LYNX / LYNX STREAM

Unilever's Lynx brand is debuting a new product called Lynx Stream, which seeks to bring all the media emitted by a group out on the town together in one handy timeline for the revelers to keep for posterity (and light social blackmail).

The software, built by Razorfish, allows users to specify the start and end times of outings, the participants and more, then allows each to contribute photos, wisecracks, videos, checkins, tweets and more to the group pool.

'When we design Lynx products we ask ourselves how will it fit into young guys' lives and how will it make them more confident and attractive in the mating game. The Lynx Stream has been developed with the same thought process,' says Josh Dean, global brand manager on Lynx. 'If Lynx is helping to facilitate great memories, and is part of the memory, then it stands to reason that people will save some affection for the brand itself.'

So what are the most important things in making sure the Lynx target market takes the time to interact with something like this? 'Making sure it's a useful social tool that is relevant and adds value to their lives,' Dean says. 'It's born from the insight that the best nights are often those that you can't fully remember, so a genuine, fun solution to an actual problem.' 
Unilever will begin promoting the product around May 20 with a media buy, and refer to it in ongoing brand communications.

The Lynx Stream app took about six months to build, according to Razorfish. 'Concurrently, we were developing a mobile application for two platforms, an online destination, and the framework for a social utility', says Frederic Bonn, Razorfish's executive creative director. 'The challenges for our creative, design, production, user experience, technical, analytics and planning teams were formidable.'

Still, the experience had to keep a rough-and-ready, functional style of design, and feel like a web service created by a startup rather than a piece of advertising. Bonn was able to work that into the design by keeping users at the forefront. 'Start-ups gain relevance by creating a great experience or utility for their users. Great functionality doesn't work in opposition to great design; the most successful startups are the ones which recognize these are one and the same.'

Meanwhile, start-ups like Storify, which allows users to aggregate others Tweets and check-ins into narrative, are getting venture capital cash. Lynx Stream has similar functionality, and timing to market -- it'll be interesting to watch the parallel path between it and similar standalone services.

'Throughout this initiative, we laid out a detailed set of options for how we can leverage Stream as an evergreen platform that evolves over time,' says Paul Gelb, VP of Mobile at Razorfish. 'A long-term, forward looking perspective influenced our tech infrastructure, code, design, and experience. This has enabled us to develop a product that we can scale and enhance as fast as mobile is changing and growing. The most successful platforms are flexible enough for users to discover new innovative uses that could not have been a identified by a small product development group. It's really exciting to see that users are constantly finding new uses for the app. We have streams from music/sports events, road trips, and even a day at the office. It appears that Stream is capable of providing value across a seemingly endless number of experiences.'

http://www.thelynxstream.com/