AMPERSANDAMPERSAND

AMPERSANDAMPERSANDWe are an award winning team of makers, creatives, engineers and strategists. We take pride in our work and are committed to delivering best-in-class products across mobile and the associated technologies, including wearables, nearables and the Internet of Things.

We are user-focused. We understand that mobile is a unique platform, deeply integrated into people’s lives and with its own rules of engagement. Personalisation, privacy and value exchange are as important to us as elegant code, big data and beautiful user experiences.

Mobile is a way of life, a cultural phenomenon and an intensely exciting platform for innovation. R&D is in our DNA and we have an endless appetite for tackling challenges, both technical and commercial, that will shape the future.

CREATIVE LEDMULTI AWARD WINNINGINNOVATION FOCUSED

OUR WORKWe partner with early-stage companies and forward-looking brands to accelerate strategic innovation and create results-oriented products and campaigns. Our focus is on delivering quality, supported by robust processes and a commitment to client satisfaction.

BRANDS AND BUSINESSES WE WORK FOR

STARTUPS WE LOVE

01RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENTAdvanced research and development is an important part of our business. We seek to innovate collaboratively and on our own account, to develop intellectual property and to spin out products and platforms in industries that we expect to be big in the future. In this section, we look at some of the memes and themes that have been significant in 2015 and will be significant in 2016.

Internet of thingsThe Internet of Things is a quasi ubiquitous theme in technology. We began exploring ways in which IoT could improve visitor experience and deepen engagement at live events, in public spaces and at cultural centres in early 2014. We developed a unique knowledge of Bluetooth Low Energy in its infancy and exploring ways in which it, along with beacon technology, could shape mobile experiences.

We have since created copious IP and developed concepts, prototypes and platforms to showcase our knowledge and applied that knowledge to multiple client projects. Our views on the Internet of Things have been widely covered, in the Financial Times, TechRadar and the South China Morning Post. We are also IoT World Hackathon Champions 2015.

WearablesThe first wearables revolution has truly been and gone. Is there a future for wearable tech beyond fitness trackers and overpriced, under-featured smart watches? We believe so. We have conducted proprietary first party research to understand what delight looks like for

consumers of wearable tech, garnering a wealth of exciting insights that have helped our clients make better decisions and which have been covered by Mobile Marketing Magazine, Wearable Tech and The Guardian.

Smart HomesAn extension of the Internet of Things research, we began looking in earnest at Smart Home opportunities in early 2015. We identified complex user experiences as a fundamental blocker to adoption and explored the manifold network protocols, standards and development platforms available. Working with other

consulting organisations, we developed a view of the future of the industry based on our knowledge, research, and network of thought leaders in IoT. Our views have been covered in detail by the Financial Times, Computer Business Review and Swedish Internet World.

Artificial IntelligenceWe began exploring AI and Machine Learning as a likely solution to the user experience problem around Smart Home technology. We have hosted and participated in numerous hackathons, conducted research, developed proprietary algorithms around personalisation and worked alongside Google and Samsung amongst others to develop a view on the ethical considerations surrounding the development of artifically intelligent entities.

We are committed to collaborative research principles and are currently building industry case studies around R&D with a number of organisations, with press coverage, IP and product platforms likely to be released in H2 2016. We would welcome discussions around joint R&D in all the above practice areas and encourage you to get in touch.

02MOBILEBuilding on in-depth discovery, research and testing, we work closely with clients and stakeholders to develop compelling, focused concepts, prototypes and products for mobile. We develop native applications for iOS, Android, mobile web and, if we have to, for Windows. The following section looks at some of our more recent work in mobile.

OGILVY : Lab Day Live

Ogilvy hosts 250 clients in their private Lab Day Live event each year. We were invited to showcase an innovative IoT service to enhance the audience experience throughout the day.

We used a combination of time, location and a physical network of iBeacons to enable the audience to choose which sessions to attend, and which exhibitors to meet. We used a personalisation algorithm, once again, with a location focus, to help parse through large quantities of data and deliver only the most relevant content to each user.

In line with the event's IoT theme, we gifted a ‘connected cactus’ to each guest, which would trigger the delivery of relevant content (which we scripted) via the app, enabling Ogilvy to better engage their audience in a personal, playful way at the event and for months afterwards.

Client engagement via a connected cactus

1.1.1

1.1.41.1.3

1.1.2

WIKIPEDIA

Ampersand was invited to showcase its innovation around location services at the Wikimania Conference, held at the Barbican. In addition to producing a customised tour of the Barbican (using GPS and beacons to support both indoor and outdoor trail-finding) we developed a bespoke mobile application with a complex back end to support real time content updates in only 8 days.

The application provided attendees with up-to-the-minute scheduling information and content about each session, pushed to the audience using beacon technology.

