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WTF! Why Marc Maron Matters and Why You Should Care

For those not in the know, Marc Maron is a veteran standup comedian who was part of what became, for better or worse, the “alternative” comedy scene.  Over the course of his career Marc has been through a lot – from addiction and rehab to a devastating divorce.  Now in his 40′s Marc is once again making a major impact on the world of comedy and, through his own perseverance and commitment to authenticity he has entered into a new phase of his career – one that might very well raise his profile above any previous heights he has achieved in the past.

About a year ago, maybe a bit more, Marc was coming out of an emotionally and economically shattering divorce.  His work with Air America was over and his prospects probably seemed pretty grim.  His first step in reviving himself was to write a one-man show about his divorce.  This show, while at times dark and even off-putting to some, was a sign of things to come from Marc.  The show was raw, honest and funny in a way that only true emotion can convey.

Marc’s next step was to create a podcast called WTF.  From the beginning of this show, WTF stood out from the crowd and did so because it was driven by the same basic need to speak authentically about his own experiences and to get others to speak authentically about their own experiences.  As Marc often comments during the show, his regular listeners know him about as well as his parents and friends.

The show has grown steadily since its launch, largely due to Marc’s refusal to stop but also due to his ability to attract some of the most compelling and engaging voices in the comedy world and beyond.  As other comedians listened to his interviews, which end up being one-part confessional, one-part apology and one-part anecdotal reminiscence, the desire to be a part of the experience drew even more guests to the show.

Unlike a spot on Leno or Conan, Marc spends close to an hour with each guest, allowing the interview to cover much more ground and to get beyond the obvious and facile questions that dominate most interviews.  More importantly, Marc is not just the man asking the questions.  He is seeking answers to his own issues and concerns, diving into uncomfortable waters knowing that this is where the real insights live.

The result is that today his podcast is regularly listed in the top 10 on iTunes.  This has led to a much stronger following for Marc on the road, allowing him to fill bigger rooms in more places.  It is also opening up all sorts of other possibilities from Marc, since, if there is one truth about show business, success drives success and Marc is succeeding.

There are a number of important lessons to drawn from Marc’s experience over the past year or so:

1) Nobody is going to hand it to you.  Unless you are the driving force behind your own goals your goals will never be reached.

2) Putting yourself out there in an authentic way will attract attention but only if your goal is authenticity and not success.

3) Doing beats NOT doing every time.  There are thousands of reasons Marc shouldn’t have started a podcast and thousands of reasons it might not have succeeded but if he hadn’t started it he would still be stuck.

4) Finding your voice is a constantly evolving process and if you are not open to change within yourself you will simply repeat your own mistakes.

It is going to be very interesting to see where Marc and WTF go over the next year or two – to see what opportunities arise and how Marc approaches this new phase of his career.  One thing is certain, as long as he remains committed to honesty and authenticity he will be on the right path.

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Brands Missing Opportunities to Collaborate with “YouTube Stars”

If there is one area I would have thought brands would be all over by now it would be the world of the YouTube “stars.”

While a few, like iJustine and LisaNova have been a part of some relatively significant collaborations there are many more out there drawing audiences often larger than cable TV and the audiences they are drawing are from all the key demos brands are eager to engage.

For instance, Revision3 has partnered with the young man behind Dan 3.0 for a year-long experiment in letting the public decide his every move.  It might not be the most original idea but, according to NewTeeVee:

Brown’s YouTube channel — cemented by his highly viral Rubix Cube series — includes over 250,000 subscribers and almost 58 million total upload views.

With that kind of exposure, you’d think his videos would include a more creative and expansive marketing partnership than the single “pre-roll” card and a popup ad served by Google.

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HP Goes 360 Degrees in Millenial Marketing

HP has partnered with a number of big-name musical artists in an attempt to draw in that elusive “millennial” demographic.  While using stars is nothing new in the world of advertising, this HP campaign is worth noting as they are truly trying to think beyond the 30-second TV spot.

