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Lessons Learned Upon Lemmy’s Leaving
Things aren’t always what they seem on the surface, and sometimes we lose sight of the things that truly move the emotional needle – whether trends or people – until something dire happens. So it was at the end of 2015 when one Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister departed to wherever it is that Jimi, Janis, John, Kurt and far too many others are jamming.
When you’re busy thinking about the future of entertainment, don’t just look where the lights are shining brightest. Somewhere in a darkened corner of a legendary bar you’ll find someone – or perhaps several someones – who have a stunningly powerful emotional influence on both artists and fans. Watch this wildly entertaining video, and you’ll want to mock those fans, but rest assured that the kind of passion and commitment that an artist like Lemmy incites inspires a broader swath of audience than you see on the surface. In our digital future, you need that kind of passion in order to thrive. Lemmy Kilmister had just turned 70. If he were instead, say, 20, what kind of following do you think he’d have built both online and off? Here’s guessing it would be off the charts.
The New York Times Delivers News Via Virtual Reality? Yeah, Things Have Changed!
This week’s new leap across media boundaries is an Evel Knievel-sized jump. The New York Times is moving into virtual reality storytelling. I don’t know about you, but I’m both floored and not the least bit surprised.
For a while, I’ve been talking about how the walls dividing the three traditional types of media – audiovisual (television, film), audio only (radio, music, audiobooks), and print – are collapsing. It’s an inevitable part of The Jetsons Future, where all content is delivered via broadband, rather than broadcast or print. With that, the words of Marshall McLuhan come into play: the medium is the message. In other words, when you deliver content through an entirely new means, the content itself must inexorably change.
One of the leading changes is media convergence, where audiovisual, audio-only, and print become one.
The Great Ad Blocking Freakout Of ’15
On the off chance you like your payoff up front, here it is: ads are exactly like every other form of content. When your audience loves the content, all is ducky. When they don’t, they avoid that content like the plague.
The message in the Great Ad Blocking Freakout of ’15 is so obvious it’s painful. Here it is – are you ready? You can no longer force people to consume content how you want, where you want or when you want! Here’s another one: Recognize that the advertising content you make has to be just as good – and just as relevant – as the place where your ads are running.
Life (And Entertainment) Lessons Courtesy Of Yogi Berra
We can learn a lot from a brilliant entertainer who just left us. Quoth Casey Stengel: “Mr. Berra is a very strange fellow of remarkable abilities.” Does that sound like every great entertainer you know, or what? To paraphrase Yogi talking about a Steve McQueen movie he’d just seen, The Ol’ Perfessor must have said that one before he died.
Sports is entertainment, and athletes are entertainers. What made Yogi Berra so much fun was that he knew this instinctively, and he made his personal brand last the entirety of his life by being a very strange fellow with the remarkable ability to entertain with words. And here’s the crazy thing about his words: you remember them all the more because (1) they were fun to hear, but (2) no matter how he said it, you knew exactly what he meant by it.
Like A Salmon Swimming Upstream, I’m Uncutting The Cable Cord (Temporarily)
In a world where cord-cutting and cord-nevering are the new normal, what should you be thinking about doing right now?
If I were a creator, I wouldn’t be looking to make unique and excellent content. I’d be looking to make content that connects on such a powerful emotional level that a large enough group of fans absolutely has to have it, no matter the cost or annoyance of obtaining it. If I were an entrepreneur with an entertainment bent, I’d be looking to find audiences that are exceptionally passionate about something and don’t have a place to watch/listen to that something. (How did that work out for Twitch?)
If I were a content distributor – no matter how huge and seemingly all-powerful (hello, ESPN) – I’d be looking for ways to partner with similar distributors in order to create product packages that my consumers will pony up for. If I were an MVPD, I’d realize that customers are slipping more comfortably into the driver’s seat every day, and I’d spend less time trying to maximize dollar spend per customer and far more time trying to maximize customer experience.
For Broadcasters, Vulnerability Occasionally Trumps Our Passion
Broadcasters – and, as we were reminded today, not just the ones who you see on-screen or hear on-mic – go out into the public every minute of every day to interact with both their viewers/listeners/fans and with people who either don’t know who they are or who do know who they are and are decidedly not fans of their work. In radio, we talk about being live without a net, and what we typically mean is that we don’t get to say, “Cut! Let’s try that again.”
But it also means that we go out in public not knowing what bizarre danger may be waiting for us. Remember that the next time you see a “wacky” YouTube video of some jackass messing with a reporter who is live (and therefore at their most vulnerable). The reporter is trying to do a job with utmost professionalism while they’re left wondering if their safety is at risk. Sometimes it is.
Responsive Video Production: It’s About To Be A Thing
Planning on shooting video, in particular short-form video, including advertising? Are you shooting (a) horizontally or (b) vertically? The only correct answer to this seemingly silly question is (c) all of the above.
In a world where Sotheby’s uses Instagram to help sell fine art, everything has changed. Another critical rethink is upon us: we’re heading into the era of responsive video production. With video viewing on vertical (in other words, smartphone) screens up sevenfold in the last five years and now accounting for 29% of all video viewing, vertical videos are now, to paraphrase that not-at-all-arrogant video that I linked to, really f&#@ing important.
That’s why a few slightly-important players – WPP, Snapchat, the Daily Mail – created a vertical video agency this summer. Oh, and they’re not alone.
The Problem With Lawyers: We Speak Lawyer
The only serious thing you should take away from this little rant is the following: if you’re talking to a lawyer and you don’t understand everything you’ve just heard, ask them to explain it again – and if necessary, again and again – until you do. It’s that important.
And now, excuse me while I mock the gobbledegook that we officers of the court say without blinking, organized into three simple “lessons” that will not in any way help you understand a single word of Lawyerese.
Beats 1 Radio & The “Death” Of Music Genres
When Apple announced Beats 1℠, a live “radio station”, I had two instantaneous reactions: (1) Really? The rest of radio is narrowing its focus, and Apple is targeting the entire planet with one “radio station”, and (2) I can’t wait to see how crazy the radio and music industry blogospheres get with the news.
Then, I thought about a the latest hipthink that showed up in The Gray Lady recently: genres no longer matter. There’s only one thing wrong with this trendy new idea. Genres never mattered in the first place.
Farewell To The Entire Letterman Team!
With David Letterman’s final broadcast now upon us, the press – both trade and mainstream – has been saturated with stories about the end of a legendary entertainment era, including the fate of his team. The public – our consumers – sees the top-line talent. Those of us in any part of the entertainment business see the whole team, and we know that nothing we do is possible without the contributions of every single member of the team. I know you know that, but how often do you think about it and acknowledge it? This seems like a good time for each of us to answer an important question: when is the last time you recognized your team?
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