Multi-sensorial to multi-media

AD ANGLES

Prasoon Joshi's take on Life, the Universe and Advertising.

Nowadays you rarely hear anyone say their media-mix comprises just film or press or the Internet. It's increasingly about doing a "multi-media" campaign, or about capturing all 360-degree touch points.

The whole idea behind looking at holistic ways and newer mediums of reaching and communicating with the consumer is to make maximum impact on him.

Television as a medium worked better than radio because it captured not only the consumer's aural, but also the visual sense, heightening the overall impact. In the absence of personal, one-to-one human interaction, which is impossible when it comes to mass-marketing, the effort is to capture space in the consumer's mind not through a single medium "" audio, visual, physical or sampling "" but by trying to fully optimise the sensorial avenues of experience of a consumer.

This is what multi-media or integrated media seeks to do "" replicate a human-to-human interaction, a one-to-one brand or sales pitch, by making it as multi-sensorial as possible.

I have faith in this multi-pronged, multi-media approach and the belief that we need to address as many sources of consumer reach and impact as possible. Where I differ is that we might not need to do it in a very calculated, disectional and formulaic manner. To be specific, I think, one great idea done in just one medium can become a multi-sensorial experience.

Allow me to quote a few lines from W H Auden's poem "In Memory of W B Yeats":
"He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
The snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day...
Now he is scattered among a hundred cities...
The words of a dead man
Are modified in the guts of the living"

Each line in this poem is a carefully crafted piece of artistry. By the way of intentionally placed words, punctuation and sound, a poem moves forward either nimbly or with languid comprehension. Its words have the power to transport you literally into the scene and feel the moment.

So while a great piece of writing might be heard or read, it is capable, in effect, of generating pictures, visuals or even smells. A superbly done piece of audio can immerse you completely. A beautiful painting can transport you momentarily to a different world. A brand in some cases can be launched through primarily outdoor. If done well, just one medium ends up delivering multi-media results. It's when an idea excels, the effects translate into a multi-media/sensorial experience.

As for singling out a medium that has the potent power to deliver multi-media impact, for me it is the one that is touted as the new frontier in our business. Digital.

Digital is a medium that has the potent power to deliver multimedia impact. It does the trick to the maximum because it converges and is closest to what I call human interactions.

I am myself a huge fan of all things digital. But the more I have got into the medium, the more I have deconstructed it, the more I realise that what we are talking about is simple. Digital is not creating a new human being or a new desire; it is tapping into needs that always existed.

Let me elaborate what I mean with the example of ancient tribal culture. Such a culture existed in most parts of the world and its key facet was that it was very participative.

Take, for instance, folk dances. People sang and danced together, and almost one after another everyone was pulled into it, becoming a part of the dance group.

And they entertained one another.

Gradually, this changed, and a few started performing for others who became mere spectators. In course of time, theatre, cinema and the television took this even further and made us all spectators.

But the desire to participate, though latent, remained. Digital has reopened and unleashed this desire and gradually it is becoming collective and participative again.

I am not saying that the performer-spectator culture is going to die, but it will co-exist with the participative culture on the increase.

Another paradigm of digital is the existence of a virtual world. I happen to be a great Second Life (an Internet-based interactive and participative virtual world) enthusiast. But even this online experience doesn't have codes separate from the offline. You can own a home, get married, go through pregnancy, adopt a child and so on, and the issues in real life are the same on Second Life, too "" that of terrorism, paedophilia, infidelity and so on. The life codes are the same "" the first life is replicated in the second life.

So, before we debunk the conventional routes of advertising and communication in the quest for a "newer" way, we need to understand that digital is not a panacea for all marketing ills, or have unrealistic expectations. Digital is not the end, it is yet another means.

Content is still the hero. What digital has helped do is give us a larger and more attractive platform. It has expanded our multi-sensorial experiences. It is an evolution not a revolution. We need to understand this and utilise digital accordingly.

Prasoon Joshi is executive chairman and regional creative director, Asia Pacific, McCann Erickson