BIG Ideas for the week of 6/15

Creative inspiration for a new (virtual) reality

Happy June 17th, aka Drogo of Metz’s Birthday. A man with big ambitions, Drogo would certainly be pretty jacked about some of this week’s BIG ideas:

• Solving Online Events — A herculean task to be sure, but this piece by Ben Evans, while not providing a silver bullet, clearly breaks down the challenges. Take a look, and if you’re so inclined, please let me know what you think of his analysis.
• Drive-in Experiences As a kid, I loved going to the drive-in movie theater with my grandparents near Pittsburgh, so I love seeing them make a comeback. According to Wonderman Thompson Intelligence, raves and fashion shows might also be coming to parking lots near us soon, which makes me wonder how/if such a model could work for our clients…
• No Close-Talkers Allowed Another piece this week on how cities around the world are using wayfinding and graphic design to encourage social distancing. In our business, the faster these types of modifications are embraced, the sooner we get back to some version of normal.
• Safe Distancing via Big Brother Well, Big Bezos, at least. Not sure what to make of this, other than it seems just a little creepy.

• Wondering what to do with that former German U-boat base in your town? Just do what this French town did, and turn it into a jaw-dropping immersive art experience that has to be seen to be believed. It’s a projection mapping masterpiece. For a little more background, read this Guardian piece.
• Let’s Talk Metaverse — And yes, “Meta-what?” is the right response here, at least if you’re a member of my “Hey you kids, get off my lawn!” age group. It’s hard to sum this up in a pithy sentence or two, so suffice it to say, this is just one more article that helps illustrate how “virtual,” “online,” “digital,” or whatever you want to call it a) was here and flourishing pre-pandemic, and b) isn’t going anywhere post-pandemic. Lesson: While live events, per Ben Evans, are certainly a bundle of unique propositions, they are going to have to evolve to satisfy the metaverse needs of younger attendees.
• Everything’s Connected According to this interesting bit of new research, 80% of U.S. households with TVs have connected (Roku, Apple, etc) TVs, and 40% use them to watch at least one show daily. My first thought here is why more virtual events aren’t being designed, produced, and delivered over-the-top (OTT)to provide attendees with a larger-screen experience–one that’s more visually immersive (compared to a laptop screen.)
• Zuck’s Play Facebook is adding some fun video conferencing functionality to Portal. I particularly like the third photo from the top, where emojis are enabled over the video. I haven’t used this myself, so perhaps the UX doesn’t cut it, but I do believe that weaving popular online behaviors into new(ish) products like video chat only make them more engaging to a larger audience.
• Drinkers with Running Problems I’m filing this in the “Work that makes me want to get back to normal” category because I can’t wait to propose LIVE experiential activations like this again. As a reformed runner, I love the idea of a pub where you can only pay in miles run. With “friendly” tracking tech available to our clients, there are plenty of unique ways we could reward attendee engagement during a conference, from presentations attended to new contacts made (and all redeemable at sponsored mixers or cafes.)

In closing, I’m reminded of the immortal words of Drogo of Metz, who famously said, “I like BIG ideas and I cannot lie.” Let them guide you and inspire you until next week, when I’ll be back with some more creative, uh, stuff. And, as always, share any creative stuff you discover during the week, I’d love to hear from you (yes you.)