The Small Things
Today’s world has become all about personalization. Email shots arrive with your name on them, Google serves you ads based on your profile, digital experiences drag in photos of your friends to show familiarity.
To me this all feel incredibly cold and robotic as it is more like a computer’s idea of creating an emotional bond. There is no thought or understanding of what these images mean or how these ads relate or make us feel. Imagine being served a series of engagement ring images the day after the love of your life had turned you down.
New technology is great but it needs to be used to enhance a creative idea rather than be the driver for the idea. We always question why we use any technology and find sometimes that the lo-fi solutions are the best.
We recently did a campaign for Greenpeace about fuel targets in the EU that centered round a vote by MEPs. Aside from the campaign website and social media activity, we had highlighted a number of key people that could influence the vote. We wanted to make them the heroes in a very personal way.
We developed a series of highly finished and compelling comics with our chosen MEPs named and drawn as part of the story.
This level of personalization enabled personal meetings between Greenpeace and the MEPs. The look of joy when they received the comic was very special and a result of true personalization. An item they are likely to keep for years to come and to think about when it comes to the vote
It even got them to promote the campaign through social media turning the tables completely.
We know that this can’t always be achieved as we were targeting a very small number of people but it is food for thought. Sometimes small can be big and the lo-fi solution can get very hi-fi social results. Just look at the recent Coke and Barclay’s campaigns.