We’re in a new stage of consumer evolution thanks to the latest advancements in technology. The last decade has seen Myspace, Facebook, the Wii, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, Hulu, Netflix, iPods, iPads, and the myriad of innovative explosive consumer cache that these devices inherently spawn.
Facebook games, iPhone applications, and product placement are only a few examples of the highly (surprisingly) profitable weeds that sprouted from capitalism’s planter.
Jesse Schell, Carnegie Mellon professor and former Disney imagineer, spoke at the 2010 Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (DICE) Summit about these capitalist wet-dreams.
“Facebook is weird,” he announces to the crowd, “Webkinz. Wha? Really?”
Technology is revolutionizing not only our relationship with technology but our relationship with reality. Webkinz is so obscenely successful because it employs psychological tricks to keep our children playing. All the games on the website are free – in which you earn points and in game money – but the only way to spend your hard earned money is to pay a small monthly fee.
In 2007 Club Penguin, a children’s internet game, was purchased for 350 million dollars by Disney.
According to tech crunch there are over 350 million Facebook users. By the end of 2009, Twitter reached 18 million users. Now, note that there are more Farmville accounts than Twitter accounts; the massively popular facebook game has purportedly surpassed 80 million active users.
The law of inertia finds that technology converges: Refrigerators fit with wi-fi, computer/tv screen, and anything else you could possibly imagine – or want – from one kitchen appliance.
Pockets are the exception.
“Pockets turn the law of divergence inside out,” said Schell, “The iPhone is a modern digital swiss army knife.”
Schell’s speech, “Design Outside the Box” is fairly short (28 minutes) and extremely interesting. The last few minutes are a cheeky but probably not so inaccurate extrapolation of what our future will look like wrapped in Tech. Here is one of Schell’s many extrapolations: internet-synched ad tattoos. Scenario: See a friend at a BBQ who has the same ad-tattoo as you. The ads “link-sync” and you and your friend high five – because that is how you score points in the ‘game’ (winning you and your friend achievements which you can use for tax breaks). This ‘game’ teaches you to pay more attention to ads.
It makes more sense if you watch the video, which I’ll post below. I also linked directly to the video in the beginning of this article.
Xbox 360 Games – E3 2010 – Guitar Hero 5The extent to which we are immersed – and continue to be immersed – in technology reminds me of the award winning Young Adult novel Feed by M.T. Anderson.
This is Amazon’s summary: In this chilling novel, Anderson (Burger Wuss; Thirsty) imagines a society dominated by the feed a next-generation Internet/television hybrid that is directly hardwired into the brain. Teen narrator Titus never questions his world, in which parents select their babies’ attributes in the conceptionarium, corporations dominate the information stream, and kids learn to employ the feed more efficiently in School. But everything changes when he and his pals travel to the moon for spring break. There Titus meets home-schooled Violet, who thinks for herself, searches out news and asserts that “Everything we’ve grown up with the stories on the feed, the games, all of that it’s all streamlining our personalities so we’re easier to sell to.” Without exposition, Anderson deftly combines elements of today’s teen scene, including parties and shopping malls, with imaginative and disturbing fantasy twists. “Chats” flow privately from mind to mind; Titus flies an “upcar”; people go “mal” (short for “malfunctioning”) in contraband sites that intoxicate by scrambling the feed; and, after Titus and his friends develop lesions, banner ads and sit-coms dub the lesions the newest hot trend, causing one friend to commission a fake one and another to outdo her by getting cuts all over her body.
But the title of this post targets advertising.
Hulu introduced us (and has already spoiled us) to easy, legally accessible, virtually commercial free TV viewing. A half hour show will typically have about 3 thirty second ads.
One might assume viewers could sit through a 30 second ad and indeed, we might, if only advertisers tailor their systems to the internet. So far they have taken the broadcast commercial and transplanted it directly into online viewing, an arena that is submerged in distractions – even for thirty seconds of free time. Thus, these same old, flat, repetitive commercials are not keeping holding internet-attention spans. And thus, the 30 second time spot is already dead.
Here is a very thorough post by Frank detailing the reasons we should rightly hold a memorial for the 30 second advertising slot. He concludes: “The bottom line is this: advertisers and marketers need to embrace new media now or else.”
The two “new media” approaches I see having a future online are: storyboard and interactive ads.
[I'm going to quote my comment on his post]
One thing that makes commercials so unbearable, especially for me, is redundancy. I can’t stand seeing the same (usually boring) commercial several times in one night – and on the same channel. Hulu is a front line offender with its 15 second to 2 minute ads. With only one ad per spot (about 3 spots/ 40 min show), Hulu often plays the same ad in each spot. Viewers already have distraction at their fingertips by virtue of watching from the internet and consequently will abandon an ad – even if only for a 15 second Twitter quickie – even faster than tv watchers.
There are two hulu ads which stand apart from this trend. One is interactive and literally lets the viewer explore a set scene (say, a barbershop) to discover facts about a product such as shampoo or combs. The second ad is actually a series of ads that play out essentially like three acts in a play. Act 1: see boy at soccer game make a mud-sliding save. Act 2: mother applies detergent [product] to uniform Act 3: clean underwear all around.
I even see multiple products advertised in one storyboard ad. Perhaps, both detergent and the type of washing machine.
This could be seen as already in use by shows that incorporate a good amount of product placement (30 Rock). I do wonder if product placement will become standard in all television shows in place of, or in addition to, 30 second commercial spots. (Let’s hope it doesn’t go too overt e.g. The Truman Show).
[end quote]
Frankly, I am surprised at how lethargic advertisers have been to adapting to the internet. As a frequent and primarily internet-television viewer, I do not want to be bored by ads. I welcome those ads are find a happy medium between intrusive in my browsing and flat, boorish designs.
My sister and I used to play a game in movie theaters giving thumbs up or down to trailers to indicate our anticipation level for the advertised movie. I would imagine that everyone in the theater could hit a button “thumbs up or down” and the theater’s collective interest or disinterest would show up on the screen after each trailer. People live to interact with their technology. We love integration, adaptation, and enhanced reality (just a shade shy of actual reality). See: motion-detecting video games and games like Second Life.
How long will it take for advertisers to evolve with the rest of us? And how far are we willing to take it?
No comments:
Post a Comment