As described by MediaPost:

In addition to the commercial, which has been running on national cable networks such as MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, BET and others, HP’s Summer Music Campaign has also hosted live studio sessions with various music artists that were aired live on the NASDAQ and Reuters billboards in Times Square and streamed live on Facebook. HP’s Facebook page will also host a music trivia quiz that will entertain and educate consumers about sound quality.

Later this summer, HP will also partner with Xbox Live to create an online experience where users can watch HD video of the music sessions and other video from the campaign, as well as chances to win an HP Envy computer with Beats, games and other prizes.

Today it is vital that the brands go to where their consumers are spending their time and by spreading their message beyond the TV screen HP will be doing just that.

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Over 80,000 People Want To Be Part of “Life in a Day”

“Life in a Day” may or may not result in a truly compelling documentary but it has proven beyond any doubt that people want to be a part of the entertainment being made for their own consumption.

The concept for “Life in a Day” was to document a single day on planet Earth by requesting people create and submit videos of what they were doing or seeing on that day.

The result so far is over 80,000 video submissions.  Sure, a lot of them will be crass or worse and many might be just plain bad but there is no denying that the people want to be a part of the experience.

There are a lot of important lessons here for marketers looking to take advantage of the power of the internet – if all you are doing is posting a video or a banner ad and not creating an opportunity for true engagement and exchange then you are missing out on some massive potential.

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Teva Does Their Own Man V. Wild with The Naturist

Teva is a solid brand with a good reputation for making outdoor footwear.  As a way to extend their message and give us a smile they are bringing back their original web series “The Naturist.”

What first appears to be a somewhat cheap knockoff of “Man vs. Wild” turns things around with some unexpected humor, poking fun at the whole survivalist genre.  Sure, it might not be the most original idea of all time but it is just one more example of the way smart brands are targeting potential consumers with something more than your standard 30-second spot and using humor to make an impact.

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Cadbury Ups User Engagement With Spots vs. Stripes

Iconic UK candy company Cadbury has been selected as the official “snack provider” for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Capitalizing on this sponsorship, Cadbury has launched a potentially very fun interactive campaign called “Spots vs. Stripes”

Players are asked to join a side and participate in a series of silly games offered on the site—like hoop tosses, or of their own making—anything from traditional sports to cereal tower building or bog snorkelling. Games can be played online or in real life. Online winners get their points registered automatically, while offline competitors can log their wins on the claim a point page.  (via Creativity Online)

This sort of campaign, which seeks as a central goal to get consumers actively involved with the brand, is an important part of the future of advertising and marketing.  Not only does Cadbury get to be a provider of fun and entertainment but they change public perception from being simply makers of candy bars (damn good candy bars, too) to being supporters of play and good times.  It will be a very interesting campaign to track and see if it is able to generate true traction with consumers.

Check out this promo video below and notice that candy isn’t mentioned once…

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• Cadbury set to reveal 2012 Olympics sponsorship ads (guardian.co.uk)
• 20 Creative Cadbury Campaigns – The Huge Company has Impressive Marketing and Chocolate (CLUSTER) (trendhunter.com)

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Is Personal Use Piracy Really Just Shoplifting?

We live in an age when just about any kind of media can be downloaded from the internet.  From music to movies, tv shows to artwork, it is all out there for the taking.

Some of the sources for media are “legal” sources where you can pay a price for the content and assume that at least some (usually VERY small) percentage of that purchase price will be going to the creator of the media.  This might include iTunes, Amazon and Netflix.

Some of these sources provide the content legally and for free, either being supported by advertising or simply as a form of publicity.  Many musicians have found that offering some or all of their music for free pays off in other ways such as better live-show attendance, licensing deals, etc.

Then there are the places that provide “unauthorized” access to copyrighted material. These include sites where content can be downloaded, such at the infamous Pirate Bay, and others where the content can be streamed, such as MegaVideo.

