It’s been a week of augmented reality and blending of physical and digital stories this week on NEXT. I was going to hold this post until next week but decided to add it in to the mix. SSENSE from Montreal recently released what they called the “world’s first interactive shoppable music video” and it’s had some good coverage on Fast Company and PSFK.
It reminded me of one of the scenarios in the Microsoft Home here on our Redmond campus. In that scenario, you’re watching a TV program and when you click pause, everything on screen becomes “clickable”. That demo actually goes beyond the video of Diplo, FKi, and Iggy Azalea in the SSENSE video as it makes everything in the scene (buildings, bus schedules and more) interactive.
The SSENSE video is pretty cool, albeit a little distracting but clearly this is where things are heading.
Will all TV be like this in the future? It made me wonder what Amazon TV would look like based on this NY Times article yesterday and when will a gesturing at Don Draper's latest suit take me directly to the Banana Republic Mad Men collection?
The future of TV won't be clickable if it's done on the main viewing screen. Imagine the frustration as your companions viewing experience is interrupted while you click on a link to Amazon or Banana Republic to purchase a suit, or a book!
One way that I believe TV could be clickable in the future is via companion screens/tablets. A swipe could transfer the content from the large screen TV to the smaller, touch-sensitive screen, from which viewers can click through to items they want to purchase, while continuing to watch the show on the main screen.
I've written about the future of connected TV and OTT/broadcast on my blog www.thinkdifferently.ca/differently