How excited were you when you saw Episode 8 and learned about the different types of audience?  We know; Earth shattering.  Keep it together because this week we’re going to astound you yet again with information you haven’t already heard a million times.  All this talk of social media this and new media that is a good thing for your business, but it’s not the only way to reach, entertain, and retain the modern audience.

In Episode 9 we’ll take a look at why it’s so important to embrace all forms of media in an effort to connect with everyone.  We especially  want to reach out and touch those who may be thinking of crossing over to the new paradigm, but haven’t yet taken the plunge.  Although you really should consider this bandwagon because it’s fun here.  Besides, we know you’re always looking for new ways to dissuade cognitive dissonance.  Holla!

Episode 9 features: Beth Diamond, Timothy Golden, Jason Feinberg, and Zach Jordan

Photo by: Travis Jensen

In our last episode, we learned that the power of a loyal audience today is due to quality not quantity.  This week we explain the three main types of audience and how the new, “lean forward” audience engages with content across multiple platforms.  How does one engage people when they are consuming across all platforms, including live events?   Ultimately, the best way to “defrag” any audience today is to weave a compelling story that relies on traditional storytelling maxims AND speaks with a unified voice utilizing only the appropriate platforms that apply to your story.

Episode 8 features: Suzanne Diamond, Timothy Golden, and Zach Jordan

photo by: TourettesWithoutRegrets

It’s funny how technological and new media advances are exponential, audience acceptance of the same a bit less so, and the embrace of it all on the part of media professionals at a dark ages pace. We all see it coming, the warning signs have turned tangible in Web 2.0 and yet, movement on the new media / supplier side always seems to be the tardy party. It takes a loud, credible voice and not the bravery of the innocents to call us out and point out that the media Emperors are naked. Yesterday at NATPE, Michael Eisner, stepped up, called it like it most assuredly is, and told us how old media is not only indecently exposed, but on “a death march”.

Eisner tells us that made-for-the-web content is the now and the future.  Unveiling his latest web series, “The Booth“, the former Disney boss, described how the modern audience and the new finance and distribution realities mean that premiere digital content will be the way producers and audience go forward.  At its core, Eisner is telling us what we all already know, but that the financial and distribution sectors are still too afraid to accept. The audience is in charge.

All content and distribution must be crafted on their terms. Those terms demand that we give them content that is personal, relevant, authentic, and is available to them on ALL platforms (format customized for each platform and experience) on demand in the 360 Transmedia Universe where the modern audience lives. As Eisner pointed out, for millions, the web, mobile and other platforms are where they consume content. As we have said here many times before, Eisner echoed that, in a single generation, the TV- bound, passive, “lean back” audience will be a thing of the past.

He’s not just talking about how it will turn out, rather, judging from his content offerings, he shows that he knows what the audience will want—content that is consumable in one big meal, small cumulative snacks, or anything in between. And in a hint to the future, even beyond the platform agnostic universe that is just around the corner, he boldly reduces broadcast television to a second run repository (I don’t completely agree—”events” will still engender mass, quasi-communal consumption). So, reruns of our digital shows might just be the savior for the 10pm slot? Damn, Michael, you could have saved NBC a bit of angst had you spoken up sooner!

As we saw in Episode 3, there are several ways to track audience data.  You can find out, on a very granular level, who they are, where they like to play, and other important metrics that are required to make great content and distribute it strategically across the web.  In Episode 4 we find out why it’s so important to utilize this data and help you create a loyal bond with your audience.  We’ll also look at why it’s imperative to come from an authentic place when creating interesting and relevant storylines for your content.  Remember: the consumer bullshit meter is very sensitive!

Episode 4 features: Jason Feinberg, Suzanne Diamond, Timothy Golden and Zach Jordan

In Episode 2, we briefly discuss the various social media tools and technologies available and the importance of customizing every strategy depending on your audience. Episode 3 gives a few specific ways you can find out (1) who your audience is, (2) what factors you need to consider when developing content and (3) the various ways to track and report on your audience.  Once you get to know your audience, take a look at Episode 4 to get a sense of why it’s so important to use this data to create relevant and authentic messaging.

