C’mon, Touch Me, Babe

I’ve long been a doomsayer on the topic of technology. And I’ll admit that the reason is that I’m an anti-techie who’ll never be able to keep up with the pace of change, who hates the people who can, and who looks for every and any occasion to point out that they are a cabal of Satanists who will lead us all by fiber-optic cable to a cliff where awaits our doom. Because I know they’re all just going to eat my lunch anyway.

There was one nightmarish vision I had, however, that I thought to be the real deal.

Long removed from being ink-stained wretches, we in the publishing business were exposed to the wonders of modems and the Internet way back in the early ’90s. We glommed onto them because they made for immediate transmission of copy and, later, images to comp houses and printing plants. They allowed us to extend our deadlines by a week or more, and they taught us that we could miss those deadlines, too!

Nearly a decade ago, I watched my then-managing editor hanging late at work every night, hunched over his Mac, checking the news, ordering computer peripherals, paying his bills, and lolling in unspeakable chat rooms (an apparent oxymoron, but “unspeakable” is the best adjective to describe them, trust me). It was then that I had this dire premonition of the future:

If the automobile and the television had dealt the traditional American community a death blow by chaining people to their suburban hideaways, the PC and the Internet would surely spell the end of interpersonal communications. People would soon be able to acquire food, clothing, education, and income via the World Wide Web. Never having to leave their swivel chairs, they would evolve into atrophied, apathetic misanthropes who, polluted by a blur of sex and hate Web sites, would spend the bulk of their days plotting and executing the demise of every other pathetic soul who could be probed by their modems. Or, at the very least, they would not be very sociable.

Of course, and call me Nostradamus, that’s not the way it’s working out. Human nature being human nature, the Internet is forcing people to seek out ways to interact with each other face-to-face. It’s also forcing bricks-and-mortar retailers to finally start delivering on their long-ballyhooed “retail-tainment” promise – or face annihilation at the hands of Priceline.com, et al. Malls and supermarkets will become 365-day-a-year event sites, and brands and old promotion hands will be enlisted to help them put on the show.

Picture a Disney World in which the main attractions are the gift shops. That’s pretty much the concept being worked at Venus Fort, a theme-park-like mall on the Tokyo waterfront that recreates an 18th-century European village. Five themed plazas are linked by a promenade and covered by a “virtual sky” that can be switched to daylight, dawn, or dusk. In the first five days it was open, Venus Fort drew 400,000 people.

In the States, supermarket chains are proving that bold concepts can work around consumers’ alleged disdain for food shopping. Wegman’s massive prepared-food courts – offering gourmet pizza, Chinese, barbecue, and more – draw people for lunch and coerce them to stay and shop. Every kid entering HEB’s Central Market in Austin, TX, gets a balloon, and parents are liable to run into professional “foodies” who work the aisles and encourage them to sample – literally – the mega-store’s 500 varieties of cheese or 200 brands of olive oil.

Turner Broadcasting and the Simon Property Group are at work on a partnership that could make “retail-tainment” more than just some consultant’s reverie. The two are looking at fourth-quarter 2000 as the launch point for an entertainment network in 175 Simon malls that will include in-mall TV networks, movie premieres and other live events, and Cartoon Network “family zones” featuring games and food. Turner and Simon are approaching other brands to take part in their “live marketing medium.”

Buying a new car has gotten a lot easier since the advent of the Internet. Who ever looks forward to that awkward first handshake with a car salesmen? But e-mail or no e-mail, people still like to touch and be touched. The Internet has burst wide open the opportunities for marketers to reach out and touch consumers. Promotion agencies and service companies who are expert at doing just that should thrive.As for me? Wrong again, but glad.>EN