A few weeks ago I gave a presentation at the Web Standards Group on ‘Thinking Outside the Web’. After the talk I was approached by the Workflow Specialist for the Northen Region, Integrated Sales and Marketing of Fuji Xerox Australia, Duane Mackey, who shared with me a project created by Fuji Xerox Australia to market their XMPie technology. I tried it out and it is fabulous! It is a short, fun experience that utilises a website, email, SMS. I’ve spoken with Eliot Harper, the man behind the work as well and they’ve confirmed some changes that they’ll be making (I sent some friendly suggestions). The service can also handle international mobile numbers so just pop in your country code (no + needed) and your mobile number without the 0 at the beginning.
In my talks I’m always trying to find ways to show people who have not experienced cross-media works the potential of what can be done, especially in a simultaneous media usage manner. I’ll be pointing people to this short work as an example of how seamless and fun it can be.
Check it out: http://www.beasuperhero.com.au/
Very neat overall, but the SMS component is baffling. After signing up, I got an SMS saying that “traffic jams in Perth are accelerating global warming. Help to plug this perniciousness! Reply ‘yes’ to accept this mission.” Naturally, I accepted, and got a comically simple response: “Thanks. Good luck on your mission.”
I guess I’m supposed to go solve Perth’s traffic problems now…?
Hey David,
You’re dead right. That is one of the items I mentioned in my ‘friendly suggestions’ to the designers. There is a call-to-action and then a wall. I presume the designers think that the first SMS is both a call-to-action and the mission reponse in itself…but it isn’t. A call-to-action needs a separate response. The model that I use (created) is this: The Call to Action Cycle: 1) Primer 2) Referral 3) Reward.
But apart from little probs, I really like the system because it is a quick and simple way to show people what it is like to have different media platforms and a response according to your input etc. Otherwise, I’m explaining it to people, which works, but isn’t as compelling.
I walk away from the work wanting to get the structure they’ve set up and crank out a few mini-story/game experiences of my own. It is these sorts of cross-media toys we need more of. 🙂