Why At-home 3D is a Long Way Off – If It Hits At All
I’m usually one to get on the bandwagon, and yes, I loved Avatar in 3D. From IMAX to regular theaters to…at home is the natural next step in the progression. ESPN announced earlier this month that it would launch a 3D network in the coming year. Disney’s on board. Sony’s on board. LG is launching a new line of 3D televisions in 2010. With names like that, do consumers really have any choice? Keeping in line with my identification as a bandwagoner, I would not-so-boldy predict that just as home television viewing transitioned to HD over the past few years, 3D networks will be the next in line, and in 5 short years, we won’t be viewing anything not in 3D.
Not this time.
I see the pull and the “coolness” factor is absolutely present. For advertisers, what an opportunity to create a much more engaging experience for our target audiences. We’re not extending outside the sense of sight, but we’re getting a lot closer to touch. This is significant. But I believe we’re going to need to find another way to do it.
4 Reasons why at-home 3D viewing is a long way off:
1. Peripheral distraction. 3D experiences in IMAX and even ordinary movie theaters work because it immerses the viewer in the experience. This is fairly obvious but worth noting. If you’ve got a 7-footer sitting in the seat right in front of you, it can ruin the entire experience. If the screen was half the size and your peripheral vision allowed you to see a significant amount on either side of the screen, the experience is compromised. Why do you think IMAX screens are so stinkin’ huge? Drop a 42-50″ screen on a wall, 10-20′ from the viewer and you’ve got all kinds of problems. Is it even worth trying to provide a 3D experience with all of the distraction your peripheral vision will catch? For sports viewing, movies, Discovery channel, whatever, this would actually seem a bit corny.
2. Viewing Angles. Again, the result of most of us not having a 20′ projection media room in our homes means that you’ll have to position yourself directly in front of your television to avoid distorting the experience. Remember early flatscreen technology that prevented viewership from a 45 degree angle? Well, we fixed that, but what are we going to do if 3D is the next big thing?
3. Glasses. Call this a gut instinct, but I don’t think people will want to have to wear glasses at home to watch tv. Will we just have a set of glasses for everyone in the household right next to the remotes? No more multi-tasking. Unless you want to fold laundry and work on your work laptop with vision distorting glasses, you’re either watching tv and nothing else, or you’re not watching at all. This is actually a step backwards.
4. Money. Along with any other tech advancement, the pricing will start high and decrease. The current economy certainly isn’t very conducive to a new expensive technology, but on top of that, who wants to buy a special cable box, a new tv, glasses and upgraded cable? Not this guy.
I get it. This is (relatively) new technology with a lot of momentum and chatter. I’d love to jump on the bandwagon, but a combination of rational thought and personal intuition seem to stack the cards in the other direction. But this is much more fun as a two-way conversation than a list. Thoughts?
Enter 2010 – Sustaining Creativity
Santa visited my son this year for the second time and never anticipated the dilemma he’d face in deciding what toys to give. A train that obeys voice commands (not entirely useful for an almost 2 year old who’s just now putting words together), a battery-powered machine that launches little plastic balls in the air, little cars that have to be charged before use…the child’s task? Push a pedal.
These toys are cool, and no doubt, reflective of progress, but here’s Santa’s dilemma: should developing toddlers/children be told how to play, or should they decide how they want to play? The question may seem trivial, but I think it holds heavy importance. If I’m 3 years old and given the choice between blocks or a powerwheel, a sandbox with tools or a machine that launches balls in the air, I’m choosing the latter every time. And that’s exactly why that decision should not be left to the discretion of a 3-year-old. It seems obvious when you think about it, but a child isn’t forced to think when they push a button and receive instant gratification. They’re not forced to create.
Sir Ken Robinson doesn’t address this issue directly, but based on the video from TED below, we can draw our own conclusions on how he feels about the matter. His teaching on creativity in schools has become quite well-known, but if you haven’t seen it, I’d encourage you to check it out.
This lesson doesn’t just apply to children. As more left-brain heavy professions are shipped overseas or commoditized (see A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink) creative thinking will continue to increase in its relative value. Your mental development may be a little more solidified than your toddler’s, but the principle is the same. When you play (and you should be playing), make a habit of not always playing with toys that require instructions.
Build something. Solve a puzzle. Draw. Write. Cook from scratch.
