MRM McCann shuns capital with Manchester tech lab

MRM McCann is snubbing the hipsters of Shoreditch to set up a new innovation lab at its Manchester office, which, it claims, will not only offer “rapid prototyping and tooltime education”, it will also feature a hands-on area where clients can experience the latest tech.
The Lab13 in Manchester is the fourth hub to open across the MRM McCann global network, with others already operational in Detroit, New York, Tokyo and Frankfurt.
According to Data City’s 2019 Digital Technology Census, Manchester is only second to London in the UK digital innovation “hotspot” league, across the eight main sectors of artificial intelligence and data, ecommerce, cyber, digital (as a sector in its own right), gaming, Internet of Things, medtech and fintech.
The agency insists the lab will enable it to invent, architect and prototype unprecedented products, services and new businesses, looking 12 to 18 months ahead of market.
MRM McCann global chief executive Kate MacNevin said: “We are committed to expanding our innovation offerings across our network, and this latest Lab13 is an important part of that growth.
“MRM McCann was one of the first agencies to intertwine the process of thinking and making at this level, enabling us to offer our clients unprecedented products and services and even further elevating us above our competition.”
The lab’s offerings will also include innovation consulting, user research, a content studio and CGI, as well as giving clients access to the latest in augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and mobile handsets.
The UK Lab13 will also feature MRM McCann’s “HumanTech” offering, where agency, client and outside experts work together to generate ideas for tech-based solutions to help solve specific business challenges, building prototypes and testing them through a design engineering process.
McCann Worldgroup CEO Mark Lund added: “We believe innovation sits at the intersection of human, brand, and technology. We identify the human needs that we can serve meaningfully and then apply our understanding of technology to create a revelatory solution. In this way, we help our brands earn their meaningful role via innovations that deliver. We call this Meaningful Innovation.”