Influx

Everyone is searching for the new “hybrid” communication channel that blends the best of many worlds into one appealing hole.

Last week, the world was buzzing with the intriguing effort by Chris Milk and the Google’s creative team to present a new take on the music video for Arcade Fire(Chrome browsers please) and this was swiftly followed with the news of Neal Stephenson’s interactive book.

The advertising industry is playing around with various hybrids, but unlike the artistically driven efforts mentioned above, against which they have to compete for attention, they’ve got to weave the brand story into the mix and this is a massive challenge.

It’s not too hard to be new.

Take a look at some recent work for Philips; The Nigel and Victoria campaign.

It’s not an ad, it’s not a product demo and sadly it’s not really entertainment.

It falls difficultly between a number of worlds and doesn’t present itself as interesting enough- I don’t see mass viral momentum for this campaign.

Breaking the mold is what’s increasingly being asked of agencies, but to do this, some of the shackles need to be removed.

Agencies should be given the freedom to create entirely new experiences for brands without all the expectations, norms and benchmarks of old.

Posted by Ed Cotton