New Persuasion

Missionaries Can Teach Communicators a Few Things

If communicators want to learn some lessons on reaching new audiences, they could study what modern day missionaries are up to.  Not to say I completely agree with their mission - to me, it seems disrespectful of local religions to come in and say that you've got the best one yet.  But I do admire their persistence and their wide use of communication tools, both old and new.

From the Washington Post article:

Using technological devices ranging from simple cassette tapes to solar-powered audio players and an iPod-like gadget called the Bible Stick, Christian groups are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to make one of the world's oldest books accessible in remote corners of the planet...Complete versions of the Bible can now be downloaded onto cellphones in parts of Africa. To reach those who can't read -- nearly one-fifth of the world's population, according to the United Nations -- Christian groups are rapidly increasing production of audio and video versions.

Jill Fallon, over at Business of Life, writes about the movie that's been seen by 5 billion people.  Star Wars?  E.T.?  Titanic?  Nope.  The Jesus Film - no, it's not Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ - it's the 1979 version, filmed on location in the Holy Land, starring a no-name cast.  It's also, according to The Washington Post, been translated into more than 1,000 languages.  Where did this movie come from?  The BBC says:

"[It's] the work of an American evangelical organisation, Campus Crusade. Funded by its supporters and well-wishers, it sends teams around the world, even where they are not particularly welcome. There they record new translations of the film, organise screenings to inquisitive crowds in improvised cinemas, and distribute copies to whoever they can."

Because of their zeal, missionaries leave no stone unturned in their effort to bring their message to everyone in the world - communicators should pay attention.

What Talledega Nights Reveals About our Society

From our New Persuasion Intern:  Megan Cifrino

Recently I was assigned to choose a movie I felt embodied our current 2000 decade. I chose Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.  The movie was released in August 2006 and starred the famously funny Will Ferrell.   For those of you who have not seen the movie, it is about dim-witted #1 NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) who wins race after race due to his pact with his best friend and teammate Cal Naughton, Jr. (John C. Reilly).  When French Formula One driver (Sasha Baron Cohen) steps into the picture, Ricky's life crumbles.  The “dumb” humor that comes through in this film is what keeps us laughing so hard.  The raw, racist, sexist, ethnocentric and utterly ignorant humor is something we can all relate to.  Perhaps it has a little of us in every joke? Certainly not! But that’s your neighbor, your sister, your friend, your boss…

The movie exaggerates and pokes fun at several themes that are present in today’s American society.  We live in a material world where being successful is determined by money.  Ricky’s father in the movie is quoted, “It’s the fastest who gets paid…” 

Throughout the movie Ricky lives by his father’s memorable quote “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”  We live in a society where it is important to be the “winner.”  People are always looking for the fastest, easiest way to become rich and famous (American Idol, Top Chef, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent).  During his career Ricky remains focused on winning, though sometimes that means neglecting his family, friends and his own safety.  This film wonders what is truly lasting when material gains fade away.

We live in a world where brand names mean everything and product placements and advertising infiltrates every aspect of our lives.  The movie exaggerates this and contains hundreds of today’s products throughout each scene.  One example in the movie is that one endorsement deal stipulates that Ricky mention POWERade at each race.  Another example is when Ricky runs out of room to place sponsor’s ads, he sells his windshield to Fig Newtons.  Essentially the film ridicules the extent to which society could potentially allow advertising to go.

The film also pokes fun at American “Macho” Culture and ignorance.  During the family dinner scene in the movie Ricky two unruly boys, Walker and Texas Ranger, yell and talk back to their grandfather.  Ricky’s wife says, “If we wanted us some wussies we would’ve named them Dr. Quinn and Medicine Woman, okay?” There are several other instances in the movie where the audience laughs due to the character’s extreme ignorance, such as when one of the young boys states the capitol of North Carolina is Washington D.C.   However, one 2006 survey found that more people could name the three American Idol judges than identify three first amendment rights. Guess not everyone’s as smart as they think they are.

