where will we go from here?San Francisco, 2063.
A service android brand-named PIA has replaced the majority of third tier labor in the United States. Hospital nurses, hotel workers and other maintenance driven industries all use the sleek, black-clad, human-organ powered machine to supplement their human workforce…. when i dream, i seeDesedo friend Tanuj Chopra was one of 11 filmmakers to tell a story for the new ITVS series Futurestates. Step into the world of PIA.
2010? It’s time to shine.
On December 5th, MHB will be speaking at Culture Lab Creative‘s 2010 Trends Summit in Dallas. Top on his mind right now is how men’s fashion relates to finance. In this downturn, we see it’s time to fix up, look sharp and be a grown ass man.
When I first heard Jay-Z’s new song Empire State of Mind, which is a personal map of our hometown, I began to visualize the locations as data points: Stash spot @560 State. Tribeca Grill. MSG. Turns out I was not alone, as Tyler Gray of FastCompany placed Hov’s lyrics to Google Maps. Cool, novel, and any other adjective that can be used to explain how we remix stories within new media.
I asked myself – how could this become even more entertaining? And then, via the Google Geo Developers Blog, I learned that Japanese designer Katsuomi Kobayashi created a driving simulator that uses Google Maps – so that you can drive around any city via the interwebs. Like GTA. 2D or 3D. OMFG.
What if we could meld the two? Therein lies a game of some sort. Alternate or augmented or awesome. Via your computer screen or handheld device, sit in Jay-Z’s SUV and drive around his NYC. It’s like a dash of 2nd Life, and a pinch of ARG and heap of reality to mix it all together. Where can we put this thinking to use for transmedia elements of a narrative, an album release or an advertising campaign? Perhaps, within Heart of the City?
—- (Written by erstwhile Desedo intern Jeff Slawsky, a strategist, NYC native and rabid UMich fan.)
As the NYT reported today, Geneneration Y’s nostalgia for the 90’s is in full swing. The article attributes this in part to 9/11 + our bad economy = young folks taking refuge in the halcyon days of youth. Agreed.
But what I’m also wondering about is how the internet accelerates this process. Is the lifecycle in which content goes from hot to not to hot now shorter? And given the ability to find/connect with anything, does this enable Gen Y to simply never leave behind elements of their youth?
I believe that networked identity creates distributed identity such that past elements of me at age 10, 16 and 22 can all exist simultaneously, moreso than ever before. WIth that in mind, I’m quite curious to see if the concept and execution of nostalgia will mutate with Generation Z.
The idea that online is ‘colorblind’ is now thankfully being replaced be a more intelligent discourse on the topic. No doubt, you can see more about it here at Desedo, cause it’s the world we live in.
[T]he proliferation of media voices and sources enabled by the internet has allowed a more nuanced and less gangster voice of young black america to emerge, untempered by market concerns and sensationalism. Because of social media’s democratized communication tools, we are now seeing a more accurate depiction of black america. Mainly because that media is actually being created by, ahem, black people.
The authorship space of social media has fostered a cross media rise of black skaters, black rockers, black gamers and a wildly successful new strain of nerdy hip-hop. (Kanye West, Gnarls Barkley, N.E.R.D., Cool Kids, etc…) These diverse depictions and distributions of black life run counter to what we often see in mass media.
And that’s one case study. Many other groups within America have used social media to this effect : GLBT, American-Muslims, Asian-Americans, etc… Increasingly more content is made + moved by these groups, counterbalancing the content about these groups as seen in mass media. Dialogue is supplanting monologue.
As a society, we are all richer for it.
So. What is the upside for marketers within this diversifying social media space? It is a chance to engage oft ignored multicultural markets. Money is still on the table. And in our current economic state, brands are seeking “new” consumer groups.
