ALEX CAMPBELL'S TUMBLELOG

Unlike a TV ad projected on a 40-foot screen at earsplitting volume, it seemed the [One Show] entries were no longer aimed at a group of cynics hoping to be passively entertained by slapstick pratfalls or epic mini-movies. You actually had to pay attention and follow along. And yet, freed from the comforting structures some of us had grown up with, the thinking had an extra dimension to it.

An initiative that turned an entire city into a Monopoly game. A Nigerian e-mail scam that actually rewarded the one sucker who gave his bank-account details. A gay-pride app calculating the heterosexuality of anyone you Googled. It occurred to me that the money we might have spent on a week at a fancy hotel while we waited for production on a shoot was now going towards something people might actually remember or keep. Even more interesting, given that this was interactive advertising, was the fact that people actually appeared to be interacting with clients’ brands.