Other jokes of the film brush on the topic of today’s growing technology.  We are in a decade of advancement and everyone is looking for the hot new item that they believe will improve their lives.  However the average American can’t keep up and is constantly baffled by several appliances.   A “confusion index” created by Forrester that puts the average consumer confusion at .277 on a 0-1 scale with 1 representing “extremely confused.”   Activities including adding memory to a digital camera and sending text messages from a mobile phone are among such daily activities.  Again the film pokes fun when Ricky says he believes with his income he can afford to live to be “245 or 300 years old with advances in technology.”   Also his buddy Cal is confused by how to use the hot tub and asks Ricky which buttons he should press and where. 

Our lives are becoming increasingly complicated. Maybe we need to all slow down a bit and focus on the more important aspects of our lives.  The film not only shows the transformation of Ricky’s life as he begins losing everyone and everything in his life but also the improvement in behavior and attitude in his children.  The movie centers on themes of self improvement, religion and character development.  Each year Americans purchase millions of books to make them slimmer, calmer, smarter, richer, and more attractive.  In recent years, personal growth as well as health and fitness have topped New Year's resolutions.  Slowly American’s are integrating the superficial aspects of life with what is truly lasting and important, their self worth, health and character.
A New York Times review by A.O. Scott summed the movie up with this quote:

“As a cultural artifact, ‘Talladega Nights’ is both completely phony and, therefore, utterly authentic. Or, to put it differently: this movie is the real thing. It’s finger lickin’ good, it’s eatin’ good in the neighborhood. It’s the king of beers. It’s Wonder Bread.”

100 Million and Counting...

In a world that thrives on personalization, it is interesting to note that Apple Inc. has announced it has sold 100 million iPods as of April 9th, this year.  America is largely impacted by media-- like music and television-- and we spend so much of our days watching and listening.  The iPod has changed the ability of Americans to sit back, relax, and enjoy the music of their choice... on demand.

According to an MSNBC.com article, Apple Inc.’s announcement Monday that it has sold 100 million of its iPod music players marks more than just a business milestone for the once-struggling computer company.

The remarkable sales figure also is evidence that Apple has, in just a few short years, played a major role in transforming a fringe technology into a mainstream phenomenon — spawning massive ripple effects in both the music and technology industries.

What’s more, analysts say, Apple’s more recent forays into selling movies and TV shows — and, soon, its own cell phone — could be poised to transform those industries as well.

What does this mean?  Well, we love the ability to be unique in our choices and we embrace the opportunity to carry this uniqueness around with us-- and companies are starting to notice.  I think this milestone may have an impact on the way organizations decide what is important to us as consumers and as Americans.

Penguins vs. Al Gore

One question - which movie do you think influenced more people about global warming - Happy Feet or An Inconvenient Truth?

Let's see, tap-dancing penguins or Al Gore?  Hmmmm.

We underestimate the power of entertainment to influence our beliefs - we think we're rational, smart people when really we're suckers for a cute animals who suffer.   Since Happy Feet has earned $379 million worldwide - I think the global warming debate is over.  It doesn't even matter if global warming is true or not, too many people (and their children) now believe it is. 

Mourning the Movies

I did not watch the Oscars last night. I didn't much care.  It bothered me that I didn't care.  I was the kid who sat in Sister Adele's fifth grade class silently reciting my acceptance speech for my Academy Award.  And I used to think that I should have been born in 1911 so I would be the right age to marry Jimmy Stewart.  In the summer of 1977, I traveled a long way- eight different times - to see Star Wars at the Uptown theater in Washington, DC.

Movies have always been a big deal to me.  I love movies.  But I find myself going less and less to the movies.  And once again,  I am a statistic, because everyone else is going less too. What is going on here?

Chris Anderson has been writing about this forever on his Long Tail blog, but I guess I never felt its "trueness" until last night.  Movies aren't the center of my life the way they used to be.

And then Len at work sends me this op-ed from yesterday's Los Angeles Times.  Neal Gabler first cites statistics:

• In 2006, Box Office attendance reached its lowest point in 10 years.  Foreign receipts are down and even DVD sales are plateauing.
• 45% of American moviegoers had decreased their attendance over the last five years, with the highest percentage of that decrease in the coveted 18- to 24-year-old bracket. (Zogby Survey)
• 21% of respondents said they never went to the movies. (Zogby Survey).
• In another survey, 83 percent of its respondents said they were satisfied with the content of the films they saw, but 60% nevertheless expected to spend less of their income on moviegoing in the future, citing dissatisfaction with the moviegoing experience and the emergence of better alternatives for their time and money. (PA Consulting Survey for the Motion Picture Assn. of America)

Okay - so things look bad - but what's behind it?  Gabler describes:

...an ever-growing culture of knowingness, especially among young people, in which being regarded as part of an informational elite — an elite that knew which celebrities were dating each other, which had had plastic surgery, who was in rehab, etc. — was more gratifying than the conventional pleasures of moviegoing.

