It has been a wonderful experience to revisit the Sistine Chapel, now at a distance from the keyboard, also in an exquisite 360º virtual composition of impeccable quality. The distant visit has been reinvented and the first button is the proof.
In every sense and in every direction, familiar experiences are being surpassed by reinvented, enhanced, improved experiences. From scissors to first class on an extended flight, from the voice answering an answering machine to red wine and chewing gum.
In many of these, technology is an accelerator of ideas that remain at the heart of innovation. However, as in the case of spiral escalators, it’s often just a twist here or a turn there that comes to create a new and positive excitement.
More of the same, however, is what we continue to experience in Costa Rica, as if unaware that experiences around the world are all in an accelerated process of reinvention. In our case, it would be enough to put celery on the gallo pinto, at least to begin with.
Can you imagine how interesting it would be to have Glenda Umaña instead of Pilar Cisneros (at least for a month)? How refreshing it would be if Doña Laura went back to being just Laura and returned to Gorileo TV? And what if La Nación allowed us to design a monthly cover for her, taking turns with each Ascap agency? Wouldn’t it be exciting to have a soccer classic on the sandy beach next to the Irazú volcano?
If in a shopping mall the ceiling is painted, not like the Sistine, but at least like the sky, to prolong the day and the shopping hours, how much could we do new in Costa Rica if as a country we would reinvent the experiences?
It is clear that the most successful circus in history is Cirque du Soleil, precisely the one that did the unthinkable until very recently: eliminate animals. A circus without lions or elephants? Until a few years ago it would have been unimaginable, although it only took one visionary to reinvent it. And then, is it possible to paint San José white, or light blue? What an ugly city, for God’s sake! We have to do something by painting outside the lines and thinking outside the box. We have to light sparks everywhere, and reinvent our space.
Watching LeBron James today with the Miami Heat, as one more example, is like watching Michael Jordan years ago with the Bulls. More than a basketball game, it’s a show reinvented to make people want to come back. From the collegiate bands to the cheerleaders, from the time-outs to the ice-breakers. The reinvention of experiences has arrived everywhere, although in Costa Rica we have yet to realize it, with very few exceptions. Everything must be tuned to provoke an experience that one then wants to repeat, giving it a new flavor that fuses function and design, form and shape, tone and manner. When will we start openly in our country? Or to begin with, when in most stores or retail establishments in the country?
There are many attempts, although the conventional and traditional ones still dominate, those that have already been seen, precisely those who prefer to play it safe. Perhaps because they have not realized that there is no greater risk today than not taking one. The reinvention of experiences is calling us everywhere, from how to redesign the office (on the left a partial view of Tribu DDB) to how a consulting room should be, from the visit to the bank or to the church. And while I’m at it, look where we are with the Openhouse Project, because it’s not just saying, but doing what is said.
If we are doing or living something the way we did it three years ago, it is probably time to reinvent it. Technology, talent and tolerance will be the three key elements to achieve this on a national scale. Shall we start? Or in our case, colleagues and friends, shall we continue?
2011 has begun. So, let’s get to design. There is much to reinvent.
