The Socialization of People & Things & Places

It's interesting to see this shift towards brands as a conduit for socializing in physical spaces, or as David Polinchock would call it, the "socialization of place."

From the past week, we've had the lovely sequel to the Life's for Sharing campaign (with strategy work done by the very brainy Richard Huntington).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orukqxeWmM0&w=485&h=300]

And we've seen McDonald's turn a billboard into an enhanced photo opportunity in the very touristy Piccadilly Circus in London. Of course, they've also got a flickr group for you to share photos, as well.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjVYVQOOJA8&w=425&h=344]

Reminds me again of David's Brand Experience Lab and they're super cool theater gaming experience called AudienceGame.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6izXII54Qc&w=425&h=344]

Certainly beats an expected reaction to just running a TV advert, no?

Mash the stuff that brings people together with the mobile elements that connect us to objects as well, then we're likely to push these types of experiences even further. To put this in context, I'd highly recommend this talk from Kevin Slavin of area/code from PSFK called "This Platform Called Everyday Life" (via Helge).

http://blip.tv/play/gfNK_YE6g6hf

My favorite quote from the talk, "“Here’s your fucking mobile media plan, it’s a sneaker and a ball and a plant and a truck and a shark."

It's quite fantastic to see these two trends converging so quickly. As we find new ways to bring people together around shared experience, and new ways to create ecosystems between people and things, things to other things and things back to people, there's still a whole bunch of interesting shit left to do for anyone with a little imagination, some empty space and a cell phone.