Enhancing visitor experience at Wikipedia's Annual Conference

1.5.1

1.5.3

1.5.2

WeBEACONA social internet of things for museums

Most visitors to museums only experience less than 30% of all available content. Conversely, these institutions all admit they could better monetise each visit if they knew more about what their visitors’ preferences.

weBeacon is a social Internet of Things for venues and large scale events. By anticipating the user’s interests, weBeacon delivers curated content via smartphone, thereby enabling destinations to better understand and monetise their visitors.

Native applications for iOS and Android with web front and back end for high volume content management. The app also includes dashboards for museum admin, as well as beacon infrastructure management.

1.4.1

1.4.41.4.3

1.4.2

BARCLAYS SCOOP

Barclays approached Ampersand to develop an application that would encourage niche audiences to engage more fully with the bank's digital offering. The bank's research showed that a large proportion of those who did not avail themselves of its online and mobile banking tools did so because of a trust deficit and because of a fear of the unknown.

Ampersand developed a business case and a series of concepts for Scoop, an application that would familiarise people with digital banking by associating it with giving loved ones a present. Under the headline 'slip in a fiver', we designed an application for creating personalised greeting cards, to which the user could append a monetary gift via internet banking. We simplified the PingIt experience to make it appeal to the bank's older and/or less digitally savvy customers.

Building trust in online banking

1.7.1

1.7.41.7.3

1.7.2

SHELL V-POWER

Shell invited Ampersand and WeAreFearless to pitch on an experiential opportunity, using mobile to connect drivers to the forecourt.

We developed concepts and prototypes for an app that would entice a variety of different customer types to use it's premium brand on their next visit by appealing to their good sense, their love of their cars and their passion for driving.

As a result of our inputs in the trial phase, we have been included on a shortlist of agencies under consideration for a more substantial piece of work, focusing on mobile.

Justifying the Premium

1.8.1

SPLYT

We created a very intuitive mobile application, encapsulating a new and exciting way to use taxis in a seamless, user-friendly journey.

A sophisticated back-end underpins the ability to choose to ride solo or with others, presenting the time-cost of any detour, automating fare-splitting and estimating and then confirming the savings for each passenger once the rides are completed.

The multi-platform mobile app worked seamlessly along side an Android driver app, a web platform and social media collateral all of which were designed by us.

Re-imagining private/public transport for the sharing economy

1.2.1

1.2.2

1.2.5

1.2.41.2.3

PILOT

Pilot operates in a competitive landscape, with several other companies delivering groceries at short notice in London and beyond. By conducting in-depth market research as a precursor to production, we were able to identify inadequately served audiences - for example parents, stuck at home with young children - and to craft a user experience, identity and content strategy that resonates more widely than the competition.

We advised Pilot on a suite of integrations, ensuring a seamless e-commerce experience, minimising transaction costs and optimising delivery pathways. In addition to the above, we articulated the company's positioning, developed an elegant look and feel, developed an iOS application, a fully responsive website and a sophisticated backend to support the business from the ground up.

Delivering convenience to your door in 30 minutes or less

1.3.1

1.3.4

1.3.31.3.2

HONEST

Honest was looking to raise Angel funding to address two major challenges in fashion retail - 'does it suit me' and 'does it fit me'.

Ampersand helped Honest develop an investor pitch, comprising a research-backed business plan and clickable prototype which contributed to the startup raising the required capital.

Crowdsourcing opinion to solve the sizing problem

1.6.1

CLIPPETAudio news, personalised for time starved millenials

Backed by News International and intent on establishing a new news format, Clippet's founders approached Ampersand with the problem statement: 'Young people don't engage with news enough. How can we use mobile to address that?'

Ampersand conducted in-depth audience research, gleaning invaluable insights into millenials media consumption patterns and identifying exciting opportunities to repackage the news in such a way as to make it more engaging. We designed audio applications for iOS and Android and a sophisticated editorial platform that would enable Clippet to deliver personalised news to its users. Our work was ultimately spun out into a new audio news start up, Dash Star.

1.11.1

JIGGSTER

Jiggster is a market-leading mobile-first solution for the Android gaming community.

We designed and developed this mobile-commerce marketplace for gamers to sell or exchange games on their Android devices.

A database of nearly 20,000 console game titles was successfully integrated into the application via third party APIs, enabling the network of gamers to buy, sell, or exchange their games through a secure and moderated environment.

Creating an Android-first console game exchange platform

1.14.1

NHS: KCH & Christie

Ampersand is engaged by a number of NHS Trusts to help explore how mobile can improve patient outcomes. Working with the Christie's Oncology Department, we co-created strategies, concepts and prototypes that were tested with outpatient groups. We captured detailed feedback and usage metrics and produced a report highlighting opportunities to use mobile to give patientsbetter access to important data and foster a stronger bond with the hospital after they were discharged.

Working with Kings College NHS, we co-created an application for iOS that would give patients more ways to learn about their hospital and the doctors who would be treating them. In addition, the app offers an appointment booking system with reminders and an internal mapping tool to help patients get to their appointments more easily.

