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John Tantillo's Brand Winner... And Loser: Avatar (& Hollywood) and NBC
Posted by The Marketing Doctor at 1/11/2010 10:14 AM 
Categories: Marketing
Tags: James Cameron video piracy prime time narrowcasting NBC Paranormal Activity Conan O'Brien 3-D John Tantillo Dances With Wolves Netflix Avatar Hulu branding traditional broadcasters Vitaphone marketing box office late night Jay Leno Hollywood broadcast television
Categories: Marketing
Tags: James Cameron video piracy prime time narrowcasting NBC Paranormal Activity Conan O'Brien 3-D John Tantillo Dances With Wolves Netflix Avatar Hulu branding traditional broadcasters Vitaphone marketing box office late night Jay Leno Hollywood broadcast television
Brand Winner… | And Loser |
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John Tantillo’s Winner and Loser of The Week:
Winner: Avatar (and Hollywood)
Loser: NBC
Folks, without further ado.
The Winner
Avatar is the hands-down winner for reminding us of the transformative power of a great product, whether it is in consumer goods or entertainment. The movie has dominated the box office for a fourth straight week and there is no sign of it slowing down.
But more than mere box office dollars, Avatar has ushered in yet another Hollywood-saving breakthrough.
Bottom line, traditional 2-D movies have been under assault, and the movie industry —while having its best year ever in 2009— was facing the technology squeeze. Everything about the industry, from distribution to talent, is up in the air.
Paranormal Activity used a miniscule budget and two unknown actors to gross over 100 million at the box office. What does that say about high-priced productions and twenty-million-dollar stars? Moreover, Hulu and Netflix —not to mention video piracy and hand-held platforms for viewing— are chipping away at the movie industry’s business model. It might not be showing up in revenues this year, but these seismic changes will show up on their balance sheets soon.
But Hollywood is nothing if not smart, adaptive and great at making money. That is what Cameron and his game-changing Avatar has shown us once again. Fact is, every time Hollywood has detected a threat, they have improved their game and delivered a product that people want even more than the last one.
Avatar —like Thomas Edison’s Vitaphone (the predecessor to movies)— is not merely entertainment; it's an experience. Most importantly, it's an experience that you will probably not be able to duplicate in your own home anytime soon. There is something about a big screen and this kind of three-dimensional technology that brings you into another world. Forget about the lightweight plot and the clichés (basically, it’s Dances With Wolves on another planet). Avatar has become a must-see experience because it reminds us what was originally meant by the magic of movies. Avatar transports, and people are willing to pay higher ticket prices for it.
The result? Look for more theaters to equip themselves with 3-D technology and more movies to exploit it.
Hats off to Hollywood!
The Loser
The loser this week is NBC —not for its original decision to move Leno to prime time, but for second-guessing itself and moving Leno back to late night. Moving Leno to prime time was great experimentation, and in the twilight of the broadcast television business model, a smart thing to do.
Rather than rehash why NBC did the right thing in the first place, here’s a link to my reasoning from a prior post.
Basically, unlike James Cameron and Hollywood, the folks at broadcast television have been slow to see that their lucrative world is crumbling. As a result, they have been clinging to the old prime-time model rather than transitioning to the content model (i.e., the value lies in the content rather than the time slot, since it can be carried across multiple platforms and viewed whenever the viewer wishes).
Reports say that Leno didn’t do “well” at 10pm… By whose standards? The local affiliates are the ones who are complaining because they aren’t getting the lead-in to their evening news programs. (In looking at the numbers, I wonder if they are controlling for all the people who might be leaving broadcast television and getting their news online?) According to NBC, however, the network has made money with the move.
So what’s going on? I think what we’re seeing are the traditional broadcasters temporarily taking back ground from the visionaries at the network who see where it is all going.
Rather than yank Leno from prime time after only a handful of weeks, the network should have stuck to its original plan, which was to stand by the revolutionary move for at least a year. Apparently, the show has its problems, but rather than yank it, they should have spent time fixing it. Moreover, now they are faced with the problem of re-inventing Leno for late night since, officially at least, he is no longer at the helm of The Tonight Show.
This is a mess and reminds us of a fundamental truth about marketing: ninety-percent of marketing is building the structure before executing your plan. NBC had the right vision in moving Leno to prime time, but they needed to do it with a) a great (and ground-breaking) show from the start, and b) the resolve to ride out the initial flack they were going to get during the transition.
Stay tuned.
And, remember, business and the business of entertainment are always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.
TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY -
Ninety percent of marketing is what you do before taking your product, service or personal brand to market.
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