Episode 3 features: Jason Feinberg, Suzanne Diamond, Timothy Golden, and Zach Jordan

In Episode 1, we introduce the current state of media, advertising, entertainment and music and discuss what approach brands and content creators are taking to engage people in the volatile, digital landscape. This week we take a closer look at some of the tools marketers have at their disposal and why it’s so crucial to build a customized approach for your audience.  Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to find out as much about your audience as possible (seriously, a scary amount of information)…watch Episode 3 to find out what I’m talking about.

Episode 2 features: Suzanne Diamond, Jason Feinberg and Zach Jordan

Photo by: kmevans

The brand police are knocking at the door.  You can run but you can’t hide!

In today’s Ad Age, Jack Neff writes about Good Guide, a consumer brand rating site that has already put their scale of 1-10 on over 75,000 products.  While consumer watchdogs have been around a long, long time, this more recent entry highlights a rising note that we have mentioned in prior posts—in the digital age of massive choice, one of the biggest consumer demands will be authenticity.  GoodGuide highlights the fact that the engaged consumer will not tolerate the brand that mouths claims that are not demonstrably accurate.

Utilizing their academic backgrounds, UC Berkeley professor, Dara O’Rourke,  and his colleagues use the power of various databases, consumer input and the want / need for a reinvigorated policing source, Good Guide seems to have most of the modern marketing maxims in play.   They are delivering objective information on the authenticity of consumer brands—proving their own authenticity (the lack of ads helps).  They are creating a genuine partnership between their site, the brands, and the consumer by both utilizing consumer input and informing brands, very transparently, about how they can improve their scores and, thus, their standing with the public.  They are also delivering all of this in the mandatory personal way.  Within brand conglomerates, divisions can work on their own ratings.  For the consumer, O’Rourke says they will soon allow users to create their own personalized scales based upon how each of them weigh the various indicia of “good”.

It all seems to be working.  Awareness of the site is rising. Brands are actively engaging.  Aileen Zerrudo, the Director of Communications for Clorox notes that they are genuinely listening to what the consumer is saying via GoodGuide.  Moreover, the company claims that click to conversion rates from the site to Amazon.com are 5-10 times higher than most retailers’ traditional returns.   A well-known brand actually wanting to listen, improve and increase market share?  I’m betting that the smart brand begins to actively seek out these kinds of relationships.

So how does a brand fare well with GoodGuide and, presumably, turn the maybe consumer into a loyal participant?  According to GoodGuide: (1) Change Ingredients to meet the desire for natural; (2) Quality Management (avoid recall disasters); (3) Internal Policies matter (fair labor, CSR, etc.); (4) Green and Responsible (a clean record and sustainable production); and (5) Be Transparent (if you hide data, we will find it).

So let’s say a brand follows the rules and carries the day with a “10″.  Now they just need to pat themselves on the back and incorporate how they got there into every aspect of their marketing.  By following the same rules in their marketing (being authentic, delivering personal value, being transparent, and actually caring enough to engage), brands will ride the wave instead of ending up in the trough.  Tout your score (in the right manner of course—sorry nitpickers) and score big with the public.  In the end, quality and authenticity need to become key elements of a brand’s story.  Deliver that story to the audience on their terms and you end up with quality, loyal, and passionate participants.

Distribution takes on many new and exciting forms in the world of 360 storytelling and needs to be strategically mapped, based on the specific needs of your story.  The bad news is, audiences will continue to fragment across an increasing number of platforms.  The good news is, the audience may be one of the best forms of distribution for your story through social networking and video sharing.  This factor becomes even more interesting, considering that 1/3 of all online videos get shared.

Traditional platforms like TV won’t disappear or lose out to online and mobile, but we’ll get to a point very soon when all these platforms hold an equal footing.  The distribution efforts of loyal fans and participants will become even more apparent in this transition.  Distribution channels in the 360 story environment may include:

1. TV
2. Online video portals
3. Social networks
4. Widgets
5. Interactive games
6. Out of home networks
7. Mobile applications

The many forms of distribution in the 360 story environment help you reach, entertain and retain the short attention span audience members who are pulled in every direction by the morass of content.  However, it’s important to note that one web widget does not a distribution strategy make.  You can have all the democratized access to free video portals and inexpensive technology in the world, but without 1) a well structured story customized for the 360 environment and 2) a complete understanding of how your story is executed within the context of these distribution platforms, these tools can prove useless and may even alienate some of your audience or clients if not utilized sparingly.  Let’s review:

