Tom Houser – 9th June 2011

Perhaps the future isn’t digital, it’s tangible?

At SCA 2.0 one of the core philosophies is that advertising can only really be good, when it tells a story and adds value.  I like stories, and funnily enough so do most normal humans.  For me good stories make things tangible – clear, definite and resonant.

Some people seem to think that tangible = old, things like papers and magazines, gramophones and fax machines.  This wonderful new digital revolution has swept away our need for all that; ‘Isn’t it glorious! Put that book/CD/photograph/Betamax tape down, its all in the cloud, don’t you feel liberated?’

We have spent the last few years broadcasting everything about ourselves into the ether.  When we need to know something specific we search for it, but it’s only now that things are starting to find us, everything we do and have done is starting to knit together.

All this data presents us with a unique opportunity, we can either chuck it all onto a pile named ‘digital’, set fire to it and panic, or we can start thinking more cleverly about ways we can use it to make things that people really want, and can get value from.

I thought I would blog some of things I have found exciting in the last few weeks.  They have informed the way I think about my projects, and all provide smarter ways to interact and work with, rather than at consumers.

Games

Two weeks ago we had a highly engaging talk on the notion of technology and edgy new concepts by mentor Dave Birss. The man is a bit of a media marvel and produces great podcasts, well worth a listen. A few days after we met him, he tweeted a link to gamification.org.

Gamification? Sounds rubbish, totally dungeons and dragons-y. Actually though it’s fascinating. Basically, gamification is where you add social communication, rewards and challenges into real life situations, making them into games.  This seems to be quite the ‘hot topic’ in marketing and advertising right now, and rightly so.

This Youtube of a talk by Jesse Schell is up on gamification.org. Schell is a game developer and lecturer, and gives an amusing and eye opening half hour talk on the implications of gamification.

So how does that link to the digital/tangible thing? As we grow up the temptation is to pretend we become super serious, no time for games.  In reality though we still love to play and participate.  An advertising campaign can be digital, but if it doesn’t engage then there was no point in doing it in the first place.  Games create stories which in turn create experiences that we can participate in, feel involved with and (when done well) that we learn from – tangible experiences.

Impact

Another nugget from Dave Birss came from him telling us about Visual.ly. This is a site which collects and promotes infographics, the mashups of sexy image and dirty data which no one seems able to resist at the moment.

Visual.ly isn’t launched yet, but you can sign up to be on the invite list for it. When I signed up, the site provided me with a unique URL which I could put about. The more people who then signed up through my link, the quicker I would get my invite.

There is a nice little bit of gamification going on here, it’s a simple idea that rewards interested users in return for some free PR. I can even sign in again to see how much interest I have managed to drum up. For me this makes the sharing I do have a measurable impact (so far 78 clicks and 6 signups.) I’m pretty pleased with that, and I feel connected to it because I can see tangible proof of my contribution.

Rewards

That visual.ly thing has given me a warm fuzzy feeling inside, but imagine if I could get even more out of a deal like that?

Turns out, I can.  Four days ago the Kaiser Chiefs announced their new album, no fanfare, no buildup.  They did however have a little help from the clever people at Wieden + Kennedy London.

The idea? The Kaiser Chiefs want you to produce their new album, they’ve got 20 songs.  They want you to pick 10 and design the artwork, then for £7.99 its yours.

Not just that, when you make your album, you can also get a page from which you can sell it online, your mix, your cover. Oh yeah, and you get a quid for every copy you sell.

This is madness.  Fans? Getting money for selling bands music? What just happened to the standard retail model?? It just got tangible, both personally (your tracks, your artwork) and socially (your music taste is up for criticism).

If I was a Kaiser Chiefs fan then of course I would have favourite tracks and of course I would want to share it with all my mates, those are things we all do with music.  This is a great set of insights, which tap into the fanbase of the band and really engage them.

A video on the project is up on the Kaiser Chiefs site at the moment, well worth a look.

If you’ve stuck with this to the end, thank you for reading – I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe clicked off somewhere that interested you. As Marc would say, Namaste.

Be Sociable, Share!

•