Last year, a video created by Kodak for The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference made its way all over the Internet. A blue-suited investor-relations executive started giving a staid, predictable financial presentation exalting the Eastman Kodak company and its creation of Kodak Moments. Suddenly, the speaker launched into an energetic tongue-in-cheek exultation of the new Kodak digital technology, building to a frenzied cry:

“You were a Kodak moment once, and by God you’ll be one again. Only this time it’s digital!”

And not a moment too soon.

Kodak and many other former brand giants have struggled to keep up with the pace and complexity of this new digital age, and have been suffering for it. Kodak’s video publicly and wittily – and, most importantly, via new media – acknowledged its outdated image and old, passé voice, and signaled that the frumpy, unhip grandfather of the camera industry intends to blow up its old voice and change how they communicate.

FROM CORPORATE VOICE TO DIGITAL VOICE
I introduced the CORPORATE VOICE concept in the 1980s to create communications programs that unified a company’s diverse exposures and built a distinctive, focused, coherent identity that would rise above all the background noise. Back then, the CORPORATE VOICE was channeled into controlled one-way communications segmented into a limited number of traditional media.

Everything has changed since then. The ongoing digital revolution has raised the din of information exponentially. The messaging environment has changed radically. Speed, novelty, distraction, and noise rule. It is thus more imperative than ever for everyone, from the start-up to the not-for-profit to the Fortune 100 player, to recalibrate their CORPORATE VOICE to find the right pitch, the proper tone, the ideal volume, and perfect placement to ensure crystalline audibility.

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How can preteens and teens chat online with their friends in a completely safe environment? This is something that toy and media companies have been fumbling over for the past several years. Well, Mattel has a pretty smart solution—it’s called Barbie Girls, and it’s a copasetic convergence between consumer product and online brand experience. Truth be told, I’m not sure why other consumer product and media companies haven’t made this connection sooner.

The process is simple—you go to the store, buy a Mattel Barbie Girl, and connect it to your computer via a docking station. When your girlfriends catch on and get one, you can authenticate your doll on their computers and vice-versa. Your child is now ready to communicate online with her friends and only her friends.

The online play experience is very Sim-like, in terms of game play patterns. Girls can go online and design their own rooms, check out their friends’ rooms and their objects, chat, play with their virtual pets and, of course, no little-girl pretend-play online experience would be complete without the all-important trip to the mall (where kids learn about online transactions). I’m only half kidding—I wouldn’t be surprised to see new Mattel products contextually placed inside the Barbie world, in-game advertising, or online conditioning for tweens.

The offline experience is not as robust as the online play experience, but the doll itself is an actual MP3 player; a good place to store Barbie tunes you downloaded from the website (note to Mattel: That one’s a freebie).

The technology is simple, and my guess is that this product will go a long way. Parents will be buying these toys for their kids and as presents for all their friends.