I am spending a week in Seattle – and attending Advance08 Leadership forum, welcoming 500 advertisers and publishers. Apart from our own executives speaking there is a whole list of industry guests – but I was particularly enthusiastic about the stories from Eisner and Cameron.
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner talked about story-driven online content as the next big killer application. What’s missing too much today is creative storytelling that capitalizes on the unique aspect of the internet, the power to interact & the power of communities. “Internet users will stay with a story for as long as it’s good. It’s not just 90 seconds or two minutes. They’ll stay with a story if it’s 10 minutes, 20 minutes, even 30 minutes. That’s why it is so exciting to be a part of the birth of the Internet as an entertainment medium, because there are no rules. We are simply making them up as we go along.”
I was also particularly impressed by the story telling of filmmaker James Cameron about the use of intense computer generated scenes with multiple shots and 3D. His new film, Avatar, features a man who tries to become a miner by combining his being with an alien during an interplanetary war in which aliens can manifest themselves through human bodies — avatars. “I don’t know whether will be great film from narrative and critical standpoint - The experience of Avatar will be an experience unlike any other movies. Avatar is the single most complex piece of filmmaking ever made with 1.600 shots for a 2.5 hour movie. We were Microsoft’s sandbox for filmmaking beyond the cutting edge.”
And obviously a great place to meet all our customers & agencies. Had great dinners with the French and German delegates in great Seattle locations.
I too thought Eisner was outstanding. His talk about creativity as the driver — storytelling much more than cash — was right on the mark. Being in a FMCG company, it’s all about “re-enforcing brands with strong creativity and financial disipline.”
Here’s his website: http://www.vuguru.com/about.php... and this is one of the projects http://foreignbody.tv/
PS: and in addition to great dinners with germans and french, you had a great lunch with the UK-based team!
You become predictable Stafford - in a good way
And Eisner indeed totally spoke to our discussion over lunch: how do we partner to create great story telling opportunities for brands, greatly engaging consumer experiences that tap into full potential of internet (interactivity, power of communities etc)
Hee, it’s a journey and as long as we enjoy the bus ride I am sure we’ll enjoy even more when we arrive somewhere - someday.
Thanks for joining us !
m