In this culture, the intrinsic value of a movie, or of most conventional entertainments, has diminished. Their job now is essentially to provide stars for People, Us, "Entertainment Tonight" and the supermarket tabloids, which exhibit the new "movies" — the stars' life sagas.

This explains the rise of the celebrity culture.  But according to Gabler

...To the extent that the Internet is a niche machine, dividing its users into tiny, self-defined categories, it is providing a challenge to the movies that not even television did, because the Internet addresses a change in consciousness while television simply addressed a change in delivery of content...

The Internet...not only creates niche communities — of young people, beer aficionados, news junkies, Britney Spears fanatics — that seem to obviate the need for the larger community, it plays to another powerful force in modern America and one that also undermines the movies: narcissism.

[Social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube] are replacing one of the movies' functions: If stars' lives are superseding movie narratives, audiences are superseding the stars. Who needs Brad Pitt if you can be your own hero on a video game, make your own video on YouTube or feature yourself on Facebook?

I believe what Gabler says.  Why does that make me so sad?

Ten Companies to Watch

Via Emergic comes Read/WriteWeb's Top Ten picks from Demo 2007.  The Demo 2007 conference "showcases the latest emerging technologies."  As I look through their list, it strikes me that six of these companies are for sharing things like videos, photos, home design, music, even wifi networks.  Another technology makes live videos cooler.  One company is about organizing your information by leaving a Hansel & Gretel-like web trail of crumbs.  If you're looking for relationships between people and companies,  ZoomInfo can help.  And the last company, Sentinel sort of goes against the Web 2.0 vein here and provides copyright protection for bloggers.

Here are the companies to watch for:

eJamming: The eJamming web site and desktop software allows musicians to play in sync over the Internet... eJamming's secret sauce allows musicians across the globe to connect and seamlessly play together as if they were in the same rehearsal room.

Jaman: Less than 1% of the movies made in the world are available to the US public. Jaman is about to change that by delivering these movies straight to Windows and Mac Desktops with innovative, better-than-DVD quality software. On top of getting us these unique movies, Jaman software creates instant social networks by placing an interactive control bar to the right of the movie window.

MyDesignIn: Social networking has gone vertical in recent times and this app is an interesting twist. MyDesignIn allows users to collect home design ideas and artifacts online using browser buttons. The users then can apply collected information and images to the blueprints of their house and get design advice from their friends and family.

OurStory: Just when we thought there is nothing left to do in the online photo and media sharing market, Our Story proves us wrong. They take the simple idea that media exists in time, and come up with an end-to-end photo organizer, storage and sharing experience. The photos are organized around events and timelines, and they can be shared and contributed to by multiple users via site or email.

Sentinel: We live during exciting times, when self-expression on-line and particularly blogging is on the rise. Protecting the copyright of our blogs is as important as protecting the copyright in print. Sentinel monitors the web and pin-points blog plagiarism.

SplashCast: Splashcast allows users to remix photos, video and audio to create personalized channels. These channels are then available to play in any SplashCast player installed on a web site, blog or social network profile.

Total Immersion: Total Immersion?s software enables the real-time integration of interactive 3D graphics into live video flows. In is quite impressive and certainly is the most fun DEMO video that I watched.

TrailFire: TrailFire is an annotation technology that allows any user to attach notes to web pages. By naming the notes with the same name, this software allows users to create trails. Each trail represents an individual or collective navigation path, centered around a topic.

Whisher: When was the last time 128-bit encryption stopped piracy? Certainly not when it comes to WiFi. Spanish company Whisher helps you to navigate the entire WiFi network, without worrying about what network you are connected to.

ZoomInfo: ZoomInfo offers a vertical semantic search engine, focused on companies and people. It is an impressive technology that turns the web into a database of corporate and personal information; and organizes it in an intelligent way.

