Social and New Media Solutions for a Connected Age
And now for something completely different…
Warner Music could learn a lot from Monty Python. Python videos and clips have been some of the most popular items to be posted to YouTube by fans over the years. Sound familiar Warner Music? Viacom? Pay attention. Frustrated by all the “pirate” videos, Monty Python opened their own YouTube channel with high quality videos of all their stuff. In return they ask that you buy the DVD’s. The results? Monty Python videos have increased 23% since creation of the channel. It’s true, treating customers with respect and giving them an easy and fair way to purchase your products online will increase your sales. Contrary to popular belief among the old media dons, most people don’t want to steal your content. But they do want to use the new tools of the Internet to comsume and purchase. For years the music industry believed they were being ripped off because of the Internet. But look at the wild success of iTunes and you can see, given the new technologies and fair prices, people are happy to purchase content.
Congratulations to Monty Python and their fans. I hope more content producers take note of this success and start thinking differently. Please stop fighting with us. Work with us and together we can all win.
First it was YouTube vs. Viacom in a battle that is still going to this day. Now Warner Music enters the ring, insisting that any music from Warner artists be muted from YouTube clips or, in any cases, the clips have been removed altogether. This includes informal performances by kids on their personal keyboards. Even humming the wrong tune could get you in trouble these days. As far as I know I can still think about a Warners artist while recording a video on YouTube 
As you would expect, unless you are Warners which I guess just doesn’t know or doesn’t care, there has been a huge outcry and many videos produced in protest. Maybe I missed it, but contiually alienating and pissing off your customers is something I didn’t get in any of my college business classes. YouTube has indicated in the past that it would like to do deals with major content providors to clear up these copyright issues, but the old media dons hold out for unreasonable demands.
It continues to shock me how the music industry contiues to self mutilate itself trying to enforce it’s antiquated business model. They killed Napster and thought they had won, but it was never about Napster. It’s so much bigger than that. For better or for worse it’s a new connected world order. The old rules don’t apply. Obama just got elected President; greed is out. Again I quote Princess Leia from Star Wars addressing Governor Tarkin. “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
Ty, the toy company responsible for the Beanie Baby madness maybe showing is desperation in the shameless marketing of its two new dolls. Two African American dolls named Sasha and Malia. It just so happens that those are the names of the Obama daughters. The media, the American public and Michelle Obama herself have caught on to this right away and there has been a public outcry. Using the presidential children to market your product without their or their parents consent is pretty pathetic.
But here is what’s worse. Ty says they did not name the dolls after the Obama daughters and that they will not reveal the source of their inspiration for the names because all product development including name choices are “proprietary”. Notice to corporate america or any company for that matter; when you get your hand caught in the cookie jar, far better to come clean than try to stonewall. This one is pretty easy to see through and Ty only looks idiotic with their straight out of corporate marketing statement. I would rather Ty said something like, America is excited by the Obama presidency and we wanted to honer the Obama kids with their own Ty dolls. At least that would make some kind of sense. This is the New Media age Ty. It’s time for transparency and honesty not hiding behind meaningless corporate statements. I am very dissapointed and I won’t be buying any Ty products anytime soon.
Despite claims to the contrary, new media does not herald the death of old media, not necessarily. When done right, new media can greatly enhance old media. Case in point was the job CNN and Facebook did teaming up to cover the Obama inauguration in a way never seen before. You could watch a live stream of the CNN television coverage and on the same screen be live chatting with Facebook friends. This was an amazing new way to experience a live television event. It felt like a communal experience, even though my Facebook friends are spread out around the world. It was also a textbook example of new and old media blending together, both enhanced by the strength of the other. This was the true power of possibility for the future.
I can imagine lots of other great applications of this kind of blend. How about the Super Bowl? How about The Oscars or your favorite tv show? Can you imagine the producers of Lost getting realtime reactions and feedback from their audience as they show is airing? Want to bring people back to the live show and stop them from watching on Tivo? Make the live experience unique and exciting, something you cannot get on Tivo.
The CNN/Facebook experiment was a watershed event with far reaching implications. I have been very impressed with CNN lately and their progressive use of new meida. They were the first network to use Twitter to interact with their news audience during broadcasts.
I thought of a new feature today for the blog and I’m calling it book notes. One of my goals for 2009 is to increase my reading dramatically. This includes business books, success literature and fiction. For the purposes of this blog I will stick to the business books and maybe a little of the success stuff. I will simply note here little things that I find so good I want to share them. It’s a good way to keep you informed of great ideas I come across and a nice way for me to remember the most salient points of the books I am reading. I think it will be a win/win for all of us.
Here is your first note: From Monday Morning Choices by David Cottrell
I love what he has to say about commitment and passion. “Commitment isn’t as simple as being able to check off what we’ve accomplished toward our goal. It’s a choice, an attitude.” He also talks about being more interested in a goal than committed to it. You may be interested in losing weight, but are you passionate enough to truly be committed to it? A last great quote on this: “Personal commitment begins with a crystal-clear understanding of what you are trying to accomplish.” In other words, write down your goals in very clear and succinct language.
No sooner do I blog about Steve Jobs and Apple than the other show drops and Jobs himself announces a leave of absence until June. If speculation wasn’t already running wild, it’s gone completely gonzo now. What it tells me is that Steve is mortal and he hasn’t found a way to clone himself yet. Seriously, here is a short term and long term plan for Steve Jobs and Apple.
Short Term
Jobs should return to Apple as a “chief architect”. This is very similar to what Bill Gates did at Microsoft during his last few years. Basically, someone else is running the show but you are there daily to oversee critical strategy. Lessen the load of daily grinding management may extend your years at the company. In addition, it is a more easy and graceful exit without the jarring effects of just leaving when you get too sick.
Long Term
Also, while serving as chief architect, you are installing the long term solution. Take a look at Disney and you could say as well that Walt Disney was everything to Disney. Where would Disney ever be without his singular vision and passion? How could Disney ever survive without him? But it has. Disney is one of the premiere companies in the world and is as great today as it was is Walts time. But how?
I think the answer is that Walt Disney was able to inject his dna into the company in such a fundamental way that it has stuck all this time. I think people at Disney think to themselves, what would Walt do? Would this make Walt proud? Continuing to honer and stick to Walt’s principals and ideals has kept Disney strong. So it will be Steve Jobs task to inject his dna into Apple in the same way. If he can do this, I think Apple will be a strong company for years to come.
Technology is very generational and different generations take different things for granted. I ruminate about my own technology firsts and those of my daughters. My youngest will be of the Connected Generation or a Digital Native.
Books Referenced:
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