Rock-It Fueled Experiences with Wanda Toro Turini

Experience by Design

In a media environment where we are beset on all sides by messages, it can be hard to connect with your audiences. More challenging still is educating and impacting. We are all familiar with ads on television for different medications, from restless leg syndrome to depression to atrial fibrillation to skin problems to Wilfred Brimley “diabetus” advertisements, it is easy to feel uneasy about our health. It raises the question of whether the purpose of these ads is to educate or to convince that we indeed need to “speak to our doctor” about a certain drug despite the quickly-spoken side effects.

Even when focused on “human-centered” design, it is easy to lose the human in the drive for profit. Not that there is anything wrong with making a profit, but when that becomes the sole driver, then all other considerations can take a backseat to that goal. To create a successful marketing and branding experience, it is not just about convincing, but also connecting. And as our media and social environments continue to change, we have to be innovative in how we create content that connects with people in a way that makes them feel cared for.

Today on Experience by Design, we are pleased to welcome Wanda Toro Turini of Ketchwords and Rock-It Fuel. Wanda has built a career around innovating how people connect with their target audiences. Her interest in helping people led her to get a Doctorate in Pharmacology. And her passion for innovation and entrepreneurship led her to work with Novartis as a Sales Specialist and innovating in eBusiness. This path ultimately led her to exploring how to optimize how we connect with people through leveraging the power of new technologies to create more engaging content.

We explore the concepts of awareness versus education in marketing and content creation. She tells us about her move from the pharmacy to sales to entrepreneurship, and what she learned from each along the way. We discuss why we need an outside perspective to help us see what we can do for others, and how to create systems to deliver on that promise. Finally, we talk about shamanic journeys and strategic meditation, and what a long strange trip it's been.

This was the first in our series of ExD Live, hosted by the ever affable Michael Kirkpatrick on location at Centric Park in beautiful downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts. Centric Park provides experience design and rapid innovation for great companies committed to customer centricity.