Bill Gates knew what he was talking about back in 1996 when he wrote his article “Content is King”, and his reasonings can still be applied to our world today. The Internet was not what would bring people together, excite and entertain, and ultimately change the world – it would only be a conduit for what was ON the internet. When we start designing experiences, we take a very similar angle.
As the George Parker quote so elegantly puts it, content is the driving force of our experiences. You can have the greatest stage concept, web site design or sports arena, but if you have subpar content – the experience will be lacking. For example, our work with Activision highlights what we think is a proper marriage of content and conduit. The stage and screen is incredibly immersive, the audience can’t help but feel like they are in the production. The content takes that experience to the next level as it showcases Activision’s new slate of gaming options. If we had relied on simply the screen to create the experience, the audience would have had a lesser experience and the clients goals would not have been achieved.
When we take on new projects, or conceptualize future ideas, we constantly look to how content and the core idea will drive the overarching theme of the project. Projection mapping and augmented reality are amazing techniques and technologies, but will ultimately fall flat if not used with the proper content. At SXSW, our adage was reinforced by the amazing talents at Digital Domain as they presented their case study of their Tupac Hologram at Coachella. While their conduit was an old parlor trick (a peppers ghost effect), they went to incredible detail to ensure their content was top notch and their result was a generation defining event.