These are disciplines, sure, when you consider the toys we now have at our disposal. But consider the sustainability of creative thinking as we enter 2010, for your generation and the next.
Edit: and check out #9 on Edward Boches’ latest post, “10 predictions for advertising in 2010“. Couldn’t agree with him more.
Signing off for 2009!
Have a wonderful wonderful Holiday. Disconnect and recharge – if ya don’t do it now, you won’t do it at all.
Looking forward to what I expect to be an eventful and exciting 2010. To you and yours, Happy Holidays, and see you in 2010!
It’s Like Rain On Your Wedding Day…
Featured post on IDEA’s blog today…be sure to check out other posts while you’re there. Really good blend of creative, tech and strategy
Secondary Community Unifiers
I’m a proud graduate of Texas A&M University, and thus, a committed fan of Texas A&M athletics. I suppose the next step doesn’t apply to every Texas A&M athletics fan, but it does to this one. I follow recruiting through a number of paid and free sites that are moderated by folks who are “in the know” a little more than the rest of us. The discussion forums drive the daily activity the moderators will report they see from the average member of these communities.
Today, I clicked on a thread titled “Some things truly just suck.” A poster, who is a teacher at a low-income school, reported that one of his students had just lost his home in a case of arson. That’s all he said. He had a rough day, and that was why. The community proceeded to set up a PayPal account and feed it with minimal donations each to help this kid and his family. Most of these folks have never met and know each other by a handle as opposed to his/her real name.
You’ve probably either heard or been a part of a story like this, but every time something like this happens, we have to open our eyes to understand why it happened. This is the kind of community brands want to build. This isn’t another diatribe on the power of the community and social media. We’ve heard and read plenty of those. This is an observation that communities may be built around more than the surface tells us. What does this mean for you?
Understand what defines your target audience that, hopefully, will become your community. Not just the brand itself (primary unifier), but what defines the people that will become attached to your brand? Texas A&M is a university committed to service – it’s in the mission statement, and for the most part, something students and alum are passionate about. Give a group of Aggies the opportunity to serve another in some way – then sit back and watch. As you develop content for your brand/community, keep this in mind. A committed fan of the Chic-Fil-A brand may be that way because of the company’s commitment to close on Sundays. Sure, the chicken is delicious but it’s the sacrifice of millions of dollars for the sake of the employees that may strengthen the community.
Members of my Texas A&M online communities unite primarily to read about and discuss Texas A&M athletics, but the secondary unifiers are equally important to the growth and strength of the community. Every community has them – so identify them, target your content.
Secret Sauce for World Domination
True story of my customer service experience from the past week:
We just moved (still in Houston). We were thankful that the area is already set up for U-Verse, so we went ahead and had it set up (we had U-Verse at our old house and became big fans). AT&T guy comes out to the house when originally scheduled, sees that our house is still undergoing some renovation and rather than working around a few things, elects to tell us that we’re “going to have to reschedule the appointment.” Fine. I can understand that – sort of. We call back to reschedule and are told the earliest we can get is in 2 weeks. “But we just had someone out yesterday that didn’t want to do the job. Can’t we clean up a little bit and have someone back out tomorrow?” We can have someone out in 2 days between 9 and 11. Fine. I arrange to have a friend be at the house who calls me at 1pm to inform me that AT&T never showed up. I call customer service once. I’m sorry to hear that, sir. I can set you up for an appointment in 2 weeks. Hang up – call again. I’m sorry to hear that sir… You know how this goes. Call a third time and find someone willing to help. Sure I’ll squeeze someone in to come out to the house tomorrow morning. So you’re telling me that the first two people I called just didn’t want to help?
Sheesh.
Technician number 2 comes out to the house today. Again, I’ve arranged to have someone at the house when they arrive. They show up and call me to tell me they’re going to have to drill holes from the outside of my house into the living room to run the cables. Say what? That’s not going to work. They say they can’t drop wires down my walls because there’s too much stuff in my attic. This can’t be happening. Well can you move some of it to give yourself the access that you need? “That’s not my job, sir.”
We come up with an alternative solution (I came up with it – not the installer who clearly does not care if I have U-Verse or not). The installer tells the person at my house that she’s going out to her car to grab something.
She drives away.
I call AT&T twice this time to find someone who cares. Guess what? They offer to set me up with an appointment in two weeks. I ask to speak to a supervisor. They put me on hold. Waited for 20 minutes before I realized they just didn’t want to deal with me anymore.
