Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Verizon offers a fun take on the action film genre with Verizon Action Hero.  You direct your own action film by choosing a genre and a hero-character, then splicing together scenes, pithy dialogue, and music.  This paint-by-numbers approach seems especially appropriate during the summer blockbuster season.  Are you listening Michael Bay?

What really sets the experience apart is the ability to upload a photo of yourself, which is then digitized and rendered into the film clip within 24 hours.  It’s definitely a leap forward from the very paste-your-face-in-an-ad approach that was state of the art last year. 

I think the technology is fantastic but the overall execution could be stronger.  Doing the rendering in the background away from the site doesn’t demonstrate the power and speed of Verizon broadband, which should be the main purpose of the experience.  Contrast that with Comcast’s intricate games (and those amazing puppets) on their broadband promo site.  And because you have to wait a day to see the results of your work, Action Hero lacks the instant gratification factor that makes consumers want to forward their creations on to their friends.  R/GA’s last major effort for Verizon, The Human Beatbox, was truly inspired.  This falls just short.

Misha Cornes