Lots of different discussions recently have got me thinking about publicity.
It strikes me that its become one of the weaker links, it hasnt evolved like the ease of use, technology & distribution stuff has. I dunno, perhaps I would expect the various network/distribution/guide companies to do more to try to promote themselves beyond the web2.0/silly con valley/early adopter crowd, perhaps they do try but its not easy. I jusst think that if I actually had a show, I would be looking for a partner that could deliver some real value by actually being able to do a decent job of promoting the show. Now this does tie in to distribution, ie if you get on various settop or mobile networks & featured in their on screen guide, some more people will find you. But even on that front Ive not often seen the vlog-related new networks make that many tie-ups with these networks. Heck its really unclear what the reality is out there because there are plenty of positive stories with huge $ numbers attached to these things, but hard to see where its actually happening in reality. Oh I dunno, it just strikes me that companies that expect to make money through advertising, need to find ways to advertise themselves better to the masses. Im conflicted on these points, as I hate many forms of advertising, and the net is supposed to have all sorts of new ways that people will find your content if they are interested, and various new forms of pblicity, concepts such as something going viral (as opposed to fake viral marketing). Ive long believed that the 'death of the music industry' predictors were ignoring the fact that just because the rules of distribution can change against established giants advantage, this does not automatically kill their ability to advertise their stuff, and get the mass customers needed to make the thing profitable. Im also aware that some could say these things are a quality issue, if there were more shows out there that were 'must watch' to the majority of people, news of them would spread like wildfire, the people would find them for themselves. It may be true, I dunno, its a brave new world and Im not sure if we are there yet. In any case it seems that so far there are a few different types of companies out there that have emerged and could be interesting partners for vloggers. Whether they succeed or fail could depend just as much on keeping the right things from the old ways of doing business, as which elements of web 2 they adopt. Maybe some companies have assumed the web will do their publicity for them, and been mistaken, or at least not realised quite what a narrow section of humans their marketing efforts have reached. But does this mean Im calling for some of the qualities of an old style TV network to be brought to vlog show business, when I previous reacted with horror and venom to such concepts? I dont know, I suppose at least in so much as I always found Channel Frederator rather watchable and yet it feels like a TV channel in some ways. Cheers Steve Elbows
