people when you want them, technology when you don’t

So, recently I bought at TV.  It's the first TV I've ever owned in my life.  (People stare at me when I say that... it's a whole 'nother story).  And I don't have cable or anything—just doing Netflix, Hulu, and over-the-air digital.  But that last one means I see commercials now... something that's been absent for many years in my life.  And not that I'm excited about that. But I did see a fascinating commercial last week that continues to be a comment on digital cultural integration. The commercial is a whole new campaign from Esurance (I looked it up)—formerly the province of that cheesy pink-haired super-hero computer insurance lady.  The new campaign has a tag-line that I think strikes a surprisingly perfect chord for the digital-native generation:  "People when you want them, technology when you don't."

The commercials are designed to be funny (and do a decent job), but what catches my eye is the continually evolving cultural snapshot on the relationship between "people" and "computers" (i.e. information/digital space).  Digital immigrants still grumble that e-mail or Facebook are replacing people and creating "false community," while digital natives are starting to turn the bend to express what they really live:  task-digital or social-digital activity does not replace people interaction—it extends or augments it.  Digital culture is a meta-layer on human interaction.

Incredibly practically, Esurance realizes that sometimes the website is more efficient and sometimes a person on the phone is, and we generally want the choice.  And they're not even an either/or proposition.  For instance, we'll finish our 1-800 call and expect an e-mail sitting in our inbox with a summary, receipt, or appropriate links. Or we'll use the website to drop a note to an agent at 1am in the morning, but will expect a personal response the next day. Observationally it's better to say that we naturally choose one mode as primary, but never exclusively.

In fact, for a digital native, this switching of "mode preference" has little decision-work behind it. It's about as seamless as the previous generation deciding between picking up the office intercom or walking down the hall. We use the media form which seems right for the situation.

It's just that digital natives are very, very good at media switching without blinking. Esurance (or their ad agency DuncanShannon) is getting it.