• by February 22, 2008

I'm temporarily at a loss. There's a fantastic technology-demo video bouncing around online at the moment. It's of a guy named Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrating software that promises to transform the way we view images. The app, Photosynth, creates hyperlinks between found images on the Web. I'd try to describe it, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so look it up.

Photosynth itself is a brilliant piece of technology, but the platform it's based on is no less mind-blowing and may be more interesting from a communications perspective. It's called Seadragon and it lets you view details in an image that would be invisible otherwise.

One of their demonstrations is a newspaper that looks exactly the same in digital form as it does in printed form. At first blush, it doesn't appear all that new. It's a bit like looking at a newspaper through a magnifying glass - or enlarging the Web page on your iPhone. But then the next level of demonstration kicks in, which is more akin to looking at a newspaper through a microscope.

They started with a fake car ad that took up a small space in the right-hand corner of the front page. On the surface it looks like exactly the kind of car ad you'd expect to see in that sort of environment until the zooming begins and all kinds of information appears - the features of the model being advertised, information on other models in the line and even the complete technical specifications for the car. Exactly the details you want, exactly when you want them.

It's a very intuitive display and, as you watch, you realize that it is just how you'd like to interact with all advertising. Ignore it if it doesn't appeal to you, but drill down if it does. Mr. Aguera y Arcas himself states that he hopes the technology will "do away with pop-ups and all that rubbish."

Unfortunately, of course, the technology isn't available right now. But there are clear lessons that can be drawn from the wholly enjoyable experience of watching it in action.

The first is that our interactions with brands are much more pleasant when they don't intrude where they're not wanted. People who block the sidewalk in order to thrust leaflets into our hands tend not to endear themselves to us. Neither do crafty ad-serving tricks that jump out at us when we're not expecting them. It's always best to be invited into a conversation, but, failing that, at least we can be polite enough not to interrupt a conversation with someone else.

The second is to recognize that every now and again we do manage to hit a nerve with a consumer, and interest them in what we are saying. And in rose-tinted anticipation of that, we need to think about what they will want to hear next. The Seadragon demo is most interesting for its ability to provide the next layer of information in exactly the same place as you are looking at the first. When you see a car ad you like, it's natural to wonder what the features are or what other models are in the range. With Seadragon, all of the information is displayed in the same place. But even in the absence of such elegant technology, we can create communications architecture that mirrors the effect.

Think of the communications plan as a series of hypertext links where one piece of interesting information leads to another piece that is equally interesting but slightly more detailed.

What is the role of the products packaging in the plan? Is it the consumer's first interaction with the brand - in which case we'd need to attract their attention and ensure that the brand's story is told? Or is it something they see at the end of a protracted period of consideration - in which case we may want to think more aggressively about clinching a sale. What's the role of the store window, the dealer parking lot, the tables in QSRs?

They're not the kind of questions that inform the average media plan. But those media are some of the most powerful channels we have available to us. And until technologies like Seadragon become viable, they're the kind of questions that can lead toward much friendlier and more effective communications plans.

Paul Parton is the brand-planning partner at The Brooklyn Brothers, a creative collective. (paul@thebrooklynbrothers.com)