The Tech of Our Lives
| 180 | Pieces of Coverage |
The wonder of technology
One day, when my Grandad was in hospital, I asked him if he had seen the Scotland rugby game the day before.
There was a small TV in the ward Grandad was in, but he told me he hadn’t seen the game because one of the other patients wanted to watch the football.
So I pulled out my phone, looked up the highlights on YouTube and handed it to him, along with my headphones.
He watched the clip, and even sang along to the national anthems of both teams, much to the amusement of everyone nearby. When he finished watching the highlights, he said:
“You know, Mark, that’s quite incredible. You have this thing in your pocket that isn’t connected to anything, and you can take it out and look up whatever you want. The speed at which I’ve seen technology change in my life is incredible. And it keeps getting faster.”
And that’s true. I have no idea how mobile phones work, not really. And years ago, even simple things like video calls were the subject of futuristic movies. And now they’re a reality. But we get used to it all. And we lose our sense of wonder.
So this got me thinking…
What other things – that seem futuristic and out of this world – will actually become a reality in our lifetime?
When I was consulting with Aira, one of the team came to me with an idea for their client, RS Components, about the future of technology.
During our discussion, I remembered the conversation with my Grandad, which allowed us to bring the idea to life.
Sometimes people make interactive content for the sake of it, in the hope that the shiny thing will help draw people in.
However, there are better reasons to make things interactive. One of them is to allow people to put themselves in the picture, making the content more relatable to their own lives.
With this in mind, here’s a brief snapshot of the content we created…
Now there are plenty of futurists’ predictions available online, saying certain devices will be available by 2040 or 2050 or whenever. But that isn’t quite the same as saying ‘By the time you’re 43, this thing will be a reality. It will be out there in the world. You might even be using it!’
That’s far more personal, relatable and emotive than some abstract year that sounds way off in the future.
It was this small change in the way the information was presented that made all the difference.
And the idea had an added bonus – something I always love to see – it opened itself up to a repeatable series.
As well as the first piece, The Futuristic Tech of Your Lifetime, the team at Aira went on to make The Future Tech of Your Home, The Future of Travel, The Future of Wearable Tech, and more.
In total, this content series earned over 180 pieces of coverage for RS Components.
I wasn’t involved in the ins and outs of the production. But I did help the team craft the visual concept and execution, which they then ran with to great success.