Believe it or not, this isn’t just a platform to complain. I did need to vent a little, but we’ve all had comparable experiences with the likes of AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Cingular, etc. We dread making those customer service calls. Sometimes you even end up feeling like they’re your client rather than the other way around.
I can’t come up with a possible explanation for why these companies have decided to not demand that they become known as THE provider with great customer service. It costs money, I know, but don’t you see this gaping hole in the market? Your competitors are few but they’re huge competitors. It’s like Ford and Chevy. If the next F-150 comes out with a glaring weakness, you better believe Chevy is going to make that weakness their strength.
It’s the secret sauce. If one of these guys would
commit to great customer service, massive investment as it may be, I switch today, and my guess is, so do about 30 million others. There is no industry, no business model, that can’t support a commitment to customer service. In the internet/cable/phone service provider industry, the guy with great customer service just may take over the world.
I Invented A Flying Coffee-Maker. Now What?
I’m all hooked up and ready to go on Google Wave. I downloaded Sidewiki. I saw the iPhone spot and downloaded Bump. It’s ego-boosting to be out on the edge with all of my new toys that my clients and colleagues are just starting to hear about and hopefully hearing from me.
And if I want to get even closer to the edge, I’m going to start investing heavy amounts of time and energy to developing my own idea. Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could use my webcam to not only display my unshaven face in real-time but also some crazy 3d animation on top of it? Cool, no doubt.
I like cool. I’d say the majority of us do. But what now?
I don’t have to tell you this, but more than ever, we have the ability to reach the masses with our messages, stories and our ideas. We have a brand new sandbox and close to an even playing field with the Apples and Googles to innovate and change the world (see crowdsourcing, app stores, social media). More of us than ever are dedicating our lives to inventing and building a flying coffee maker. And more of us than ever are finding ourselves pridefully approaching the edge by purchasing our flying coffee makers and showing them off to our friends. There are thousands, probably millions, of flying coffee makers already on the market and probably millions more to come.
Remember how much you used to make fun of the useless products in the AirMall magazine? They were intriguing and oftentimes left you amazed that we (humans) even had that capability now…but your rational brain quickly turned on and recognized the lack of benefit. Ever wonder what happened to Sharper Image? They briefly sustained their brand on the “ooooh”s and “ahhhh”s but weren’t selling anything. How many times did you swing in the store as you were strolling through the mall just to try out the new massage chair and then walk right out?
The new sandbox is starting to get crowded, and the reality is, we’re right in the middle of an AirMall magazine or Sharper Image store in the mall without even realizing it. The curve is going to start trending downward once we realize that Sidewiki and Wave are never going to catch on. They’re cool. They’re not useful. I’m no prophet, but my gut tells me AR falls squarely into this same category.
Here’s the application:
Many of us have been spending far too much time trying to develop the next big thing and not nearly enough time optimizing the useful tools we already have. Now, I don’t want true innovators to go anywhere. Keep doing what you’re doing. But some of us are pioneers and some of us are settlers. We need both. Right now, far too many settlers think they’re pioneers. If you’re a settler, that’s a GOOD thing. Leave the flying coffee maker in your brain. Pick up the useful tools that the great innovators/pioneers of our generation and previous generations have developed and figure out how to best optimize them to tell your brand’s or your client’s story.
It’s quite possible, and I would even say probable, that the great innovation that changed the world was e-mail – or an automatic coffee-maker. Save this post if I’m wrong, but I think Google Wave is just an attempt to make it fly.
Are You Laughing Enough?
In the spirit of Thanksgiving and after a much longer commute than usual this morning, cliche as it is, being thankful for the opportunity to be in this business is top of mind. I’m not going to suggest that we metaphorically go around the dinner table and list what we’re thankful for. I am going to suggest that we act grateful for being in this business year around – not just for yourself, but for your clients.
Like any other profession, this can become just a job. We get used to the day-to-day and templatize work that should never be templatized. Our designs all start to look the same and our client interactions are identical even though our clients’ personalities are drastically different. We are in a dynamic business that changes every day. We can’t templatize our approach to a client or campaign because we should approach each with fresh eyes and ears. It’s our job to dream. Sure, we bob and weave, avoiding realities that we have to take into account along with everyone else (taxes, staying profitable, legal documentation), but our job is to dream, and our success is based on how well we can do it. That’s an awesome thing.
