1. Kelton Smart Communities
Innovation Through Digital Ethnographies + Design Co-Creation
July 2012
© 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

2. Creating New Products
And Utilizing Digital Ethnographies To Get There
Designers, marketers, advertisers, and insight professionals continually face the
challenge of creating new products and creative ideas. But they’re often in the dark
about what people want and how they use a product. Focus groups and
ethnographies are a great, but they’re limited: they speak with a small number of
people at one location for a short time. Digital Ethnographies are a valuable tool to
explore consumer experiences and co-create in a way that these methodologies can’t.
They offer a myriad of benefits: clients and designers can ideate directly with
consumers, get comprehensive learning quickly, gain a rich window into real-life
consumer experience, access a large nationwide sample, do product trials and
comfortably explore sensitive topics. In this session we will explore what Digital
Ethnographies are, how they will help your business, how the co-creation process
works, and how this approach is vital for gaining input to design concepts and refining
creative ideas.
1 © 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

3. “Netnography is different because it treats
online communications not as mere “content,”
but as social interaction, as embedded
expression of meaning, and as cultural
artifact.”
– Netnography: The Marketer’s Secret Weapon (March 2010)
2 © 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

4. What are Digital Ethnographies?
Digital ethnographers use social science techniques and observation
to understand what compels customers to behave the way they do.
• Using a digital interface it provides the voice of the customer
• Typically lasts 2-4 weeks
• Provides a private, confessional environment for expressing
opinions and experiences they would not otherwise.
3 © 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

5. How can they help?
• Online conversations that dialog with people about
their experiences and explore design ideas.
• Rich, real-world visual material that brings to life the
consumer perspective, behavior and engagement with
products, services, and concept ideas.
• Weeks or Months of Insight: While a focus group lasts
hours, a Digital Ethnography gives you a longitudinal
look at people’s behavior nationwide.
4 © 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

6. Strong Co-creation
Focus Groups
Digital
Ethnographies
THE CONTINUUM OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Where do Digital Ethnographies fall on
the continuum of other qualitative
Limited Deep
research and consumer insight Immersion Immersion
methodologies?
Ethnographies
Limited Co-creation
5 © 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

7. How can you use Digital Ethnographies for
iterative designing and co-creation?
• Exercises to bring to life their world, perceptions and experiences
• Probing around specific business problems and challenges
• Showing examples of concepts ideas or having them try
out new products
• Dialoging about their experience
• Fostering input for concept refinement iteratively
• Re-exploring and testing optimized concept ideas
• Homing in on and selecting the best approach to take forward
6 © 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

8. CURRENT CASE STUDY
We’re utilizing digital ethnographies &
design co-creation to explore and
visualize the role of mobile tech and
information sharing in the lives of
Millennials as well as possible impact
on every consumer.
More to come!
7 © 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.

9. THANK YOU!
July 2012
© 2012 Kelton. Contents are confidential.