By Damien Venuto
The everyday busy-ness of the present can often obscure the most significant change affecting our futures.
The 5G revolution is a bit like that. Flicking the switch to this technology won't suddenly introduce flying skateboards or cars that can talk to your fridge – but there will be small changes mobile users notice from the moment they first see the updated numerical icon in the left-hand corner of their mobile phones.
Technological shifts are incremental, with subtle developments congealing over time into something we can recognise as change. The true potential of new technology can take years to be fully realised.
To connect the dots between where the technology is headed and where we currently are, Vodafone's latest marketing campaign has unleashed a time-travelling mascot called Hayden, who has been sent back from 2030 to point out the subtle moments we might have otherwise missed.
In the first clip recently launched, Hayden's future self pops into the current age to illuminate when he first experienced the enhanced speed of 5G while downloading some content before a flight.
"This is just highlighting one really simple feature users will be able to appreciate immediately," says Vodafone NZ Brand Centre of Excellence lead Nileema Allerston.
"It's about relaying the concept that 5G is superfast when it comes to real-time downloading by using an example that will be so familiar to anyone who has left the house (and their home wifi) and needed to download something quickly. It provides one example of why it is worth investing in a 5G-enabled phone on Aotearoa's largest 5G mobile network."
That speed might seem an inconsequential factor but it's an important foundation upon which other benefits of 5G will be built as applications continue to be developed by businesses innovating with this next generation technology.
These benefits will come incrementally and, as is often the case with new technology, we don't necessarily notice them in the moment. However, Vodafone's quirky everyman figure will be on hand to point out when technology makes life better in a series of upcoming campaigns.
"Those little moments in people's lives are not to be underestimated," says Allerston. "Hayden gives us an opportunity to turn up in a relatable way that helps to show Kiwis what's coming."
Vodafone is walking an interesting creative tightrope in taking this approach. The company is staying enthusiastic about the enormous potential of the future, while also showing that the changes happening immediately aren't terrifying at all.
It's like the mobile phones we carry in our pockets every day. They were originally phones, pure and simple. Then, over time, they developed into more powerful communications devices, then an entertainment centre, they are now a bridge between generations and geography, we can build and run businesses on them. They are even an extension of our personalities.
DDB Aoteoroa chief creative officer Damon Stapleton, who helped forge Hayden, points out that if we look back 20 or 30 years in our own lives the changes are enormous.
"We don't really notice it," says Stapleton, "but things are changing and that makes the future an exciting and interesting place as opposed to scary."
Having someone, even a fictional someone, come back from the future and tell everyone that things are going to be okay is a powerful tool for a technology company looking to inform the public about the potential of the technology, says Stapleton.
"He kind of becomes your wingman from the future," says the creative boss. The arrival of this optimistic ally coincides with some public uncertainty about whether 5G can be trusted, but Stapleton says Vodafone can play a role in demystifying that by showing how technological change actually works.
Stapleton says the goal is to normalise this new mobile technology: "Making people understand what 5G actually does is the challenge here. And the simplest way to do that is to let people know that they can download stuff a lot faster."
The potential delivered by that speed will manifest in various ways that could seem far-fetched right now. In much the same way that a Blackberry keyboard once seemed like the zenith of cellular communications, the gift of increased speed is set to shift our personal and business lives in the coming years.
And we're likely to pass over those incremental changes with as much fuss as a tyre rolling over cats-eyes toward a new destination.
"If we were to have this conversation five years in the future, it will be much more about how your car is talking to your house and how your house is talking to your fridge," says Stapleton.
"That kind of reality will take some time to settle in."
To find out more about Vodafone see www.vodafone.co.nz/5G