Wednesday 1 October 2008

American Express Labs...

I am simply in awe of American Express Labs. Its been around for a while now, but for several reasons believed that this was perhaps time to present and analyse the same.

For those who are new to the concept..."Our mission is to highlight the important ways that innovative new products and services from American Express continue to improve the Cardmember experience. By showcasing innovative pilot programs and highlighting opportunities for Cardmembers to receive access to emerging technologies and innovative applications before they are made available to the public, we are providing a framework for understanding the trends and developments impacting the future of innovation."

They've tried out some rather neat stuff including Virtual agents that guide you through the website or the very cool "Entertainment Access spotlight" which has posts on updates in the entertainment scene and even an introduction to their mobile access application.

Customers are invited into the beta versions and participate in the trials and usage of the various service offerings. This is quite distinctive as they have pulled it off quite well and its heartening to see that there is a clear pipeline of innovations that they have committed to.

Equally amazing is the fact that they have veered from the beaten path and have attempted to blend into the lifestyles of their customer segments, rather than approaching the conventional "hardsell" route. Also believe that they have created a platform that is fairly credible and consistent with the brand experience. They've also not adopted the classical "I'm there on facebook / myspace" 2.0 approach, which lacks the punch, and the brands look rather out of place.

Looking forward to more exciting stuff from the folks at American Express...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great write-up. Several new Amex Labs pilots were posted over the past few weeks. Curious to hear your thoughts!