TV is dead... Oh wait, its fine.

Hybrid Media: How Social is Enabling Event TV

I like this presentation. Television is often held up as an "Old Media" straw man, which because of its inherently uninteractive format is destined to be cast aside to the analogue world of Betamax, Gramophones and those big grey gameboys people in Shoreditch wear as necklaces.

This presentation avoids all those cliches though, and argues TV has always been best when it is communal and social, and technology is now allowing this aspect to be expanded. Its an interesting time for TV and brands should be experimenting with how they can latch onto the two-screen behaviour people are already exhibiting. Some examples of it being used so far:

Honda- app to interact with the TV ad
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole- Shazam logo on the TV ad inviting viewers to buy the song there and then.
MTV Skins- 'Caption Bomb' conversation

Perrier Teases us

It is only July, and 2010 has already given us more immersive online experiences than you can shake a stick at. There were the Adidas streetview and Fight Club mashups at the start of the year, Lexus Dark Ride which raised the bar again, and now this, from Perrier of all people. It is mildly NSFW, which you could have guessed from the inclusion of Dita Von Teese, but it is worth a look. You follow Dita through the Perrier mansion, playing games and eventually watching her shower in Perrier. Though not including any of the Facebook integration of other examples, it holds the attention (of men), and is exactly the sort of interactive content which we will begin to see more and more of.

Touch screens and the Ipad teach us to expect interactivity from everything; books and ads to videos. The question is what happens when the novelty inevitably wears off.

Perrier by Dita

The Future of Retail

PSFK have put together some interesting thoughts on the future of retail. We like the idea of the "world as a retail experience", and it taps in nicely to the blurring of online and offline which we keep banging on about.

Samsung smash stuff

Samsung have launched a new viral idea in Sweden, called Shakedown. The website shows a live feed of a selection of phones on a glass table. You call the phone you want to vibrate, and if it shakes itself off the table into a fish tank below, you win it! What a great bit of simple interactive work. Well done Samsung.

Half Man, Half Keyboard

Using the internet to interact with the real world seems like a strange logic to me – what is the appeal of going online to do an activity when it’s far more fun to actually do it for real?
In the last few weeks BBC and Doritos have both launched campaigns that allow you to do just that. The BBC’s Blast Studio enables you to affect a real art studio, whilst Dorito’s Dodgeball Challenge lets you fire “real dodgeballs at real people”. Wow, thank God for the internet for allowing us to play dodgeball. How on earth did we ever play before?
Of course there are exceptions to this genre of website. The best example being sendamessage.nl that allows you to spray a message on the Gaza wall to remind the Palestinians that they have not been forgotten by the outside world.