CGM Evolves

I was watching the NBC program "Grease: You're the One that I Want" with my two daughters the other night and it occurred to me that this was a different form of Consumer Generated Media (CGM) - it's more a Professional-Amateur blend of CGM - or Pro-Am CGM.  The professionals judges make the first cuts of contestants who are both professionals and amateurs.  The professionals then train these Broadway hopefuls, while the audience (amateurs) ultimately chooses who will star as Sandy and Danny in a brand new Broadway production of Grease. 

The Grease television show uses the crowdsourcing of American Idol, but takes it a step further and puts the ultimate product up for sale early in the process (tickets to the Broadway show).  In the first two days of sales, $1.3 million worth of seats were sold - not bad for a show that has no-name leads and no theater yet.

Another example of Pro-Am CGM is the contest being run by HP as part of it's efforts at the Sundance film festival.  From Susan Getgood at Marketing Roadmaps:

...HP is holding a photo contest called Snapshot Diaries. Entrants submit 6-10 related photos with captions that tell a story. The winning entry will be turned into a short movie by film director Matt Pope like this one:

So what begins as an amateur production winds up as a polished professional movie.  And the winner goes to Sundance in 2008 to see his co-created movie.  Very fun. 

The only other comment to make is that it's fascinating to watch how photos, movies, television, theater and the Internet are all used in these Pro-Am CGM projects.  The Grease television show keeps showing clips of the popular movie to sell tickets to a Broadway show.  And the HP contest uses still photos to make a moving picture.  More and more blending of media. 

High School Musical - The Sequel - A Tween has Ideas

Not long ago I wrote a post on High School Musical - What it Means.  And I got a comment back from 9-year-old Martha Addis in the U.K.  Martha asked for my address, which I sent her.  She has written me a letter, but then she sent me an email to give me her ideas for a sequel because the physical letter (which is on the way) will take too long. 

This is why I love blogging.  In this day and age a nine-year old from Great Britain can find common ground and converse with a middle-aged mom in Rockville, Maryland, USA?  How is this possible?  I think it's wonderful (though I can see how it might be scary too - although Martha communicates with me through her mom's email - so her mother sees it first) -

Here's a pic she sent me - Martha is on the left, and her best friend K8E (her spelling) is on the right.

And what are Martha's ideas?   Here they are:

There is this girl (I don't know what the name could be) and she is Troy and Gabriella's kid. She is about 9 or 10 years old. And there is a play going on at her primary school. Troy and Gabriella try to convince her to audition for a part and they even get Chad and Taylor's kid to try and convince her to as well. They all make her listen to Breaking Free. She got upset and didn't know what to do because she didn't want to let her parent's down and she didn't want to let the basketball coach (her grandfather) down either. So in the end she gave up basketball and auditioned for the play (don't know what song she sang) and got the main part.

This is something else I love about blogging and the Internet - people are free and able to express themselves and their ideas to so many more people than in the past. I love that Martha wrote me, and that she feels free to send me ideas.  This is why I have high hopes for this Gen Y - they're so open, so creative, so fun.  They are teaching us so much. 

The Borat Ate the Cheese

Here at New Persuasion, we have a category called Saturation Generation, which, simply put, means we are inundated all the time with information, ideas, credit card applications, and just plain stuff.  It was the subject of Barry Schwartz's book, The Paradox of Choice:  Why More is Less.  Basically he said too many choices left us dissatisfied and unhappy customers.  So with that intro, I want to show you the greatest example of over-saturation I've come across in pop culture - a deleted scene from the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America --

Thanks to Influx Insights for the link. 

High School Musical - What it Means

This past summer, my boss Dan gave me an article on Disney Channel's Original Movie, High School Musical.  The cable movie is a mega-hit and Dan wanted to know what that meant.  So I dutifully rented the movie and watched it with my daughter (age 11) and a few of my nieces (ages 12, 13, 13).  We watched the movie four separate times that weekend.  By the fourth time, we played the sing-along version and sang along.  Then I got to work on Monday and promptly was distracted by other things and never told Dan what I thought.

