Food for thought: Fear managing is the new fear mongering
Forgiving a pretty face
Facebook to agencies: how will people share your story?
Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
My first blog post for Big Orange Slide isn’t going to be a missive on the death of advertising/print publication/Facebook/skinny jeans. I’d #fail as an author on those subjects anyway: I’m in advertising, I want to street fight people who would rob me of my books, I signed up for Facebook TWO DAYS AGO and I’ve always worn ill-fitting pants, regardless of trend.
Luckily, I literally stumbled upon the inspiration for this post in the park, on my way to glut on shawarma.
“It” was a labyrinth – one of those maze-like paths that you follow to the centre. Being flat, you didn’t realize it was there until you were standing over it, but discovering it changed the tone of the park. This labyrinth recalled why I got into digital creative in the first place: the ability to manufacture what I will call Elements of Surprise.
From videos to easter eggs, Elements of Surprise vary in expression. They are the products of imagination, yearning and delight. They are the rabbit holes and garden paths. The human-interest stories, stop-motion videos, wild postings and site easter eggs. The old ideas in new places, and the new ideas in old places. They are the delightfully useless applications of the human mind, shining their laser vision into the productivity of your day.
And I’d argue that they’re the currency of the Internet.
Social networking tools aspire to help uncover them.
StumbleUpon is like crack for the MTV generation. Swinging from a Burtynsky photograph to the epic “Durham’s Got Talent” (google it, trust me) is second nature to those who have psychologically abandoned the necessity for dialectic narrative (big words +10 points).
Even if you’re looking to keep your Social Network presence to a minimum, look no further than the new Facebook “like” feature, a massive grab bag of individual moments and media that have sparked something in someone, for whatever reason, and a suggestive glove in the face of Google.
Optimizing sites for portable devices gives us another type of Element of Surprise to collect and share. Foursquare’s competitor Gowalla has a selling feature that allows people to uncover hidden treasures when they log a venue. Fun!
Social ranking is based on sharing them.
What do you have to do on Twitter to garner a cult following? Sure, you can click on that mysterious link that promises “50,000 new followers a day!” Or, you can just indicate something quietly delightful – and do it often. Elements of Surprise are magnetic, as proven by the thread of comments that followed your link to Michal Buble being hunted by a velociraptor, or the hits to your gallery of embroidered text messages.
Advertisers thrive on creating them.
If advertising is about designing something to generate interest for something, Elements of Surprise are some of the most valuable tools to own. They’re the secret levels in video games. The mysterious wild posting element to your campaign. The little easter eggs on your site, like *ahem* the fact that you can scratch the radio spot records on the new Grip site *ahem*.
From a recruitment standpoint, agencies and clients that allow for these playful objects of discovery have an aura of difference. They recognize Elements of Surprise as strategic frivolity: small intoxicating glimpses into a culture of rigour, fun and humour. For me, an agency that sees the maraschino cherry as a necessary part of the Manhattan is the kind of place I want to work at.
In sum, Elements of Surprise have got an incredible knack for bringing people together and rallying interest.
Or maybe just turning high calorie lunch runs into long-winded blog posts.
Dave
May 6, 2010 @ 9:59 am
Great post. Here’s to Easter eggs and Manhattans!
Tweets that mention Elements of surprise « Big Orange Slide -- Topsy.com
May 6, 2010 @ 10:23 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by hamiltonink1. hamiltonink1 said: Elements of Surprise on the Slide today. A great lesson engagement (on or offline)… http://bit.ly/bZOVG5 [...]
Curtis Westman
May 6, 2010 @ 10:50 am
Any blog post that analogizes the Manhattan (probably the best rye-based cocktail) gets top marks in my book.
Dré
May 6, 2010 @ 12:05 pm
When the surprise leads to an Ah Ha moment, everybody wins!
Really great post.
Greg Shortall
May 6, 2010 @ 12:17 pm
Great post! Here’s to hoping the velociraptor is successful.
Jacoub Bondre
May 6, 2010 @ 1:37 pm
Shawarma is very good. And so is this post!
c jones
May 6, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
This post just made my day.
The Desert Dessert
May 6, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
[...] Full article: Elements of Surprise [...]
Thom Antonio
May 6, 2010 @ 10:55 pm
Ill-fitting pants can be an element of surprise, too.
eva
May 7, 2010 @ 8:40 am
This post made my morning :)
Harvey Carroll
May 7, 2010 @ 9:05 am
Great post! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I look forward to your next one.
Liz
May 7, 2010 @ 9:19 pm
What a delightful and insightful read Leilah – the element of surprise (or curiosity) is perhaps under appreciated as a driver of interest in the digital world, yet we accept it in “traditional” means of engagement without question. Pia’s illustration immediately evoked for me ‘Larry’s Party’ the wonderful book by Carol Shields in which each chapter was illustrated with a maze. The mediums may differ but the core idea of human interest and engagement is universal.
Paul
May 11, 2010 @ 12:01 am
Great post Leilah. I love you… and your mom.