Monday, March 1st, 2010
Design & Technology : Part II
Lets talk creative. Creative, creative, creative. There’s an epic struggle around creative right now that seems to have us all confused. There really is no reason for us all to struggle with this notion, but what’s happening is the idea of “creative” being exclusive and not intermingled with “technology” is mucking it all up. Creative has been seen, for incredibly far too long, as being confined to a couple categories (TV/Radio) and everything that isn’t in those categories falls into the realm of just campaign execution/production. So now, marketing initiatives are being shifted and are focusing heavily on new and emerging technologies, as they discover their audience rapidly shifting into these mediums while responding less to the otherwise traditional creative mediums… thus requiring the concept of creative to shift as well.
TELLING THE STORY
As we’ve talked before, telling a story will never die. Its the story that engages the audience in the first place. Its that connection they feel with the brand. Today, the technology has given users an even more direct connection with a brand. They’re still moved through the story, but they’re now part of the story. They’re no longer prone to being spoken to, but spoken with. So the success of social mediums like Facebook, Twitter, iPhone apps, etc, make it easy to see why people flock to them, but how do we transition our story into these mediums appropriately. The story falls apart when you take the old mediums and just push them into the new ones, you need to think on two levels now. What works for social media or mobile does not work for TV or Print. How can we tell a story, but also involve the users IN that story. Start with this simple question: “Does our idea get users involved?” Once you’ve answered that question, adapting the pieces of the story to work in other mediums is fairly simple.
One classic example of this (and as much as I hate to use this example because it clearly points to my obsessive nerdy side) was the first few seasons of LOST on ABC. Yeah, its a TV show, so you’d promote it with commercials during other TV shows, right? WRONG! ABC went to great lengths to generate a HUGE buzz online across many platforms. There were mysterious games, there were microsites for brands only found in the LOST series, there were Facebook pages AND there were commercials that cleverly drove people into these other mediums. The story was cohesive and the fans flocked to these experiences like ants to a picnic basket. The shows ratings grew like wildfire and it became one of the strongest TV shows in years. They took a look at the WHOLE picture, they crafted a brilliant story, modified it appropriately for each medium, and got their fans involved in that story.
A few pieces that still remain:
Find815.com
HansoAir.org
FlyOWA.com
So, to summarize, the story’s the same… its all about the story. HOWEVER, the execution of that story has changed. You can’t stuff a square peg into a round hole, and you can’t jam a TV commercial into Facebook and expect it to work the same. Your creative is key, but its got to be smart enough to adapt to ALL the mediums we’re facing today.
Next week… keeping up with the technoBOOM!
