Interactivity involves creating a story…be it choosing to take the elevator in The Secret Location interactive advertisement (IA), or selecting which hairdo to put on an M&M character in the Become an M&M IA. We are the creators, and although most of the time this is an illusion, that is the genius of advertising.
I suppose I agree with Lev Manovich in that we constantly “mistake the structure of somebody else’s mind for our own” in interactive ads. We may be pressing the buttons and pushing the links but there is a limit to the pathways we may take and the designers knew that limit. We are never really in control when it comes to this type of advertisement, but it is the ads that make us believe we are that are the most successful.
I spent about two hours on Samsung Anyflims.net. This IA is an interactive film where there are “10 characters. 1 event. A mysterious suitcase. A fascination with underwear. 10 possible endings. 11,000 ways for the story to play out.”
You pick four icons and drags them onto the grid. They will dictate plot, style, mood, and content. The icon options are a Gun, a Cell Phone, a Martini glass, a pair of Underwear, a Flower, and a Toilet. You then watch the scenes according to which icons you placed where and attempt to solve the mystery.
I tried 8 different films to try and figure out the mystery… each film had a title at the beginning, for example:
“The Highest Hate vs. The Nave Cherry”; ”The Covert Hegemony vs. The Decadent Frustration”; ”Abnormal Destructo! The Most Mysterious and Confident Train”.
First of all, Abnormal Destructo! sounds like it should be in Harry Potter. Second of all, none of the eight films led me to any sort of conclusion. I knew more and more about the characters, who shot who, what suitcase got placed where, etc.. However, there wasn’t any storyline to follow, because I was the storyteller. I loved this, and I hated this. I was finally acting out my childhood favorite, Nancy Drew (the girl detective), but I couldn’t solve the mystery and go to the ice cream shop at the end!
There was no mystery, I was simply fooled to continue on and create grid after grid. At the end of each film it would egg me on with “Nice work. But there’s more mystery to unravel. And the only way to figure this thing out is to make more films. What are you waiting for?” And back to the grid I’d go.
This ad aimed to get a Samsung phone that could play these IA films on your cell phone. Did it make me want a Samsung? No. Did it frustrate me? Yes. Did it entertain me? Yes. It was well made, interesting, and made me feel like a detective and a film maker all at once. Perhaps the ad didn’t make me want the phone, but it held my attention for so long, I at least have to give it props in saying it was indeed, interactive.
Modern advertising techniques have become so complex, however, is it necessary? Today, the abundance of interactive advertisements is very common in society. Like you said, “interactivity involves creating a story”, but how is this relevant to the advertising world? Most of the time, visual ads are expected to tell a story. Why can’t marketing techniques remain simple? Old advertisements used to be just as effective while being much less complex. Evidently, America is becoming more demanding for entertainment and excitement. It has become more difficult to please and enthuse the American consumer. Presenting a product and it’s benefits is no longer an effective marketing technique in the United States. Instead, people need to be grasped by an interactive and a time consuming source.