1.  Your story is well crafted

2.  You’ve identified your audience

3.  You know how to communicate with them

4.  You know where your audience is watching

Now it’s time to engage and reap the rewards.  Remember: it always comes down to the emotional connection you are trying to build with your audience and doing so in an authentic way.   Because the tools in the 360 storytelling environment amplify messaging and allow your audience to co-create and control their experiences with the tools you give them, people become empowered and more willing to become distributors themselves.  There is no doubt we are all experiencing a new frontier in which the 360 storytelling experience will make for a truly platform agnostic experience where viewers will engage with entertaining content in ways beyond our wildest imaginations.

Photo by: EllynKocher

You can produce a strip, prime time chat show, even with a high cost talent like Leno, for a fraction of the investment required for an hour drama or half hour sitcom. Period.  On the “Zucker is wise” front, you have lower cost, less risk of audience rejection of 95% of your original offerings (if they like Leno, they will just keep coming back and NBC can pre-book that), and you get to plant your flag in the “new”  10pm slot with a tried and true brand while others must follow.  If broadcast does become the repository for reality and event TV, NBC might reap the rewards of being first to embrace.

On the other side, you give up the major windfall that the occasional hit narrative delivers here and abroad for years and years to come in syndication. NO one will argue that chat is evergreen (though original reality formats may be).  I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how the move toward inexpensive programming will balance out against the loss of the annuity of a “Friends” or “Seinfeld”.  Part of the answer may be a top to bottom embrace of the need for reinvention of the overall approach to broadcast, cable, and digital and who becomes who in the content zoo.  I’m betting on NBC.

If the Leno project works, NBC owns 10pm and has the luxury of exporting the model and success to 8-10 pm.  NBC reinvents broadcast prime time.  Where do the dramas and quality narrative go?  NBC’s cable unit.  Their cable outlets have been their success story for years and, under Jeff Gaspin, have become quality content profit centers.  There is no reason why FX should own the quality ribbon. Of course, that move will necessitate lower production budgets and the current scripted programming sources will go kicking and screaming.  As Zucker mentioned however, lower cost doesn’t have to mean lower quality.  Examples of budget and content bravery abound.  Lower budgets, lower risk, even bigger windfalls when they find a hit—and the ability to genuinely brand their cable channels.

And what about digital?  NBC is banking on Hulu.  Fine for now.  But if they genuinely want to be the Mother of Reinvention, they must actively pursue a custom strategy for serving the digital landscape.  Yes, they will offer their shows on line.  Fine.  But for a growing and evolving digital generation it won’t be enough to shoehorn “TV” into the content offerings.  The audience will increasingly demand customized, personal, quality content that is crafted for who they are, where they consume, how they consume and what they wish to consume.  They won’t be sold, won’t be washed over with message, and won’t engage unless you invite them in.  No one has the answers yet. But if NBC wants to genuinely lead the way and reap the rewards of audience loyalty, THIS is where the tough work needs to be done.  What does the online user between 7 and 11pm want?  Has anyone really bothered to find out?  That answer will be the linchpin to success.

NBC will figure out the new world of  broadcast, it will build on its cable success and we’ll see if it can address digital.   If they bother with all three prongs, they will clean everyone’s clock by being the content source that creates the 360 degree, on demand, content and distribution plan that is the future.

In an effort to craft a brand idea or story custom made for the rabid audience, start focusing on the fans.  There are a variety of free platforms to test your ideas, story, and characters and get immediate feedback from the plethora of passion centers that already exist online.   Popular shows like AMC’s Mad Men make Twitter an ancillary component of the show on TV, where rabid fans take a deeper look into the lives of Betty and Don Draper.

You can leverage the use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter to see what related topics people are already talking about and get immediate feedback on your story idea or characters.  Armed with this knowledge, you have a very solid understanding of how to craft an appropriate distribution strategy because you know 1) where your audience is viewing related content and 2) how this content is positioned within these platforms.  As you start mapping out potential distribution channels for your messaging, you can also use these social networks as tools to help maximize audience engagement, while minimizing potential spend on distribution that might not be appropriate for your concept or audience.  Tomorrow we’ll look at the different types of DISTRIBUTION channels available and how to construct the best strategy for your story.

Photo by: Amstel

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