What All the Trendy Guys Will Be Doing Next Month…

Esquire’s at it again with a magazine that talks to your computer (assuming you first go the Esquire website to download the software).

While the tech in me spent a fair amount of time ooohing and aaaahing at this video, the storyteller in me was none too impressed. What appears to be missing – at least in the limited amount we see in the video – is the two million dollar question: Why did you do this?

Understand, I guarantee you that Esquire could’ve used the technology to give the readers more depth, emotion, etc. than what was available on the pages, but in this limited demo, I’m concerned the reason they did it was simply because technology allowed them to, and that’s not really good enough.

Understand: readers want videos in your digital magazine. They crave podcasts and Flash animation but if – and only if – you’re making the experience more enriching because of it. If you only care about the technology, you’re feeding your ego, not their brain. So while Esquire delivers on their promise of "Augmented Reality," perhaps they should’ve been shooting for "Enhanced Reality."