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According to yesterday's NYT, HBO are going all out to promote their new Martin Scorsese series "Boardwalk Empire.". The unusual thing about the effort is how they've enlisted the help of three brands; Harrah's, Macy's and Canadian Club.

Since the show is set in the era prohibition era, it might seem surprising to see Canadian Club playing such a prominent role, but apparently the brand was firmly associated with the period; Al Capone was rumored to have smuggled the brand from Windsor Canada, to Detroit.

Obviously a Scorsese show for HBO is going to get attention and it's probably going deal with some edgy content and themes- something you wouldn't have thought these three brands would have wanted to be part of. However, they've probably seen the success of the Mad Men as another period piece and seen the opportunity to gain cultural propulsion by taking some risks.

This is a nice deal for both parties because HBO get's an inside track on a lot of interesting free media- like store windows in Bloomingdales, hotel rooms in Atlantic City and a partnership in speakeasy parties organized by Canadian Club.

The challenge for these brands is to make sure they can "own" something out of this deal and really play a role. If they are just seen as mere "sponsors", they won't have capitalized on the opportunity correctly. Clearly this is not their creative idea and content and there's a danger these brands could get lost in the shuffle.

There's something of a gamble going on here on a couple of levels

1. A Scorsese TV series will be a hit
2. The 1920s will make a cultural comeback

The first point is likely given the man's track record Less likely are the 20s making a cultural comeback; while there can be some parallels drawn with the recession, it's past history that's difficult to connect with, unlike Mad Men, where you can clearly see the line between that past and today.

The best these brands can hope for is that the relevance in the glamor, sophistication and drama of the period can be tapped and turned into something.

For Canadian Club, a brand that's not afraid to take risks, it will be interesting to see how far they push this association.


Posted by Ed Cotton It looks like News Corporation has made the decision to start charging for its online content. Although this is not new news, this whole topic was discussed and experimented with in the early days of Web 1.0, it's now back on the agenda. With newspapers struggling for revenue, this seems to be the only way they can go.

However, it's fraught with problems. Most internet users are pretty accustomed to free content and suddenly putting up walled gardens everywhere could have a huge impact on viewership and hence lead to massive declines in ad revenue. It will be interesting to see how much solidarity there will be between the different publishers and if some titles can benefit from holding out and not jumping into the fray.

In the end, newspapers have little choice, but to find new ways to make money. The simple fee based model for subs and article access might not be enough. These publishers are going to have to think harder about adding value to make this really attractive. If they use their imaginations, they will discover hundreds of ways of making an online newspaper subscription attractive.

If you're a newspaper publisher and you think the solution is a digital facsimile of the analog version, you need to re-think.


Posted by Ed Cotton "Google -- I mean, the harsh way of just defining it, Google devalues everything it touches. Google is great for Google, but it's terrible for content providers, because it divides that content quantitatively rather than qualitatively. And if you are going to get people to pay for content, you have to encourage them to make qualitative decisions about that content."

Robert Thomson- WSJ- Charlie Rose Show- February 11th, 2009


Posted by Ed Cotton Nokia and the Future Laboratory, have just completed a research study that explored attitudes and developments in the use of technology and media.

They talked to 9,000 consumers in 17 countries. The breakthough finding and brave prediction is the emergence of what Nokia is calling "Circular Media"

"From our research we predict that up to a quarter of the entertainment being consumed in five years will be what we call 'Circular'. The trends we are seeing show us that people will have a genuine desire not only to create and share their own content, but also to remix it, mash it up and pass it on within their peer groups - a form of collaborative social media.

We think it will work something like this; someone shares video footage they shot on their mobile device from a night out with a friend, that friend takes that footage and adds an MP3 file - the soundtrack of the evening - then passes it to another friend. That friend edits the footage by adding some photographs and passes it on to another friend and so on. The content keeps circulating between friends, who may or may not be geographically close, and becomes part of the group's entertainment."

Mark Selby, Vice President, Multimedia, Nokia

It's an interesting theory, the idea that consumers will add and to, interact and participate with media makes complete sense, but the constant addition and participation by members of a friendship group is hard to believe, as is the shelf-life of each piece of content.

This could get easily become boring in a short period of time.

Nokia's report also appears to miss the blending and blurring of user-generated and conventional media; users taking established media content and adding their own spin to that content.

Posted by Ed Cotton Cool story about the Movable Type art piece in the new New York Times building in New York.

The concept is all about breaking the original content down into small elements and finding connections between the pieces.




Posted by Ed Cotton Brands spend billions building their awareness and crafting a unique DNA, after all, isn’t differentiation everything?

Then in the scramble to get online, to do something different and to capture attention with branded content, something goes hopelessly wrong. Brands end up creating lifeless, meaningless and undifferentiated experiences.

The sophisticated young consumers that Chivas Regal and American Express both covet, have no need for access to more lifestyle tips, information of guides to the cities they live in or intend to visit.

This information is so readily available, in fact, it’s practically flowing like water. Sure, they value good insider tips and scoops, but most of the time this comes from their network or well-established niche publications and lists.

So why does MSN create “This is the Life” for Chivas Regal?

What’s American Express doing with Entertainment Access Spotlight?

The later is a beta test being run by American Express Labs. A radical new proving ground for new ideas from American Express, one can only hope the ideas get better and more radical.

In the battle for attention it’s easy to think that content is the answer and it may well be, but just like advertising, it has to be real good to break through.

Media companies and young web entrepreneurs might be able to persuade brands into this, through a category sell and for brand managers jaded by advertising, it could be just the ticket, but in reality, creating great content takes time, talent and serious investment.

Doing something half-baked or borrowed from left over content, just isn’t going to work.

Brands need to think more imaginatively and should need to challenge their media partners to do the same, even if the content is part of a so-called added-value package.
 

Posted by Ed Cotton