Fast forward to this week - my daughter informs me that her sixth grade class wants to perform High School Musical for the annual spring musical.  And then I remembered my long neglected assignment.  This time I bought the movie and watched it during lunch with the other New Persuaders in my office.  And then we all talked about it.  Here's what we came up with - some obvious, others maybe not so much:

• Be yourself, Believe in Yourself.  Don't cave into peer pressure. That's what my daughter and my nieces told me the message of the movie was. 
  • Jocks can sing, or bake; freaks can play musical instruments; geeks can dance hiphop.  It's a positive message.  And is related to the thinking that by being ourselves, we are the star of our own life and each one of us is special.  It helps that Disney cast unknowns to star in this movie. 
  • Now I do think each one of us is special, but not all of us are going to be superstars.  And I think when this "be yourself, believe in yourself" tenet is taken too far, you get contestants on American Idol who clearly stink, yet truly believe they are supremely talented.  To quote from The Incredibles: 

Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: Which is another way of saying no-one is.

• The Tween Market (ages 8-14) is influential and sophisticated. Consider:
  • Almost 37 million viewers have watched the $4.2 million production [o f High School Musical] at least once since its first airing. (Newsweek, 7/24/06)
  • The soundtrack, a top-10 hit since its January release, is the year's biggest-selling CD, at 2.7 million copies. And the DVD has sold millions too.  (Newsweek, 7/24/06)
  • From Toy Directory Monthly: “Tweens have been raised as consumers,” said [Anne] Sutherland, co-author of the book Kidfluence: The Marketer’s Guide to Understanding and Reaching Generation Y—Kids, Tweens and Teens...
  • Reyne Rice of the research firm NPDFunworld credits Tween spending with bringing $3 billion of new money to the marketplace.  “They are a very vocal group,” Rice said. “They tell you exactly what they do and don’t want. Parents don’t want to buy something their kids don’t want."
  • You'll notice that High School Musical gives logical reasons for the kids to burst into song.  The two leads first sing together during a karaoke party.  With the exception of a couple songs, most of the other songs in the movie are part of a winter musicale the high school is putting on.  I've talked about this before - that if you want today's audiences to buy into your fantasy, you better explain yourself first - these kids are smart.
• It's the Music stupid. Music is interactive entertainment.  You can sing along, you can dance along, you can pretend to be the singer.  And if you are a tween, you'll do all of the above over and over and over again.  Thanks to devices like the iPod, music is accessible and part of these kids daily routine.  Music is central to their lives. 
  • No wonder Disney ran a karaoke version of the movie after it originally aired.  And Disney Channel also used its Web site to make the songs' lyrics available for download for 24 hours. More than 500,000 copies were downloaded within that period. (from Cnet News, 2/6/06)
  • Steve Jobs recently told Newsweek: 

"I think that music faded in importance for a while, and the iPod has helped to bring music back into people's lives in a really meaningful way. Music is so deep within all of us, but it's easy to go for a day or a week or a month or a year without really listening to music. And the iPod has changed that for tens of millions of people, and that makes me really happy, because I think music is good for the soul."

• We have become very conservative.  Many have said this movie is this generation's Grease, but I would beg to differ.  The students of Grease smoked, drank, had sex, got pregnant, and the ultimate message was you can't be yourself to get the guy.  The only things Grease has in common with High School Musical is that both take place in (fantasy) high school and both have singing and dancing. 
  • Newsweek described High School Musical's setting best:  "...there are cliques and rivalries at East High, but there's no sex, no drugs, no racial or ethnic tensions, no dropouts and no violence. Everyone is good-looking, well-dressed and talented. Classrooms are spacious and clean. In the end, the home team wins, all conflicts are resolved and everybody dances together in the gym. It's not high school; it's high school the way we wish it could be."
  • As a result of our conservatism, our thirst for G-rated fare is increasing.  Think Napoleon Dynamite.  Parents are increasingly involved in every aspect of their child's life. (Even interfering at work!) Parents want to comfortably watch a movie with their children.  And even if you're not such a conservative parent, you can enjoy making fun of the movie as you watch it.  And you can enjoy your child's enjoyment.  So it's win-win when you make G-rated fare. 

I think Disney was not completely surprised by the success of High School Musical because they knew what they were doing.  And now we have High School Musical, The Musical and High School Musical 2 to look forward to:

"East High is on summer hiatus, so the battleground shifts to the country club, founded by (who else?) Sharpay's granddad. Troy, Gabriella and the others show up as lifeguards, waiters and caddies. And the haves and the have-nots tee off in the club's annual midsummer night's musical. There'll be plenty of drama: this time around, Ryan may turn on his sis.  But will Troy finally get to kiss Gabriella?"

