NORTHERN PLANNER

Here’s and interesting thought. Grant McCracken believes that since virtual reality is beginning to  allow interaction with more people, they’ll feel more ‘real’. Makes sense since it’s the unpredictability of other people’s behavior that make the ‘real world’ so vital, and continuously gives us new things. It’s happening in games, but what about films? What could this mean for brands?

A weakness of most  communications in general is that they are linear and predictable. Reality TV tends to work because it works the other way, you don’t know what will happen next,although you are helping to create the story (if you vote).

Perhaps we’ll be creating ‘living’ brand stories that evolve thanks to decisions made by real people rather than boardrooms. Just like people decide who stays in Big Brother, perhaps they’ll decide the the development in next week’s ad, or on online film. The trick will be to set an agenda, rather than offer a limited choice. It will mean leaving space for them to surprise us and each other.

Nike’s ‘Joga Bonita’ stuff works like this. The ads are one thing, but the online stuff is really interesting. Instead of star players, real people can compete against each other, filming their best moves and tricks to post on the web for all to see, inspiring each other to do better. We’ll see more of this.