We’ve discussed the evolution from banner ads to branded widgets to full blown branded web applications. Many marketers are starting to understand the value of delivering useful “content” to their audiences as a means of engaging them. However, it’s worth spending a moment to examine the word “content” and how it’s used. It’s critical that we share a common understanding so we can take advantage of the new medium.

The following assertions are somewhat generalized but still useful to understand for our purposes. In the software industry content usually refers to stuff made by writers, (as well as photographers, musicians, videographers, directors, and producers). Content is the stuff that software presents, manipulates, finds, edits, etc. And it’s considered “easy”. In the content world, if software is even given any consideration, it’s considered… well… content. And more typically in the content world, software is not given any more thought than the film on which a movie is printed. Software is infrastructure.

Now imagine a world where software and content have to merge in a seamless fashion to create experiences that delight and engage audiences whose attention is at a premium given how many things are vying for it. In Hollywood, studios like Pixar are already creating breeds of hybrids who understand how to use the tech at its best but also know that all the tech in the world won’t help a bad story.

Marketing professionals and ad folks are just starting to grow these skillsets. They’re hiring the geeks. They’re learning the ropes. But there’s still a long way to go. For this next generation of ads it’s true that the tech (and the brand for that matter) should be subservient to delivering something that the user actually wants. But creative people still need to understand the subtleties and possibilities of the technology in order to create said experience. Interactivity is not just an extra feature like THX sound or even 3D. Interactivity completely changes the dynamic. People are not looking for interactive movies. Whether they know it or not, they’re looking for great software. And the best software mixes seamlessly with content to create things that users want to come back to again and again.

And this really is the test. Great software makes the user want to come back on their own again and again, essentially incorporating the experience into the routine of their lives. The distractions that many marketers are creating for the web today are nothing more than banner ads on steroids. And they’re definitely not anything that most people incorporate into the routine of their lives. If you do get a repeat visit it’s because they liked the distraction enough to inflict it on their friends and co-workers.

Consider that for a moment. For many of today’s interactive marketers, success is getting people to bug their friends.

Today however, the bulk of interactive content is does not meet the criteria above. These sites often have one or both of the following characteristics that come with their own drawbacks:

• They are dependent on produced content. Producing high quality content is expensive. And even if you can get away with cheaper content, it often gets stale quickly. The production costs, which can be high, become excessive when they turn into recurring costs.
• When they try to go beyond passive enjoyment of content and engage the user to extend their time with the site, the interactivity can often be relatively shallow taking the form of things like poorly executed flash games and the like.

There is nothing wrong with these techniques per se. But given some of the drawbacks listed above, there are alternatives that are worthy to explore (and to be clear, a handful of marketers are already heading down these new paths).

User-generated content is the key alternative to produced content. In addition to being much less costly to produce, not to mention potentially engaging, it can (when a result of a critical mass generating enough breadth) keep the experience fresh and new. Much has been written about user-generated content and clearly distribution and getting to critical mass are key components that enable a UGC ecosystem.

What’s truly new is a focus on what we’ll call “software” as opposed to mere interactivity. While an excellent complement to a UGC ecosystem, having real software or advanced interactivity is a potential source for serious engagement of an audience. We define software as going beyond what commodity sites provide. Don’t just enable users to upload their own videos, but create video editing tools that let users do interesting things they wouldn’t be able to do anywhere else. Don’t just let users post journals from their trips to exotic places, but let them plot their trips visually using photography and pins on a map of their journey.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get this software built. Most of today’s interactive agencies (or interactive units at advertising agencies) while producing excellent work, do not always have the technical talent in-house to deliver the kind of advanced software experiences that result in extended minutes of engagement. And often (though not always) traditional contract software development houses don’t have the design expertise and understanding to deliver experiences that make an appropriate emotional impact on an audience.