As someone who hopes to have a career in book & magazine publishing, advertising is something I consider on a daily basis. Whether it's admiring Madonna's Louis Vuitton ads in Vogue, analyzing the latest Diane von Furstenberg ad online, or looking out for product placement in episodes of Gossip Girl, I like to stay up to date on the latest advertising techniques. As the publishing world comes to rely more and more on ad dollar$, I feel that it is extremely important to know which technologies are on the cutting edge.I was excited to start this segment on interactivity. While I have noticed many online advertisements going the way of mini-television segments, I wasn't sure what was "interactive" about them. After reading The Barbarian Group's website, I have a better sense of how interactive marketing came to exist and why this particular group has become one of the top teams to work with. I'm still undecided about whether I think interactive marketing is an effective strategy, but the Barbarian Group's website, in addition to Len Manovich's The Language of New Media, have both made me realize that interactivity has a become a considerable presence on the web over the past 5-8 years .
The array of interactive videos on the Barbarian Group's website all demonstrate how many companies are using these short films to create online buzz about their products. In the videos I watched, the viewer can choose which decision the character makes or what ending the ad has.
This is similar to Edward Packard's The Cave of Time, the first "Choose Your Own Adventure" book (published in 1979). Just as Manovich states that interactive advertisers prey on the way our minds work, and allow us to mistake the thinking process of an art designer for our own, these books establish a space in which young children believe they are creating their own adventure. Perhaps interactive ads should use the same tag line as this book series: "Choose Your Own Adventure: You're the star of the story!"Waking Up Hannah was my least favorite interactive ad, yet the one I have thought about the most since I first watched it. I went back through the video several times, and while I understand how and why Dove body wash is being marketed to twenty-something females by focusing on the "typical" life of a twenty-something female, I found the stereotype annoying and outdated. The creators were obviously going for a Sex and the City feel, but that storyline has been used so many times that there is nothing innovative about it.
During this interactive ad, I found myself becoming less active. Watching this girl figure out her life put me to sleep and made my forget I was supposed to be excited about her cucumber-scented soap.
I wonder if I would have reacted differently to the story and the product if Hannah had been played by a celebrity. These days, so many products are endorsed by celebrities, that I find myself more interested in the products when they appear in ads alongside my favorite models or actresses. Of course, ad agencies know that I think this way, and that's why CoverGirl uses Drew Barrymore to sell me their mascara.It was also frustrating that I had to keep choosing Hannah's body wash for her because companies and ad agencies are responsible for selling me the product. As a consumer, why would I make their job easier? If I stop clicking through their ad, their body wash will appear on the screen a minimal amount of times and they lose out, not me.
Watching these interactive ads has left me hungry for more, and not because I enjoyed the handful I watched. I'm on a mission to find one ad whose storyline grabs my attention and makes me run to the nearest store.
Image 1: http://www.handbagreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/madonna-lv-ad.jpg
Image 2:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_of_Time
Image 3:http://www.wakinguphannah.ca/index.html
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI think you really touch on something interesting when you say that Waking Up Hannah made you feel less active, like you didn't want to continue through with the storyline because it was boring. There was a recent article in Entertainment Weekly about how, during this recession, we as consumers don't want "intellectually stimulating" television and movies anymore, and that with all the problems we're facing we want to use entertainment as a retreat, or "comfort food." It's why innovative shows like 30 Rock and the aforementioned Gossip Girl don't have large audiences. Is there a market for interesting concepts like interactivity when Law and Order: Umpteenth Spinoff is available?
However, I wonder if the Dove ad was effective precisely because it was so frustrating. You said Waking Up Hannah is the ad you have been thinking about the most, even though you hated it. Something I was trying to get across in class on Tuesday (perhaps unsuccessfully) was the idea that any ad that gets people talking and thinking about their product is a successful ad. It's that old mantra about no publicity being bad publicity. Hopefully we'll get some answers in class on Thurs.
Very interesting post.
Emily, I agree with a lot of what you said. Interactivity is definitely out there much more on the web. But I too question whether it's effective. I don't really find much value in it. But its presence does create discussion. So I guess it works somewhat. But once the novelty wears off, the medium will have to improve drastically to remain effectively.
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