So if I believe everything I read in the trade mags and blogs we are going to end up in a communications world where we digest our news via 50 x 5 syllable RSS headlines, updated every 0.1 seconds. We'll never have to see our friends. We can just type things on keyboards and our lives will flash in front of us via Facebook or whatever replaces it in a couple of years time.
The next thing for us to think abut in public relations, is at what pace will people we want to influence be reading our materials?
Right now, our emphasis is on pace and personalisation. Our default setting is consuming information as fast as possible to feed
some insecurity that we're either going to be left behind or left out. Via the principles of tagging we are delivering ideas to people who want to hear those ideas, and giving them something to get involved with. It's happening immediately, and instant communities are formed. My client Nokia's 'You Make It Reel' video production campaign would be a great example of that.
I've posted before though on the 'Joy Of Immersion.' DVD box sets sales are higher than ever. People immerse themselves joyfully into Lost, 24, Prison Break etc. Movie channels are running back-to-back movie franchise days. There is money to be made out of people who actually want to turn off all their devices and switch off.
It is at these times that the brain is so receptive. If I read a book on holiday, it may take me 6 months to get to the beach, but when I read it, I absorb it, it stays with me, it may influence me for a whole year after.
Bill Gates who makes software, recognises the power of immersion. The man books himself a reading week once a year when he disappears off somewhere, shuts the doors and does his big thinking. If you can get something into his big pile of reading I think it's fair to say you could look on that as a decent PR result. You may not get your instant hit, but that could well be one of the longest, deepest, richest, most influential pieces of work you will ever carry out.
How our consumption patterns continue to develop is one to watch. There will still be time and space for a good long powerful read and a think. And the more we speed up, the more we'll crave it.
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