit has
been the core driver behind Huge since inception.
The collaborative nature of their work practices and
a belief in the power of listening to their clients has
resulted in an agency that not only wealds the
latest digital tools, but use them to shape the future
we are all going to experience.
WEB..............................................................................................hugeinc.com
FOUNDERSAaronShapiro,DavidSkokna,Gene
Liebel,SashaKirovski
YEARFOUNDED................................................................................1999
LOCATION.Brooklyn,Atlanta,Washington,D.C.,
Oakland,LosAngeles,Portland,Singapore,
London,RiodeJaneiroandmore
SERVICES
>Digitalbusinesstransformation
>Productandservicedesign
>Brandexperienceandmarketing
communications
>Technology
>Datascience
Spanning 12 offices globally, Huge employs
diverse employees so that they can always
provide the most creative client solutions