So now the comparisons will be with Dirty Dancing (Without the sex, abortion and affairs).

As for my experience with the movie, I'm embarrrassed to admit I had fun watching it.  I did make comments and poke fun, but I also sang along.  And I think that's a key ingredient for any successful venture these days - Make it Fun.

Elwood P. Dowd Was Right

Jill Fallon at Business of Life points to an article in The Observer: 

'There is a widespread belief that ruthless and self-centered people are the most successful when it comes to their careers. But being prepared to do anything to get ahead does not mean you will succeed in your ambitions,' says Stefan Einhorn, author of The Art Of Being Kind, to be published this week by Little, Brown. 'True success is not achieved by those who are smart or inconsiderate, by hard-baked egotists or psychopathic bosses,' says Einhorn, who is also chairman of the Ethics Council at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

'On the contrary, being kind to our fellow human beings is a precondition to becoming truly successful. Goodness and kindness are the single most important factors when it comes to how successful we will be in our lives.'

Einhorn says we're often kind out of pure egotistical needs - but that's okay.  It's the act, not the thought that counts.  He gives three reasons why it pays to be kind:

1. Kind, generous people are not perceived as threats, and people tend to cooperate with them, not compete with them.
2. When you're kind - people tend to be kind back.
3. Being kind simply gives a person pleasure.

And all this kindness makes me think of my favorite quote of all time - as a kid I thought it was the wisest thing I'd ever heard.  It was spoken by Elwood P. Dowd in the 1950 movie Harvey:

"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

Snakes on a Plane is about FUN

Is the movie Snakes on a Plane (SoaP) a failure?

It opened number one at the box office - but because it failed to meet expectations of a $20 million take (it made $15.3 million) it's considered a disappointment, a failure. 

Seth Godin says:

I fear that people are missing a fundamental truth: just because people know who you are doesn't mean they're going to buy what you sell. There's a difference between infamy (or celebrity) and the consumer's desire to buy. I knew all about SOAP and had no desire whatsoever to go... I'm afraid we come back to something that marketers have been struggling with for a really long time--the best way to succeed is to have a really great product.

Seth is wrong. 

Snakes on a Plane isn't about the movie product - it's about the whole experience.  It's about the FUN. 

I got a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson.  My brother got a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson.  My best friend got a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson.  None of us went to see the movie.  But that doesn't mean we're not going to see the movie.  Most likely we will buy it, rent it or watch it on demand - but we will see it.  The movie theater going experience is changing, but that doesn't make Snakes on a Plane a failure. 

BS^2 Branding Space blog has it right:

I think Soap did it right. By engaging the audience, they were able to make them feel like part of something special, even if the movie did suck, turning them into SoaP evangelists. Subsequently, these SoaP evangelists gave the movie marketing legs that cast a wider and deeper net than what they could’ve done via tens of millions of dollars of standard advertising means. Is it a problem that the opening weekend wasn’t gonzo? Not really, because most of these people will eventually come around. Why? Because they’ve invested themselves into the movie - minutes and maybe hours viewing and creating wacky videos and fan-art. Maybe they won’t view it in the theaters (because spending free time remixing videos doesn’t mean you’re going to slap down $20 for a movie ticket, popcorn and drinks), but they’ll see it when it comes around on DVD, VoD, piracy (yes, piracy), etc. And just as importantly, it’s now a part of the cultural lexicon. So it’s not likely to fade away into nothingness like a Final Destinations or Jeepers Creepers.

For this movie - It's the process the not the product.  And just because Hollywood hasn't figured out how to answer this question:  How do we make it as easy as possible for people to access our movies whenever they want and in whatever form they want? - don't blame SoaP.

The Nudge Nudge Wink Wink Factor

I finally went to see Lady in the Water last night.  Beautiful film.  Loved it.  An old-fashioned, grim (not Grimm) fairy tale. 

