Sydney.For an Xploring project we have for one of our clients, I became a cameraman for the wedding of Kathy and Tim H.
One of Kathy's friends confided in me that, despite herself, Kathy had become a 'bridezilla'. In her bridezilla-dom, Kathy had hired a small army of photographers and videographers, leaving this Xplorer jostling for positions amongst the swarm of paparazzi seeking to take that 'perfect shot'.
I decided to move out of the ratrace and stand next to Steve, one of Tim's uni mates, who had brought along his new Sony Handycam to shoot. Curiously, while all the photographers and videographers kept their cameras and lenses trained on the speeches, Steve retired his Handycam back into its carrybag.
"Why aren't you shooting the speeches?", I asked.
"They're better as photos, nobody wants to see this on video"
"Why not?"
"Mate, people want to see movement, that's why I'm waiting for the waltz before I start shooting again"
It reminded me of a group we had for a baby food client, where one mum shared that she didn't bother bringing out the video camera until her baby started crawling. "Until then, it's all pretty boring isn't it? I'd rather take all the nice photos while baby is still getting used to the world".
As technology starts to converge and video cameras become photo cameras and vice-versa, it sometimes can be hard to forget that consumers essentially "hire" products for "jobs" they need to accomplish. The "job" of capturing a moment still belongs to the camera and the "job" of capturing moving pictures still belongs to the video camera.
Research we conducted for an electronics client confirmed that people still carried digital cameras alongside their multimedia phones. Why? Because they were still unconvinced that mobile phone cameras could take 'important photos' (i.e. pre-planned events, such as a wedding, 21st birthday).
Truth: Brands need to think about what "jobs" their products can accomplish for consumers. Consumers are constantly redefining what "jobs" they expect their digital products to complete. In a world of convergence, brands can often become jack-of-all-trades but masters of nothing - a dangerous place to be.
