Thing 1 and Thing 2

Tagged as: Open brand, engaging, social web, trends
Posted by: Nita Rollins 

 

Escapism has become one of the highest forms of national achievement (if you’ll pardon the paradox). Americans start early, studying Dr. Seuss’s twin avatars of escapism, those double trouble mini-me’s that made the Cat in the Hat look like a buttoned-up babysitter after all. Thing 1 and Thing 2 consecrate rainy-day imaginativeness for us in our impressionable years, and our devotion to diversions does anything but ebb in adulthood. We are likely affected by an inverse ratio of escapism to vacationing, with the former flourishing as the latter shrinks. Expedia’s brilliantly incriminating Vacation Deprivation Study shows the French weighing in with 37 beach and café days per year and Americans with a paltry 14—minus the three many of us never get around to taking. No wonder Americans need mentally to take leave (without leaving) on a regular basis.

Defined as “the desire to retreat into imaginative entertainment rather than deal with the stress, tedium, and daily problems of the mundane world,” escapism manifests itself in increasingly diverse and technologically sophisticated ways. Your tennis Wii is your Thing 1 and your new Flip video camera Thing 2. Your political tell-alls on Kindle are Thing 1 and your bachelorette mobile blogging on Kyte Thing 2.

One could argue that escapism is in many respects the turbine engine of the social web. Amateur digital creativity put in the service of fun abounds, so OPEN brands focused on improving the Engaging consumer experience confront a staggeringly high escapist entertainment threshold. Consumers are geared up for web sites and social media campaigns that are aesthetically, functionally, narratively, socially and sensorially rich enough to make them feel teleported. Deliriously lost in the moment’s challenge. A part of the (thickening) plot. As if they were getting away--with it!

What would the Things do? Probably borrow from the unrepentantly escapist fare of video games or ARGs, whose protocols and pleasures are moving into the mainstream while undergoing quite a reappraisal (read: redemption) these days. Recall Steven Berlin Johnson’s argument for video games’ cognitive benefits in Everything Bad is Good for You. And tune in to the High Priestess of Alternate Reality Games Jane McGonigal, who convinced the SXSW crowd in March that ARGs meet all four criteria of happiness: they give you satisfying work to do; are designed for you to be successful; enable you, in multiplayer games, to spend time with people you like; and give you a chance to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

Now that’s escapism of a higher order. Engaging brands: man your joysticks.

Tagged as: Open brand, engaging, social web, trends

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