07.26.07 Interactive Agency Partners

I started my second viewing of Brightcove on the front page and linked to TV Land and a Mr. T birthday card.  (My siblings birthdays were this week).  Funny, Mr. T has not aged, in fact he looks younger and slimmer than I recall.  Could he be a clone?!?  I immediately became Lost in Space.  No, really, look here (Warning: Turn sound down). Downside of this site is the videos auto start sometimes.  Interesting retro site for those of you born after 1975. 

But, getting back to what I THINK is the assignment, I dug deeper into the partners of Brightcove, namely the INTERACTIVE AGENCY list. Are these the people behind the curtain? (I see from looking at YouTube this is an overused reference). 

First I looked at Interactive Agency/PodDesigns/A&E TV/www.crackthecase.co.uk/.  Pet peeve: sound on PodDesign page was not adjustable that I could find.  Book promoted on site looks interesting, Convergence Design, iTV, wireless and broadband by Steve Curran. Actually, it looks like the site author, owner and business may only be Steve Curran.  No other persons mentioned, though it says "we".  Mouse in pocket, Steve or hubris royal we syndrome?

Curran's www.crackthecase.co.uk is a flash product divided into 5 sequentially launched interactive videos.  In each part, you begin to solve the mystery (presumably tied to tv show) by wandering through the product.  A video launched the beginning, but the rest is more static in delivery.  This product remind me of some early mystery/clue video games back in the mid 1990's as well as the original Encarta maze educational component.  My mind began to wander into opportunities of using this methodology as post lecture/workshop follow up mechanism for further instruction in an educational setting.  I returned to the agency list and found...

AKQA.com, which has more principals, just dripping with V.I.P. associations.  Read the back story on the Wayne Rooney Cola viral delivery of the "backlot" film.  It was a "leaked" video, initially distributed by one of the film crew to friends, ultimately ending up on YouTube and other places.  I suspect it had more impact being "discovered" rather than promoted and saved big bucks in marketing costs.  Shades of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition scenario...

I looked at DISTRIBUTION PARTNERS and found blinx  a video search engine.