Historically, the big rights holders such as movie studios and record labels have pursued an aggressive legal attack when it comes to prosecuting people who download as little as a few songs or a single movie.  The laws they use to prosecute these crimes come with insanely high penalties including hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and possible jail terms.

Now, I’m not interested in going into the argument of what is considered piracy and what isn’t, and I am not advocating that “everything should be free” but I do have to wonder if the laws and their punishments are not simply wildly out of line with the crime being committed.

Let’s say you really want to see a movie currently available for purchase on DVD but you don’t want to pay for it.  If you go to a store and shoplift the disc you are certainly opening yourself up to potential prosecution but it is a petty crime that carries a fairly low penalty.  Why then, is it such a radically different crime under the eyes of the law if you download that same movie from a bittorrent site?

In truth, neither the record companies or the major movie studios will be able to sue their customers into submission and save their outdated and misguided business models.  But in the meantime, perhaps the courts and the lawmakers need to examine the question of just what crimes are being committed and whether or not the punishment really fits the crime.

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• What is a Shoplifting Law? (brainz.org)
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iPad Only Enahnced EBook Coming From Ryu Murikami

While hard copies of books are still outselling e-books by a pretty decent margin, it is a margin that is shrinking by the minute and will flip the other way in the time it takes the average person to read “War and Peace.”

Traditional publishers are facing much the same dilemma that the music labels faced and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the labels have lost. If publishers are going to remain relevant they will have to aggressively reinvent everything from how they create and distribute books to the deals they make with the authors.

In the meantime, many authors are simply not waiting around.  From writers striking their own direct deals with Amazon to a slew of other self-publishing options, alternative business models are springing up all over.

One of Japan’s edgier writers, Ryu Murikami (not to be confused with the wonderful Haruki Murikami) is one writer taking matters into his own hands and releasing his next book exclusively on the iPad.  This “enhanced” e-book will include video and original music.  This type of release certainly has its risks, as TechDirt points out:

That said, he’s also assuming the risk that it loses money; in order to break even, Murakami needs to sell 5,000 copies of the digital book, which is priced at around $17. To be fair, $17 seems a little high for an eBook, but Murakami’s eBook attempts to justify the cost by incorporating video and music, elements not typically found in the run-of-the-mill eBook.

For fans of Murikami, the $17 doesn’t seem like that big a hurdle, however, many of his fans, myself included, don’t have the iPad and that is a slightly more expensive obstacle.

Of course, it is unlikely that his book will remain only in iPad form but for the time being I might just have to borrow my dad’s for a long weekend.

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• Murakami Releases His Own eBook Without His Publisher (techdirt.com)
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• Ryu Murakami To Release Novel Directly To iPad (huffingtonpost.com)

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A Lack of Ladies Among Comedic Brand Ambassadors

Old Spice has The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.  The Most Interesting Man in the World shills for Dos Equis.  Burger King has, well, The King.  All three are extremely successful examples of comedic fictional brand ambassadors that have had a major presence online.

As I have noted previously, comedy is easily the most successful genre in online video and these campaigns all aim to tickle while they sell, and they do so quite admirably.  It is interesting to note, however, that these campaigns have all been for male-target products – yes, women eat at Burger King and drink Dos Equis but these were not campaigns for women.  One might argue that the Old Spice man was a draw for a certain female demo, the product being sold was for men.

How different things look when it comes to products targeting women. From makeup to fashion, there seems to be a real lack of comedy or comedic fictional FEMALE brand ambassadors.  Is it that women are not as attracted to comedy as a sales tool or are marketers simply making that assumption.  While Axe and Old Spice turn up the funny and the edgy, there is nothing softer and unfunny as a Panteen campaign.

I think there is a huge opportunity for female-targeted brands to reconsider their constantly earnest approach and consider mixing things up a bit.  It’s time, for example, for one of those birth control ads to find some of the funny millions have found in the spoofs made from them.

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