Interactive Creative

There was a time I was all about TV spots. I loved making them. I loved watching them. I loved the fact that it was the easiest way to describe my job, especially to my parents. Print and radio were great too, but nothing gave me career satisfaction like cranking out the big spot. My copy writer Eric and I made our share, too. We shot all over the US, we worked with the occasional celebrity, and we always tried to make our client’s brands stronger.

So came 2007! Woo Hoo. Youtube was on the rise, the iPhone was about to make it’s debut and I was still convinced that MySpace was designed as a NSA hookup spot. Well, the writing was on the wall on that new thing called Facebook.

See, I grew up in traditional advertising (Arnold) and had gone to a traditional print, TV and radio ad school. It’s hard to make that switch but a wise old man named Matt Smith said it’s important to learn or at least hire someone younger that knows what’s going on in the interactive world. So I made the leap for myself and hired an incredibly talented designer named Elizabeth.

Going digital meant totally changing my media consumption habits. I spent hours and hours on line – reading blogs, interacting with banners, fuc%in’ around on Facebook and pouring through web sites for hours upon hours watching gross negligence of what I call “flashterbation”.  It’s what watching hours and hours of MTV meant if you were a creative looking for a certain video style.

Making the digital jump doesn’t mean I’m forever living in the weird wide world of web either. For my first heavy experiment in digital I didn’t leave all my roots behind. We created a viral video. It was for Bursters Real Ice Cream. It was sort of a sweepstakes. Order a waffle cone, get a scratch ticket, go online, enter your email address and see if you’re a winner. Then within 30 seconds after you had registered you got a funny email in your in-box with a viral video about treating yourself to something real. So after the client pulled the plug on it after 1,000 emails were added to their database and numerous complaints about the “homosexual nature” of the video, it somehow “bred” on the weird wide world of web and people posted it everywhere. Within 2 months of the plug being pulled, it became #2 in world wide views for nearly a month with over 1 million views on Google video before YouTube bought them up. Now, the whole point of this white paper is going to be wrapped up in the next few sentences.

Interactive needs to be engaging. If it’s not engaging who is going to pass it around, “friend it” or “Tweet” about it or just simply hang out with it. I wonder if anyone reading this has ever “twittered’ themselves”?

Interactive creative needs to follow traditional design principles: creating a hierarchy with type and visuals. Just because you have the controls to do whatever you can imagine. Don’t! The guy at the carnival gets everyone back to the ground safely with 3 controls. This is something you should keep in mind. Concept rules “cool” effects don’t rule.

Interactive creative needs to connect. And gees don’t forget we need to talk to the target audience in a way that engages them. For Christ’s sake, I’ve had to learn a new language to not talk at Mellinials but engage them on their pillar they stand upon. This has also created a better dialogue between me and my 16 year old daughter.

Interactive creative is like a TV spot. Except it is viewed from your computer monitor. And let’s not forget about the principals that go into creating a TV spot. TV spots need to connect the target audience and make them recall the brand or purchase a product. Interactive is no different. Interactive needs to engage the target to create brand recall, make a purchase or pass it along to a friend. It’s all about connection. See, interactive actually has the upperhand by being able to instantly pass it to someone if the target likes it. Kind of like a free media buy from one person to the next. In TV spot world, do you remember standing around the water cooler saying I saw a great spot on TV last night it was killer let me think, it was for awe..errrr...but when you see it you’ll know the one I’m talking about.

I know it’s getting bare-boned everywhere nowadays, but in the digital world, it’s done faster and leaner. TV still commands the larger budgets, however, digital is knocking at its door, with its hand out. I’m not saying digital advertising is less satisfying than a great 30-second spot. I’m saying if it is done right it can be even more satisfying than a TV spot. Heck, with digital hits, people friend it and the pass along value of Interactive creative you can instantly tell how well your target likes your creative product. Digital advertising at its best is a participatory experience. The ultimate goal of TV advertising is to make a spot everyone talks about. The digital/interactive goal is to get people to play with it, “Friend” it or pass it around.  Join its world. Have fun and think about it like it’s a TV spot that’s as long as you want it to be. Welcome to the weird wide world of interactive creative. Make it clear and concise with a concept that speaks to the target and brand managers will be forever grateful.

Joe Easton

Creative Director