But what I noticed about the movie, and I'm noticing it more and more in other things - is that old-fashioned works very well now - as long as the makers acknowledge it.  I call it the "Nudge Nudge Wink Wink" Factor.   You remember the Monty Python sketch where Eric Idle is the all-knowing idiot who pretends to know all about Terry Jones' private life.  One of the characters in Lady in the Water is a movie critic, who seems to think he can apply the rules of film to real life (in a movie).

So today's creative minds are winking, saying, "Yes, we're creating something out-of- date - but we're well aware of it - and we want you to know we know."

I first noticed this trend when I saw the movie Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, where writer/director Shane Black plays with the detective and buddy movie genres - continually winking at the audience.  Of course this has been done before, but I've never seen it done so blatantly. 

And then there's the current darling of Broadway, The Drowsy Chaperone.  A (pretend) 1928 musical with a twist - the story is told by a present day narrator as he sits in his apartment listening to the record.  The narrator gives backstory on the cast members and shares some of his own life, all the while enthralled with this ancient theatrical spectacle.  As he reads the album notes, he says it's about a "gay wedding" and then goes on to say that gay wedding didn't mean the same thing then.  Very funny, very nudge nudge.

So what does it mean?  I think it means we long for old-fashioned stories that end happily and neatly.  But we know too much, we're too smart to fall for it.  We will however accept it if the creator acknowledges he's not trying to fool us, that he/she knows how clever we've become.  Then we can settle back and be kids again, believing in the unbelievable. 

Mark Cuban's Marketing Answer (from me)

The only movie I've seen this summer is Pirates 2 - I want to see Lady in the Water, Superman Returns, Talladega Nights - but I don't know if I'll get to see them.

So I've been thinking about Mark Cuban's problem - he wants to know how to get people back in the movie theater, excited about what they're seeing. 

I've already written about how he's asking the wrong question.  The true question here is: How does going to the movies fit in with my life? 

The answer for me personally is that going to the movies fits in less and less in my life. (And I'm someone who has always gone to the movies on opening night.)  There are fewer movies I want to see, and most of the ones I want to see I can wait for. 

Here are my answers for Mark Cuban (and most of these are found in the some 575 comments on his blog):

Going to the movies must be an experience - either the movie is so good and so spectacular that I can't miss it (and much of this is beyond the filmmakers control), or the theater experience is so good and so fun I can't wait to go back (this the theater owner can control).  Though lots of people have talked about the price, I do not think you want to dilute your product by lowering prices (that just says to me you don't value what you're offering.)

• Take a cue from the home movie theaters so many are putting in their homes.  Keep one or two huge theaters for that big experience, and then think small.  Divide your theater into small theaters (20-50 seats) and let groups and families buy the theater for a showing.  And show everything you can think of - first runs, foreign movies and old classics.  Make one theater a place where people can type in funny, snarky comments that show up on the screen.  Make one movie theater a karaoke experience, where you get a chance to act a scene from a movie.  Make one theater for the over 40 crowd that wants silence.  Make one theater a place where kids can play on a jungle gym while watching the movie. Make one theater just for book clubs to watch the movie that goes along with their books.  And use dark time to turn your theater into videogame playing rooms for groups of teens.  Remember active experience beat passive ones these days.  To make all this work, you have to become part of your local community, which leads me to my next point.

Know who I am, what movies I've gone to - Amazon knows what books I've bought and recommends others, Netflix knows what I've rented and recommends others - so why not the same for movie theaters?  I always buy my tickets ahead of time on Fandango, so somebody knows what movies I've gone to in the past year.  Use that information to know me and my preferences.

Open up the Movie making process - release the DVD extras while the movie is in production.  Assign someone to write about the movie and post pictures every single day.  Allow give and take between fans and directors/writers/actors/crew - put up anything and everything about a movie as it's happening (including plans for the marketing campaign).  Build your movie community as you go along. 

I'm done.  Now to see Lady in the Water.

Mark Cuban's Marketing Question

I love Mark Cuban - he always has good ideas. Now he's asking his blog readers to send him ideas for movie marketing and getting people back into movie theaters:

"Come up with a great idea that I want to use and I will come up with a job for you to make that idea happen."

Cuban says they tried everything:

"We do buzz marketing. We put up videos all over the net. We set up websites, myspace accounts for the movies and its characters, we work with movie forums, we buy ads, etc, etc, etc. If its been done before, we are doing it."

