Commentary

Scratch Content Is King: Content Is Tony Stark and Data Is Iron Man

I saw "Iron Man 2" about a week ago and was not able to get the Black Sabbath 70's hit "I am Iron man" out of my head until I saw a recent TV preview for "Marmaduke" featuring animated dogs singing and dancing to Ke$ha's "Tik Tok."

While the "I am Iron man" song was not actually in the second "Iron Man" film aside from its trailers, this tune came to mind again as I read the Video Insider article "Content is King -- Sort of" by Break Media's Andrew Budkofsky.

At first, I thought Budkofsky supported my own view of this idiom, in that there are other elements equally as worthy as content to its king entitlement. Budkofsky expands on distribution and mass audience as two other thrones which should be considered -- but I want to argue that data is also just asimportant.

Since it is futile to attempt to change this idiom, consider the following Iron Man analogy, since the monarch comparison does not allow room for other equally worthy contenders, in which content is Tony Stark and the data is Iron Man. You cannot have one without the other, and Iron Man is really what takes Tony Stark to the next level -- physically and technologically.

In essence, this can be applied to the importance of the data behind the content. The following examples underscore the importance of data -- and the increasingly bigger role it will play in driving the ultimate user experience.

Google TV - Even if you don't follow the tech or media industry, the Google TV news was hard to miss, especially since it was among the featured YouTube videos the week of May 18 (Introducing Google TV). While Google was not the first to introduce the concept of nonlinear TV consumption (consider TiVo, for example), the media maven is among the first companies and certainly the best known. Google's embrace of an open platform brings Web and TV data resources together on its Android platform and provides the consumer with the ultimate usability to search, access and view preferred programming at one's own convenience and with one's own personal home entertainment system.

"Iron Man 2" - The Economist ran a piece last month, "The box office strikes back," which notes that the cinema is now the fastest growing part of the film business, with spiked consumer interest in multiplexes (cinemas with at least eight screens), 3D films and IMAX entertainment driving revenue while DVD sales continue to drop. But what are studios doing to continue to drive revenue around beloved onscreen heroes like Iron Man beyond its summer blockbuster debut? Content providers like Marvel Comics are leveraging the data behind the cinematic content to create iPad apps to deliver a more customized and exciting experience to the end user. In this case, the Iron Man app offers related news, wallpapers, movie trailers, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, music videos and the ability to order movie tickets directly through the app.

Consider for a moment that the film is Tony Stark and the data behind the "Iron Man" movie is the suit -- the vehicle -- that takes the content to the next level. If you consider the Iron Man analogy, Tony Stark puts it best: "I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one." While content and data are intrinsic to each other, the data, aka Iron Man, is what takes the content to new devices, enhances the user experience, provides new potential revenue streams and beyond.

4 comments about "Scratch Content Is King: Content Is Tony Stark and Data Is Iron Man".
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  1. Rob Griffin from Almighty, June 7, 2010 at 4:03 p.m.

    I just like that you are calling out Budkofsky. he deserves it once in a while.

    The hidden gem here is that search is the queen of the data king. For the consumer the largest missing piece of on-demand TV is access. The tabbing and scrolling is torturous.

    Give me a search box damn it!

  2. Cory Pelletier from TAXI , June 7, 2010 at 4:04 p.m.

    If Content is King then Functionality is his Queen and Data the head Minister of the realm!

  3. William Hughes from Arnold Aerospace, June 7, 2010 at 4:12 p.m.

    Every time I hear or see something about Iron Man I think about the Bob Rivers Parody "I AM SANTA CLAUS!"

  4. Ross Kelsay from Capilano Univ., June 7, 2010 at 5:54 p.m.

    Content is king, it is just taking new directions - and consumers and tech manufactures are driving the bus, not us.

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