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ATOMIC expands minds and media

It's new technologies like these, explained Bajwa, which can help brands tap into and feed off of what's happening in the world, react in real time and ultimately develop a greater resonance with consumers. "To be relevant," he said, "you have to be in culture."

Transmedia storytelling - McCann-Erickson's Faris Yakob

Faris Yakob, EVP and chief technology strategist at McCann-Erickson in New York, introduced to ATOMIC the notion of transmedia storytelling - weaving evolving stories through a variety of media touchpoints - and discussed how it should replace traditional 360 media approaches as the future of brand marketing.

Content is now digital and ubiquitous thanks to new techs. It's fostered a participatory digital culture that's seen the end of media scarcity, diminished cultural latency and disintermediation. And it's provided brands new ways of building relationships.

He quoted MIT professor Henry Jenkins, the man behind the concept of multimedia storytelling: "Our focus should be not on technology but on emerging cultural practices."

Thus, Yakob put forward four principles to adhere to in order to effectively engage people in this new, mostly digital media world.

Firstly, the principle of ubiquity: make more stuff. Yakob cited Obama's presidential campaign as a textbook execution of this tenet. It's about constant content creation via multiple touchpoints.

Next, Yakob's principle of alacrity, a means by which brands should react to diminished cultural latency. A good example of that principle in action, said Yakob, was Schweppes' "Experience Counts" campaign where bi-weekly print ads were created to reflect timely news stories. "The rate of spreading is as important as the content," says Yakob. "We have to do things faster."

Disintermediation and creating direct relationships is the crux of Yakob's principle of utility. Brands, he said, need to generate content that people will care about and share with others.

Finally, people need to be involved and given something to do - Yakob's principle of interactivity - which he exemplified with the "Simpsonizer," where people could go to SimpsonizeMe.com and submit a picture in order to see what they'd look like as a character in The Simpsons.

Transmedia storytelling, posited Yakob can establish better relationships with consumers, as opposed to traditional media approaches - breaking up stories to be told in specific mediums, knowing they'll get passed along, each piece complementing the next. People, said Yakob, are taking back control of stories from corporations. Again, he quoted Henry Jenkins: "The key is to produce something that both pulls people together and gives them something to do. You don't have to control the conversation to benefit from it."

Innovations for individuals - Adidas Canada's Steve Ralph

Steve Ralph, president of Adidas Canada took to the stage to discuss how the lives of consumers have changed (being exposed to, and interacting with, more media than ever), and how Adidas is changing to address it.

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