At the forefront of place branding we’re seeing an interesting trend emerging. The celebration of the human desire for the unexpected. The need for an emotive layer in our automated worlds.
The impact of this on large scale branded developments in highly populated urban areas is fascinating. There’s a perception that many city developments are pristine but sadly, soulless spaces.
The new Kings Cross development in London, is centred on Europe’s biggest new public space, Granary Square. The developers went right back to ideas first promoted in ancient Rome. They believed a city should provide inspiration and wonder, with the unexpected around any corner. This strategy means the plans of the development are literally reversed, with the public areas being planned first. Local people were invited in, encouraged to linger and be entertained. It allowed people to establish a sense of space and identity, anchoring them and their needs to the place before fitting commercial properties around it. Costly, but the under-pinning theory still works the best. Placing people first.
Geographer Bradley L Garrett wrote in The Guardian, “The problem with these developments is they lack that kind of energy. They feel too monitored, too controlled.”
The geographer David Harvey said, “The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is…one of the most precious, yet most neglected of our human rights.”
Constant change, exploration and progression is demonstrated to those few experiencing a fully self-driving car. People commented how it was terrifying initially, but within 15 minutes it became numbingly boring. The same can be said of our surroundings.
We are adapting to our changing cityscapes with remarkable ease. We really don’t want the expected. Our emotions demand spontaneity for a reassurance of reality. Research by UCL and Otto von Guericke University prove our brains respond to the novelty of situations by exploring, in search of a reward. It’s well documented how shoppers speed up when walking past blank facades. So it’s not just architecture, it’s the pulse of people on the street. The environmental psychologist and neuroscientist Colin Ellard recently wrote about humans feeling happier, more comfortable and more productive within cityscapes offering novelty and impulse options.
This is not an invitation to simply reflect a happy, smiley world.
A smiling image in an ad is now considered fake. The upshot of this? The stock photo libraries like Shutterstock are reporting a doubling in demand for images showing ‘sadness’. Even ‘fear’ is being selected almost twice as often as ‘surprise’. A not-so-perfect world is the new perfect world. Highlighted as supermarkets are now championing ‘wonky’ fruit and veg.
An identity that evolves and involves the user.
But what does this mean for the spaces we inhabit, both digitally and in the real world? Whether we know it or not, we need the odd bump in the road. Constantly looking for the unexpected, to experience the new. Be it a random Instagram, beguiling outdoor banner or a public space with the most bizarre pop-up that disappears 48 hours later or an identity that evolves and involves the user. The psychologist Danial Goleman said, “Emotion plays a powerful role in our lives and has gained significant attention as a priority area of study in interaction design.”
Consumers will enthusiastically spend money in a place or at an event that promises ‘managed’ versions of the unexpected.
It has been shown that increased loyalty and productivity come from environments that facilitate the needs of social and physical group dynamics. It’s no wonder that immersive experiences whether dinning, theatre or film are so big right now. The engaging promise is of a layer of humanity and a little managed chaos added to the experience.
This element of spontaneity is what we’re searching for. Online or in the real world. It’s what is driving us to rethink how we brand the locations and spaces we visit and live in.
By embracing the joy of human chaos we will make our public spaces more interactive, fun experiences and their online presence more inspiring and enjoyable.