avin narasimhan

often rambling, but hopefully always interesting

Posts tagged storytelling

0 notes

Google Celebrates Father’s Day Without Being Cheesy

via youtube.com

The latest in the generally great Search Stories series from Google. And another great example of the enduring power of film in creating and sharing stories. While I’m not a father and perhaps can’t relate exactly to the tension and emotion being conveyed, think it’d be hard not to feel something from this no matter who you are.

Well done, yet again.

Posted via web from avin narasimhan | Comment »

Filed under cocreation creativity film google innovation searchstories storytelling whatsnext

2 notes

Visual Story Of The Gulf Oil Spill

Leaving political commentary or tirades about BP aside, I think one thing we can all agree on is that the oil spill in the gulf is something that will fundamentally change many aspects of our culture and the future direction of the country for some time to come. But my guess is for many people, grasping exactly how much so is a bit difficult unless you’ve seen it live. And personally while I’ve been reading everything I can, and have seen bits and pieces of the impact in stories, pictures, videos scattered across the web, this presentation is one of the most powerful collection of images I’ve encountered so far, and probably brought it home most for me.

No long winded wrap around back to brands or marketing, just something that is incredibly powerful and I thought was worth a minute out of all of our days to take in (and a good reminder of how the daily problems and issues we may face as an industry seem rather trivial when put into context with an event that affects us all as human beings on a shared planet). Thanks to Guimera for taking the time to compile and share. One of the more awe-inspiring things I’ve come across in recent memory.

Posted via email from avin narasimhan | Comment »

Filed under BP community culture globalcitizens government gulfoilspill storytelling visualweb whatsnext

0 notes

Google and the art of story telling

Not surprisingly, reaction to Google’s decision to air a spot during the superbowl have been polarized. My own initial reaction was mixed, and while I had seen the spot before and liked it, I immediately questioned the decision. While some estimates show the spot gained about 600K views overnight as a result, I really wondered why Google had broken from it’s past philosophy on TV advertising, and what exactly they thought they would really gain from this when they absolutely dominate the market for search.


(In case somehow you missed it before, during, or after the Superbowl, here it is for your viewing pleasure)

</object>

But what got me to think about it a bit more closely was this justification of sorts last night from Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt:
If you watched the Super Bowl this evening you’ll have seen a video from Google called “Parisian Love”. In fact you might have watched it before, because it’s been on YouTube for over three months. We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.

If you like it too, we hope you’ll watch the others. Enjoy.

While the more cynical may suggest (and perhaps rightly) that this may be an attempt to post-rationalize jumping on a media bandwagon, it put things into a different light for me. The spot itself was less about making a splash in this environment, and more just an attempt to share how search (and, obviously, Google) have become such an integral part of our lives that what really matters now is the story of search and not search itself. And to me, even though Google was front and center, the functional part of search moved to the background and the experience search enabled is what really mattered (take that, bing!). Whether you saw it before or during the superbowl, the idea was the same as were the company’s intentions. The fact that it wasn’t created specifically for the spectacle, in and of itself, raises the credibility of that logic somewhat in my eyes. This was about sharing a story with Google at the center, and not about getting the small percentage of people not yet using Google to join the party.

Airing it during the Superbowl ultimately still may not do a lot in the grand scheme (and I still wouldn’t recommend running a spot during the superbowl to any client of mine), but with an understanding of their intentions I sort of start to get why they did it. And, I’m clearly not alone in having appreciated the beauty of the story they wove.

Posted via email from avin narasimhan | Comment »

Filed under adagencydeathwatch branding brands community culture google sbads storytelling superbowl superbowlspots