I like favicons.
I like when people do clever things with them.
It always seems a waste to me when a brand website has a generic favicon.
So I liked this very very small idea that Markus sent me.
I think that novelty is a powerful thing.
When people haven't seen a brand using a space in just that way before, it disarms the standard interruption annoyance.
So this massively obstructive flash overlay becomes charming.
The problem with novelty as a strategy is that you have to keep doing different, never before done things all the time.
Maybe that isn't a problem exactly.
It's just what makes it hard.
5 responses to “Favicads or The Disarming Nature of Novelty”
Faris,
In addition to novelty and disruption, I think your post gets to the power of connecting through pleasant surprises. Unexpected messages which are relevant to the product’s relationship with the customer can be innovative (like the Apple example you gave) or just smart insider’s-secret-handshake kind of stuff (I think of the traditional offline tactics Mini used for its owners groups). As long as it reinforces how the brand shares a world view with the customer.
To your other point, since novelty as a strategy is so grueling, is it worth tackling? I haven’t thought this out extensively, but I’m sure there are brands that have successfully adopted novelty as an ongoing, long-term strategy (Burger King?). Does that novelty wear out its power only when it fails the never-been-done-before test, or do we as consumers ever get to a saturation point of clever?
Thanks for another thought-provoking post.
It’s not so hard if you simply scrape the internet for good ideas: http://laughingsquid.com/a-tiny-version-of-defender-arcade-game-played-inside-a-favicon/
Talent imitates, genius steals indeed.
jake: unexpected is definitely good:
http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2008/12/disrupted-expectations.html
Mike – oh well. indeed. stolen genius. i knew it seemed faviliar 😉
Right on, Faris. Novelty as a strategy must continue to be used in different ways, otherwise, it’s not a novelty – it’s just average, which means it becomes unnoticeable.
As Seth Godin would say, brands need to be remarkable. Even if it means being remarkably boring,slow, or cheap because if you’re the MOST anything, you will stand out. You may not appeal to everyone, but there’s probably a small group of people out there that will like what you’re doing.
great minds think alike. or work together like in this case. mathieu rulez & we don’t steal. best, markus