experience matters

I read that Sony is in discussions to distribute some or their entire catalog through YouTube.

I think that is a smart move.  The site needs to update its ability to provide licensed content if it hopes to compete with Hulu.  But as much enjoyment as licensed content brings (I enjoy an episode of Family Guy on a Tuesday afternoon as much as the next guy), the question I would ask is this – as digital content, and therefore the digital consumer, continues to evolve, should the storytelling be passive or interactive?

If we look at offline storytelling, it traditionally has been a very passive experience.  You sit in front of a television or in a movie theatre and you watch because you want to be entertained or informed, right?  Maybe a 3D movie moves you around in your seat but I wouldn’t say that is interactive.

The earliest form of interactive storytelling I can remember is the Choose Your Own Adventure novels.  As a kid I was able to decide on my own if I wanted to head down the cave or go across the river.  To say that interactive storytelling has come along a bit is like saying the Chicago Bears have slightly updated the QB position last week.

What does Jay Cutler have to do with interactive storytelling?

Chris Crawford is a computer game designer who coined the term “interactive storytelling.”  He writes that… “The experience of interactive storytelling differs substantially from that of a conventional linear story. A linear story ‘runs on rails’ from start to finish in the most powerful and expeditious manner possible. The interactive storytelling experience meanders through a dramatic universe of possibilities. It lacks the sense of directed inevitability that gives conventional stories such power. It is like a butterfly flitting across a meadow, not a hawk plummeting down on its prey.”

So lets apply this to the migration of brand narrative to digital channels.  I am of the opinion that no longer can brands expect consumers to follow a click path from one environment to another. Crawford uses the term “meanders” to describe the interactive experience and I think it applies.  The new consumer picks where they go, just like I did in my CYOA novel.  They wander from channel to channel on their own terms.  To use Crawford’s simile, the new digitally driven consumer is a butterfly, fluttering across an open digital field looking for the right environment in which to land.

Every day there is a new channel that evolves to allow brands to engage the butterfly.  Hmm.  Engage the Butterfly.  Good album title.
The problem, however, is that many brands don’t see the consumer as the butterfly.  They see them as the caterpillar, slowly and methodically crawling along the consumer journey. But if you buy into my theory that today’s consumer is in fact the butterfly, does a passive storytelling experience work for them?  No chance.

Brands need to recognize that HOW they communicate today is more important than WHAT they communicate.  A simple checklist:

1.      Messages need to be consistent across channels

2.      Quick and easy to digest

3.      Always based on a key customer insight

4.      Make them interactive

Allow consumers to touch and feel the brand, ask them their opinions.  Give them the opportunity to guide the evolution of the message, and, perhaps, the brand itself, in the same way they were able to choose their own adventure.  But hurry up.  Pretty soon the caterpillar will emerge from the cocoon and it will be too late.