Fast Forward to Instant

A good video there of a great man from Google’s creative labs to emphasise the potential of Google Instant (which in itself isn’t that interesting).  It’s way better than the bizarre, almost self-parodying, explanation clip they really don’t need to bother with.

The videos are what they are though.  Sure Instant is going to save humanity loads of time but so would getting out the shower sooner, tying shoelaces faster and reading less.  There’s countless things we can do with our lives to save a few seconds here and there but sometimes it’s just not worth it.  Anyway, we’re going to be searching less soon anyway.

What’s more interesting is that along with Live on youtube, which is just being trialled today and tomorrow I believe, we’re getting to a more instantaneous culture.  Sure, this isn’t a moment of true, divine revelation.  Instant communications are rubbing off on the world and we’re all expecting things right away (plus trends are moving faster and faster, see American Apparel’s sudden collapse, so they need connecting with sooner).  This is what Old Spice cottoned onto a couple of months ago when W+K infamously tapped into the power of Twitter to drum up interest in musty deoderants.  There’s definitely legs to instantaneous advertising.  People ‘sitting’ in instant spaces on smartphones need contact immediately to engage them or they’re gone and off interacting with someone or something else.  Whoever is brave enough to copy the Old Spice model next will probably also have some success with the figures because it plugs into a key quality of social media (the catch me while you can quality).  And at the same time get a real roasting on the blogs.  After that nobody will care because everyone will start doing it.

The big problem with immediate advertising is quality control.  Many great ideas in advertising come from a real understanding of the product which itself develops through a real investment in time and good research.  This presentation touches on this.  It talks about stalking consumers when really brands should be stalking themselves to create something that consumers want to stalk.  I almost agree wholeheartedly but think that the point could be made slightly clearer.  Consumers are after some value and that is why they stalk.  To decide what this value is it’s always going to be helpful to have some understanding of your consumers.  Understanding your product is an idea that has been around the block; David Ogilvy championed it years ago.

Instantaneous advertising through its very nature might be less likely to strike gold with a key insight/great creative work.  But with more iterations then there’s also a slim chance the odds improve again.  What’s key though is the preparation to cover the majority of potential outcomes and the willingness to be taken for a ride when something comes along that wasn’t covered in the preparation.  Afterall, perfection as Churchill said is a waste of time.  You can’t think creatively as quickly as the technology can exchange what you’ve come up with but you can look like you are keeping up with the pace with plenty of preparation, a bold attitude and a very clear message.  Basically hard work.

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