We have two further projects currently under way, due to launch later in 2016.

Exploring mobile's role in improving patient outcomes

1.12.1

HTC & FACEBOOK

HTC wanted to use its sponsorship of the Champions League Final to showcase its latest handsets in an engaging, lighthearted way. Ampersand worked with HTC's sponsorship activation team, Facebook's partnerships team and Megabooth to develop a simple but effective application allowing people to take and share exclusive, branded images with their friends on Facebook. The brief required us to work to a two week timeline, to account for the regulations and guidelines imposed by UEFA on its sponsors and to navigate complex programmatic requirements imposed on us by Facebook's APIs.

Our ability to turn around high quality work under pressure meant that we were re-engaged to produce similar work for the 2014 World Cup and the 2015 Champions League Final.

Enhancing engagement at the Champions League Final

1.10.1

WeHIVEUsing geo-fenced content to deepen engagement at live events

WeHive is a geofencedsocial media platform for live events. The business creates opportunities for Brands and Venues to deliver sponsored and totally unique content to concert- and festival-goers in real time, deepening engagement and adding a new dimension to live music events. Moreover, it creates a space within which the audience can interact with one another around content they're creating, and share that content outside the geofenced area associated with the event.

Ampersand built the platform from the ground up, producing a specification that met the client's business objectives, producing concepts, developing audience-centric user experience and look and feel and ultimately developing native iOS and Android apps, along with the a highly scalable back end and middleware to enable real time content moderation, the delivery of special offers and brand and venue focused content across hundreds of events simultaneously.

1.9.1

03WEBMany of our clients require a web presence, either on a standalone basis or as a complement to their mobile activities. We develop elegant, user friendly websites and web applications, content management systems and server side applications using HTML, HTML 5, PHP, Javascript, Node.js, Ruby and other languages. The following section contains a sample of our most recent work for web.

TRIBE LONDON

Tribe London is an exclusive offering for adventurous, independent and unattached Londoners. The startup works with the city's top creative, culinary and cultural partners to produce luxury group dates, created for two different groups of three single friends.

With an emphasis on the exclusivity of the events, Ampersand’s challenge was to design and produce a web experience which screamed quality and luxury, while making sure it wasn’t mistaken for a ‘dating website’.

While the interface design was a challenge in itself, the experience had to work seamlessly with regards to inviting friends, match making and error handling in case of cancellations or booking alterations.

Effortless access to the most sought-after events in the city

2.2.1

TEDxClapham

When TEDxClapham approached our team, they were not sure what they wanted – but they knew it involved using mobile technology to make an already immersive event more interactive.

Our solution was to design a mobile website which mimicked the look and feel of an app, without the need of having to download it. The website provided the audience with a list of all the speakers from the event, as well as live updates showing the profile of the current speaker along with the topic of discussion. This was followed by a beautifully designed multiple-choice question and answer interface, in order for the organisers to know that the audience learnt from the experience.

The responses were then collated at the end of each talk, and displayed as a bar graph statistic on a large screen, the UI for which was also designed by me.

Giving the immersive TEDx talks a more interactive element

1.2.1

OUR LEADERSWe are a boutique firm, employing a full time staff of 20 in our London office, across four departments: creative, software development, strategy and R&D. Hands on senior management involvement in every project allows us to focus on quality and our commitment to meeting project timelines.

NADER ALAGHBAND is the Founder & CEO of Ampersand. He is responsible for strategy, inves-tor press and partner relations and runs the business's R&D practice. Before Ampersand, Nader co-founded businesses in consumer electronics and the sharing economy. A graduate of Cornell University, where he received his AB in Philosophy, Nader is a technology entrepre-neur, angel investor, start up advi-sor, Arsenal supporter and author of research and patents in fields as diverse as civil society, interna-tional development and internet technologies.

nader@3amp.co

DEAN ADKINS is Ampersand's Chief Technology Officer. He has over 20 years digital experience spanning end-to-end mobile/web delivery and business operations and a proven track record in founding highly efficient, quality driven business divisions. Dean began his career at Penta and has held Director level positions at Rapp, Grapple and subsequently Monitise Create, where he was responsible for the delivery of FIFA's first ever World Cup app in 2014, which had over half millions downloads in its first two weeks; Premier Inn Hub Hotels and the original Halifax Home Finder app.

dean@3amp.co

NATHAN PEARSON is the Direc-tor of Sales at Ampersand, with over 20 years of experience in technology and digital marketing. He has held senior IT positions at Accenture, RBS and Deutsche Bank and has been either MD or senior consultant for several successful start-ups. In the digital world he established and man-aged one of the largest link build-ing agencies in the UK from start through to exit. Nathan has spoken at trade events and has successfully managed and advised start-ups as well as been a sales director with targets rang-ing from £250k to £2million.

nathan@3amp.co

Featured in

Recognised by

AMPERSANDAMPERSAND