So here’s the application if you’re not feeling too idealistic. Most of our clients went to school to study the same thing we did. They got into marketing because they liked to use that right side of their brains, solve problems and yes, dream a little bit. Are you doing a good enough job of letting them? If you’ve ever worked clientside, the aforementioned “reality” is much more prevalent than for those of us on the agency side. Marketing plans, budget planning and oftentimes having to sell the need for marketing altogether to a heavily left-brained manager. Working with you should be the most fun part of their job. They should look forward to meetings with you. Why wouldn’t they? They’re getting to problem solve, dream and work with people that relatively think like they do.
Laugh together.
Take the skill you already have of dissecting a target audience and apply it to your own audience. Our clients want to enjoy working with us…and there’s no reason they shouldn’t. We may get to the point where agency life is just second nature to us and take it for granted, but our clients dreamed of doing exactly what you’re doing when they were sitting in a marketing classroom.
Be grateful that you have the intangibles, skills and determination to succeed in this business. Don’t forget to have fun. Make sure your clients are having just as much fun as we are.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Far-Sighted? Don’t Lose Focus on the Short-Term
Most of us in the ad world would describe ourselves as visionary. We think long-term. We find the solution and let someone else execute it. Sound familiar?
We oftentimes set up brainstorms or retreats in the woods to generate a series of project concepts for a client or the next big thing our agency is going to do to stay edgy. But how do you stay focused on what’s right in front of your face? This is where I struggle. To a big visionary, the to-do list on your iPhone or the piece of paper on your desk may get the brush-off quite often. After all, you’re dealing with the big picture, right? That takes precendence.
I’m bringing you into my dilemma here, so welcome. The long-term is key. We have to stay in line with our clients’ and our own agency’s purposes while adapting with the changing landscape. But many of us in the creative business can tend to lose production in our day-to-day. I know I do. Sometimes it’s focus on the bigger picture that’s taking me out of the day-to-day, but if I’m honest, sometimes it’s useless distraction. Confession time: name the websites you check on a daily basis. Now how many of those add any value to what you’re trying to accomplish? Yeah, that’s probably a stretch. [end two-way conversation]
I’ve been experimenting with some life-changes that help me maintain that day-to-day focus I need to be successful. Let me know what you think:
1) Change location. You may have seen me tweeting a lot lately from a coffee shop. There’s people, there’s noise, but it’s white noise. I can see my hand in front of my face so much clearer when I get into a “focus place”. For me, it’s a coffee shop. For you, it may be at home, a park or just a conference room. I’m inspired and focused when I have the opportunity to be where normal people are (I’m defining “normal” as those with whom I do not work). My production level sky-rockets when I make this simple change. After all, we’re mobile now. Grab your notebook and take advantage of it.
2) Listen to music. This keeps me energized. Our short-sited focus can often become blurry because what we see just isn’t as exciting – it’s just the stuff that has to get done. Grab a streaming station with a genre that inspires but doesn’t distract (my recommendation: last.fm, William Fitzsimmons station).
3) Buy a leatherbound notebook and use it. Okay this one needs some narrative support. I’ve tried keeping checklists on my computer. It’s where we keep everything now. Our lives are on our hard drives. Do yourself the service of reverting a little bit. Not all technology makes our lives easier; sometimes it makes them more confusing. Use it for your checklists, mindmapping and other forms of visual thinking. Never diverting your eyes from your laptop is what causes you to end up back on those useless sites you check everyday during your mental breaks. Use that time to sit and to think. Your mental breaks will be much shorter and much more productive.
We’re far-sighted people (if you’re reading this blog, I’m guessing you probably are). These disciplines have been helpful for me to maintain my focus on the distant while, for production’s sake, shifting my focus to the short-term on call.
What works for you?
Creative Wannabe
- Traps to Avoid in the Quest for Viral
- Why At-home 3D is a Long Way Off – If It Hits At All
- Enter 2010 – Sustaining Creativity
- Signing off for 2009!
- It’s Like Rain On Your Wedding Day…
- Secondary Community Unifiers
- Secret Sauce for World Domination
- I Invented A Flying Coffee-Maker. Now What?
- Are You Laughing Enough?
- Far-Sighted? Don’t Lose Focus on the Short-Term
