You, your wand and an adventure. Sounds deeply suspicious. But actually it’s the basic principle of a new live-action role-playing game called MagiQuest.

MagiQuest is your story, your adventure, your imagination brought to life. So says the blurb. It’s certainly unlike anything you’ve encountered before. Playing the part of a ‘Magi’ – kind of like an apprentice wizard – you have to complete quests, find gold and, here’s the really good bit, challenge your mates to wand-to-wand duels.

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Do you like music? Okay, stupid question: I might as well ask if you like converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, or Christmas Dinner. Everyone loves a good tune – with the possible exception of Andrew Lloyd Webber – and there’s nothing better than getting it for nothing. Remember how the holy grail of free music lured an entire generation into the open paws of that creepy Napster cat? Until the Recording Industry Association tied the bugger up in a burlap sack and chucked it in the Mississippi, of course.

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It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that in September an edition of Entertainment Weekly in the US will feature the world’s first video-in-print advert. Previewing programmes from CBS’s upcoming season as well as adverts for Pepsi… the video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.

Each chip that feeds the screen can hold up to 40 minutes of video with the battery that powers the chip and screen being able to play for about 65 to 70 minutes. This battery can then be recharged by plugging in a mini USB cord and once you’ve got bored of the content contained in the chip… you can download additional content from the Web. Sounds clever, and expensive… so will it take off?

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On October 29th 2008 a 30-minute infomercial entitled ‘American Stories, American Solutions’ aired on virtually all of America’s TV Networks. This infomercial was the glittering jewel in Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign and garnered him over 30 million viewers and significant news coverage around the world… largely due to the $3 million it cost to air.

Obama’s Campaign, though, was newsworthy for more reasons than just this 30-minute infomercial. He was the first Presidential Candidate since John F. Kennedy to embrace a new medium successfully. In Kennedy’s case it was television… in Obama’s it was Web 2.0.

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An Amber Alert in action

At the end of October 2008 I found myself with quite a few hours to spare as I waited in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport for a connecting flight. Having never been to Chicago, I hopped on a train that was heading for the city. On the journey I stared out the window and among the many sites I saw was a billboard displaying what is known as an AMBER Alert™.

The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert™ is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of a child.

This creative use of a billboard got me thinking about how the Billboard medium is evolving, and how with the help of technology, the Billboard is becoming an effective Direct Response channel. Here are a few examples of how technology is breathing new life into the Billboard:

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