AKQA + XBOX

Your Agency Just Designed Your Product
AQKA, a marketing agency with a knack for creating interactive experiences not only generates marketing campaigns for their XBOX client—they helped design the product.  This is not new news if you follow the interactive marketing industry, however—it does illustrate a trend that we'll probably be seeing more of.  The traditional role of an agency has been to persuade consumers to buy product—to take action—often by using effective storytelling techniques that connect with the consumer.  But lately marketing and advertising agencies are being tasked with creating the end experience in which the consumer interacts.  Some have called this consumer engagements.

Ogilvy didn't just create a wonderful campaign for Hershey Chocolate—they planned, architected, designed and helped build the experiential Hershey Store located in Times Square.  So what we are seeing is brand as the message, meeting brand as the experience with the same agency participating in both areas.  Stay tuned, there will be more of this to come as more players emerge over time.