So far, Cuban's gotten some 116 comments (yes, I read all of them).  Many of them with great suggestions.  My favorite came from Mark Vay, comment #105:

"With the amazing technologies available today, why not allow people to participate in the ENTIRE movie making process? If I am made to feel like I am a part of the process, I am more likely to see the end product and will also tell more people about it. Just think about the buzz on myspace.com this could create."

We've seen the beginning of this with Peter Jackson/King Kong and Bryan Singer's video blog posts from Superman Returns.  Also, DVDs have raised customer expectations - and now they want bonus materials even before there is a product. 

Ben McConnell of Church of the Customer  says, "...if Cuban wants to build the audience for a film, he might consider working with directors who will open the doors of collaboration a bit wider to let the light of collective knowledge and ideas squeeze in."

I find myself agreeing with James Robertson of Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants:

The right answer is to accept reality - you aren't going to get crowds to the movies in the same kinds of large numbers as you have been able to. Not in a world filled with game consoles, home theaters, and DVRs. The real winner is going to be the company that sets up a commercial Bittorrent (or bittorrent like) system to stream movies to customers. Make it simple, and make it inexpensive. Skip the DRM, because the pirates will break it in minutes, and all you'll really do is irritate the paying customers. Offer one-off buys, but also go straight after NetFlix with a decent subscription model. Trying to get people to the theater is fighting yesterday's war.

I have to agree - mainstream media is molting.  Back in April I wrote:

MSM asks the wrong question: 
How do we get our audience back?

What MSM should ask is:
How are we relevant to people’s lives?

People's lives are increasingly lived in their homes.  That's not going to change.  So the question Mark Cuban needs to ask is:

How do we make it as easy as possible for people to access our movies whenever they want and in whatever form they want?

And I know Mark Cuban can answer this question.  Isn't he the same man who released a movie in the theater, on DVD and HDNet Movies all on the same day?

And the Oscar goes to...

How do you define a movie as being a success?

As most of us know, the Oscar nominees for this year were announced this week. And as you may or may not know, the nominees for the Razzies were announced last week. These awards are the exact opposite of the Oscars- the worse movies and actors of the year. The Razzies don’t get nearly as much publicity as the Oscars but the actors are still just as famous as those nominated for Oscars. Some of the actors nominated this year are Tom Cruise, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Lopez, and Jessica Alba. However, one would assume that the worst movies completely bomb at the box office and the “best” movies make tons of money and are a huge hit with the public. But, after looking at box office figures for both the Oscar nominees and Razzie nominees, it turns out that there is little difference in how much these movies are making overall. The five Oscar nominees for best picture made about $187 million combined while the Razzie nominees made only $30 million less than that. While that may seem like a big difference, consider that the top grossing film of last year, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, made $380 million! That one movie made $200 million more than all five of the top Oscar contenders combined!

Why is there such a disconnect between what the public wants to pay money to see and what critics deem as the best (and worst) movies of the year? The Christian Science Monitor states that:

Oscar night - and the movies it celebrates - has become a Rorschach test for a self-absorbed industry out of touch with mainstream tastes.

All of this year's nominees are dramas that address issues Americans deal with every day:

• Middle East politics - Munich
• Race Relations - Crash
• Death Penalty - Capote
• Gay Unions  - Brokeback Mountain
• Media Trust - Good Night, and Good Luck

Most people I know go to the movies as entertainment and to escape their every day lives. These types of movies don’t provide that escape and instead continue to feed us with the serious issues we hear about every day on the news.

Marshall Manson at the OnTap Blog agrees:

This year’s Oscar nominations once again confirm that Hollywood’s biggest awards are more about making a political statement than recognizing great films…But Hollywood doesn’t seem interested in rewarding great films. Instead, it would prefer to reward good films that send a “message.” That’s not unexpected. But it is disappointing.

Another blogger concurs as well:

The movies that are nominated are the "thinking-man movies." ..... I do enjoy a well-made/produced movie, but more often than not, I want a movie that is entertaining. One where I can click my brain to "off" and enjoy.

Some may see it as heartening that making a lot of money or not isn’t the key to winning awards but it also seems that to stay in touch with the public and not lose credibility these awards shows need to honor the movies that Joe Public enjoys the most.