Commentary

The Consumer: The Lure of the Extreme

  • by February 27, 2007

I've been pondering the endless possibilities of how digital technology and, more specifically, the Internet, have changed entertainment. Of course, I'm full of my own biases on the subject and it would be very easy for me to jump to conclusions. But being a planner, I thought I'd do a little research rather than rely on anecdote and subjective experience.

Because I wanted to research digital entertainment, I immediately visited YouTube with an open mind and an itchy mouse finger. Now I must point out that although I've probably spent far too much time on YouTube, I've never spent time there with my mind on anything but mindless entertainment. And with that said, I was quite surprised at my first observation: Entertainment hasn't changed at all.

To clarify, what I did was diligently work my way through the top 20 list of videos that had received the all-time highest views on YouTube. (The most viewed of which has been watched a staggering 38 million times as of January '07.) What struck me first was that if you viewed the collection as, well, a collection, it would make for an excellent Saturday evening variety show (think Ed Sullivan, circa 1963). There are laughing babies, crazy dogs, quick-change artists, virtuoso musicianship, amazing soccer skills, and, of course, music. All of which speaks to the universality and timelessness of mainstream entertainment. Particularly involving people doing goofy, funny stuff to music (that accounted for 12 of the top 20 videos).

Beyond that, the next thing that struck me, and something that was perhaps less surprising, was that people are most attracted to extremes. Such as the kid playing Canon in D Major by Pachelbel on his electric guitar. Or the ridiculous acrobatic stunts performed by an urban ninja.

There's definitely a dark underbelly to the attraction that people have for extremes, though that is most evident if you switch from the all-time highest views section to the highest "this month" (this month being January). What's slightly disturbing is that there, right alongside videos including "world freehand circle drawing champion" and the "spiders on drugs," is Saddam Hussein's execution.

It's pretty clear testimony to the fact that the cultural norms online are different from those in the real world. It's been a long time since there was a public execution in the Western world, and yet there it is for anyone with a broadband connection to see on a global basis.

But as stark as that example is, it's nothing new. The anonymity that the Internet offers creates different kinds of behavior than we expect or are comfortable with offline. Teens make friends easily with AIM and MySpace and Xbox Live - simply because they don't have to stand face-to-face with someone as they speak to them. Dating has become easier - or at least more efficient - now that you can vet your potential partners in the virtual world before you actually have to meet them. And people will watch things in the privacy of the online world that they wouldn't watch, buy, or talk about otherwise.

There's an interesting implication for brands in this: Although the viral content that they are so keen to make and propagate is consumed in the online world, it is created, produced, and approved in the real world of corporate marketing. And those two worlds aren't much alike. The cultural norms and expectations of one simply don't mesh with the other.

Which raises a tricky issue. If marketers are to "let go" of their brands, as was suggested last year by Procter & Gamble Chairman A.G Lafley, they need to accept that they are exposing their brands and their products to a different set of cultural norms and expectations than those they live with every day.

Are they really ready to do that? My guess is no. But what is very clear is that you can't be half pregnant. You can't try and encourage consumer-generated content in a corporate-friendly way, for example.

For those marketers who want to cash in on the changing nature of digital entertainment but are feeling a little unnerved by the clash of cultures that cashing in entails, my suggestion would be to keep those worlds apart. Let consumers generate their own content and celebrate if a happy accident results in a benefit for your brand. But otherwise, focus your marketing organization on more corporate-friendly extremes: innovative products and good service, for example.

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