• by Robert Dalrymple , September 22, 2009

"Out with the old, in with the new" is an unavoidable philosophy in our up-to-the-minute digital culture.  New, it would seem, is always better.  

 

But consider this, aspiring entrepreneurs: resources that appear "old" or "used-up" might just be the low-cost jet fuel that powers your company or brand into the profitability stratosphere.  The trick is to keep your eyes, and your mind, wide open, so you can see opportunity where others simply see "old." 

I've got experience with this sort of thing, of course.  As producer of "World's Funniest Commercials" and a creator (along with TBS) of www.VeryFunnyAds.com, I've mined a resource -- old television commercials -- that at first glance might seem to be depleted.  

In reality, though, this is amazing creative work, and on a second-to-second basis it's more entertaining than most of the other short-form video on the Internet.  (Don't believe me?  Click here. Then here.)

In fact, this content is so entertaining that internet users -- people who, theoretically, are doing everything they possibly can to avoid advertising elsewhere on the Web -- are flocking to VeryFunnyAds.com.

And get this: We're selling advertisements -- on a Web site that is comprised entirely of repurposed advertisements.

Thus, "old' can be your ticket to success.  I'm not the only one out there thinking in these terms.  In fact, it's something smart entrepreneurs do all the time.  For example,

·      www.Cash4Gold.com.  Perfect timing -- ground zero of our recent recession -- and extremely smart marketing and product positioning has seen this company singlehandedly revitalize a dead industry.  These guys have taken gold and turned it into, well, gold.

·      Hollywood Remakes.  Value is value, and that's why Hollywood studios are tripping over themselves to reboot entertainment franchises like "Fame," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Star Trek," and (apparently) every horror film made during the 1970s.  These remakes haven't all been classics, but such projects are attractive because they come packaged with a built-in audience of nostalgic fans.  And sometimes they turn out great.  Who would have thought to remake "Battlestar Galactica"?  And who would have thought that this great Syfy Channel series created by Ronald D. Moore would become such a runaway phenomenon?

·      Google Scholar.  Dusty university libraries are crammed full of out-of-print books, theses and academic journals.  What if somebody - the top search engine on the planet, say - could scan all of these cumbersome paper materials into one massive database?  Google has done exactly that, and Google Scholar (now in beta) delivers instant access to these otherwise hard-to-find texts.  Naturally, the brilliance of Google Ad Words delivers targeted, useful product messages to anyone who uses the service.    

Bottom line: take a look around at the resources you can access.  Then take a step back to view them from a different perspective.  You might find that old is actually gold.