One of the most inspired and compelling web experiences we have seen recently launched on Monday, a collaboration between Google, filmmaker Chris Milk and Montreal mega-indie band Arcade Fire.
This is not the first time we’ve seen Arcade Fire push the envelope of what a music video should be. In 2007, the band released a short interactive video for the title track of their second album Neon Bible on their bonlineb.com site. The viewer could click to control what Win Butler did with hands, or click on his face to reveal the song’s lyrics.
The Wilderness Downtown Experience
The latest interactive Arcade Fire project ‘The Wilderness Downtown‘ described by Google as a “Chrome Experience’, features the song ‘We Used to Wait’ from their new album Suburbs. The lyrics of the song refer back to the days before instant communications when we used to write letters and the anticipation of waiting for them to be delivered. The experiment was built using the latest open web technologies including HTML5, video, audio and canvas. The details of how each technology was used in the project are listed on the Chrome Experiments site.
The experience begins by entering the street address of your childhood home. Upon launch we see a browser pane open with a child running down a suburban street. Soon, other windows begin to open and we see flocks of animated birds, a Google Maps satellite view and rotating Street View images appear based on the address chosen. I’ve watched this with several friends over the week, and have seen the smiles appear on their faces as they point out the house they grew up in. Its inspiring to see a project on the web generate such emotional response.
One of the most poignant moments happens when they viewer is invited to write a postcard to their childhood selves. After drawing the message with your cursor, the animated birds fly in to roost on the type before flying off into another one of the panes. The song climaxes with animated trees exploding into view on the paved streets within the Street View image captures.
The experience continues by ‘Sending your Postcard Downtown’. The digital postcard has a unique URL that the user is asked to bookmark, this is where they will receive digital postcards from other users. The postcards will also be used as live concert visuals during Arcade Fire’s tour. Some postcards will be made into printed cards on special paper that contains birch tree seeds and distributed at concerts. Plant the cards and a tree grows.
Transmedia Experiences
Its inspiring to see artists such as Arcade Fire break out of the norm and expand upon the idea of what a promotional video is, and to take advantage of technologies to tell a compelling story. We can expect to see much more projects like this is the future, involving combinations of the real-world, web, mobile, augmented reality and social media. The only limits are the artist’s imagination, whether than artist be a musician, visual artist, filmmaker or programmer. The term “transmedia” has been adopted to describe these experiences, as stories are presented across a number of media platforms with multiple paths, entry and exit points available to the viewer.
Digital Touchpoints & the Customer Experience
These transmedia experiences can be compared in scope to the digital customer experience world in which Delvinia operates. The customer’s story with an organization or brand can evolve in any number of ways. What is key is that the digital and ‘real-life’ touchpoints provide a positive experience for the customer whether they are on your website, Facebook page, on the phone to your call-center or walking into a physical storefront. Create a compelling and positive story for your customer to tell.