Best tech at the PICNIC table?

So, in between branding sessions, what impressed at PICNIC?

For sheer wow factor, it was all about the augmented reality demonstrations from Barcelona’s YDreams and London’s Brand Experience Lab.   

But first a definition of “augmented reality” is called for.    

The term itself is nothing new. While you’d think it came from a cyberpunk novel, “augmented reality” was more prosaically coined in 1990 by Boeing engineers developing a prototype training solution.   Essentially, it’s all about overlaying CGI onto what the user is seeing and mapping this through use of motion capture. If you’ve ever seen Sony’s Eye Toy for the PS2 then you’ve seen it in action.   

But where the Eye Toy is often a solitary experience (stand drunk in front of your telly and fight robot ninja monkeys) both YDreams and Brand Experience Lab are making this a shared and – based on the PICNIC reaction – communally euphoric experience.    

It’s better seen than described, so get yourself to YouTube and search the phrase “Human Joysticks.”   What you’ll find is a crowd of cinema-goers during the opening weekend of Spiderman 3 in LA. You’ll see them whoop as only North Americans can while swaying from side to side to control a big screen version of arcade classic Breakout in a branded game developed by MSNBC.   

A variant on this was deployed at the London premiere of “Ratatouille” – sponsored by Volvo, the audience steered their way around a track, with a plan to stack up the scores of different audiences across the country  in a prize-winning competition.   

(Quick digression – Pixar have normally demonstrated a brilliant “does what it says on the tin” naming strategy for their films – viz. “Cars” and “Toy Story.” So why over-reach themselves this time with a title that requires its own pronunciation guide on the posters? Wouldn’t “Rat Chefs” have been closer the mark?)  

Anyway, then get back to YouTube and try a search on ‘YDreams’ + ‘Dove.’ A São Paulo audience similarly whoops and swoons (though in an infinitely more sensual South American fashion) as they burst virtual bubbles in a stunning piece of work delivered through OgilvyOne.   Not only does São Paulo ban toxic outdoor advertising, it gets immersive brand experiences like this. Nice.   

But while I’m all for brand engagement through shared emotional experiences, I’m  unsure just how many and varied the possibilities of this pre-movie tech actually are – so respect to Volvo for getting in there first in the UK. There are obviously opportunities to network different cinemas together and to have one audience play another, but the type of interaction and control is ultimately limited. That said, wait till you experience it – as you inevitably will – and feel the joy.   

And hell, it beats the standard pre-film fodder – I can easily see it becoming part of a pre-film ritual.  But for brands the challenge for the future will be in ensuring effective integration and messaging within the experience – something done better by Dove than by MSNBC.

On brand at PICNIC ‘07

 So, to Amsterdam for PICNIC ’07.   

With the strap line “Uncork your Mind” and heavy sponsorship from the likes of KLM, KPMG, Lost Boys and Heineken (notably unavailable and personally missed in the event’s main bar) PICNIC – now in its second year – bills itself as more a festival than a conference.   

And it very nearly gets there. 

In addition to the main conference sessions and workshops there are also audio-visual events across the city’s main music and arts venues (including De Balie, bringing on unwelcome flashbacks to a particularly messy panel I participated in seven years ago) and a transplanted version of New York’s “Come out and Play” urban games event.     

So yes, they do it well. If there’s one downside (other than the lack of Heineken, though this in part alleviated by the presence of local rival “Brand”) then it’s the issue that all these events face: however stellar the speaker list there’s never enough actively actionable content.    

PICNIC delivered on the high profile speakers but all too often all the high priced ticket money got you was just the showcasing of latest work or the uncritical promotion of latest books, business models or (stand up Richard Hytner, Saatchi’s global #2 dude) rhetorical slices of trendy jargon.   Nevertheless, some of the highlights nearly made up for this. Here are three:  

1. Arriving late and seemingly disoriented to his 15 minute “PICNIC Green moment,” actor – and enthusiast for all things green – Woody Harrelson talks to the topic of endangered redwoods. Or rather “ancient redwoods” – he seems unable to decouple the trees from the adjective and this lends a certain air of comedy. An air maintained by his stand out line: “If only those ancient creatures could talk…”  Class.   

2. Uber-hacker Pablos Holman of Komposite.com demonstrates the weakness of most everyday encryption techniques by performing some live exploits Yes, it’s the expected thing in these sessions, but the modern day phone-phreakery of hacking someone’s voicemail and changing the message is always good value. And this was Cory Doctorow’s answer phone message. Great stuff.  

3. “Cult of the Amateur” author Andrew Keen takes an almost aggressive and confrontational stance against David Weinberger’s evangelical view of the semantic web. Possibly Keen – whose thesis is that blogs deliver damagingly superficial observations of the world – is driven to this aggression by the sight of his audience blogging his words in real time. Or possibly he’s aware that a hard-line stance helps shift units.   

Either way, it’s not everyday you hear the terms “philosopher” and “humanist” hurled as insults…