My thinking is this:
1) Except for humor, traditional advertising is a risk-adverse platform. When brands aim to reach multicultural markets, most opt to play it safe with the tropes that Blacks value ‘soul’, Latinos love ‘family’, Asians are ‘sedulous’, etc… >>
3) Social media is where this engagement strategy can begin to change for the better. Why? Because social media is built upon the truth of multiplicity. As Raafi notes above, one person can now use this space to identify himself as: a gamer + a skater + black + a man + a music lover + a photographer + more. As brands understand this truth, they will rethink the narrow content used to engage multicultural consumers. And given the online ability to reach niches at low cost, brands can actually put to use their knowledge of multiplicity – beginning new conversations with those consumers who’ve too long been writ as simply a clatch of soul claps and sombreros.
A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. -Henry Jenkins
I saw the below vid last week and can’t get it off my mind cause it portends where transmedia planning could go. There is still so much space that narrative has not yet intersected with our everyday life. People’s Court and Quiz Shows were the 1st step, Real World and Survivor was the 2nd and now the space of ARGs is slowing beginning the 3rd, one which blurs the genres of narrative/gameshow/reality.
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At Desedo we’ve penned a single-camera narrative series through which to explore this framework, below are some notes from our whiteboard, would welcome feedback (perpetual beta, of course).
Fall Down, Walk Up
Alex Tyler, a 33-year-old law grad who never passed the bar, has spent the last eight years job-hopping and playing second fiddle to her Wall Street husband. To date it’s been a posh but empty life. When her marriage implodes, Alex winds up broke, humiliated and living in a seedy midtown apt. Now at the bottom of the NYC food chain, she stumbles her way back up working in the billion-dollar maze of Manhattan real estate.
How far could this go? What if Lost‘s Hanso Foundation actually existed? Or you could hire the law firm from Boston Legal? Or buy property from the Fall Down, Walk Up real estate brokerage?
Alex Tyler’s brand association with real estate would not just be a form of product placement – the actress playing her would either be integrated into the fabric of an actual company, or we could create a ‘real’ real estate company through which she would host open houses and sell property – off camera, wholly legal (real), yet within narrative (fake).
Once we jump offscreen and into the physical landscape of NYC, Fall Down, Walk Up further enables the casual viewer to interact with narrative. Thanks to Seinfeld, thousands of tourists visit Tom’s Diner on the Upper West Side. Imagine if, as part of Jason Alexander’s contract with NBC, he ate three meals each year at the diner in character as George Costanza. No cameras, just a blurry world in which neither the media nor the fans know what is ‘real’. People would approach him as Jason, yet he would respond as George. Within this territory of incredulity and confusion, once captured and sent via cameraphone/text/ twitter, you would further draw people into the narrative – and the following week George commenting to Jerry about the strange people calling him Jason.
Like Jason Alexander at Tom’s Diner, NYC locations could be populated with characters in ‘reality’ from Fall Down, Walk Up – Alex’s co-workers, her coffee shop, her dog run. The waiter at Nobu on whom she is crushing would also actually work at Nobu. Talent would be hired to remain in character not just on set, but 24/7, and like Lonely Girl, the talent would have to begin as unknowns. Slowly it could create a space in which people can intersect with and potentially influence the narrative.
IMHO, this is a next step, beyond Pimp My Ride, voting on American Idol or spoiling Survivor. Beyond the technical intricacies and legal loops, it ultimately relies upon participation, so is this fertile ground for real fans?
*
It’s a Friday night and Alex Tyler is at her local bar. A young man asks “Aren’t you an actress on that series?” Alex responds with a sly look “No…I sell real estate; but wanna buy me drink?”
— (HT to Yianni for the vid)
Starting today, cigarette packs in the UK will be labeled with ghastly images of cancer damage. A picture is worth a thousand words. Of course cell phones seem to pose a risk as well – and should have warnings – so say scientists. Luckily, Big Cell has done their own research, and
…presented evidence that cell phones are safe. The wireless industry, from Nokia (NOK) and Motorola (MOT) to Verizon Wireless and AT&T (T), says there is no cause for concern. “The overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk,” said the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn., the wireless industry’s trade group…
Well that’s fertile ground for a lawsuit down the road, if we aint all dead by then.
Starting today, cigarette packs in the UK will be labeled with ghastly images of cancer damage. A picture is worth a thousand words. Of course cell phones seem to pose a risk as well – and should have warnings – so say scientists. Luckily, Big Cell has done their own research, and
