Women In Comedy, Or The Everett Question

A Force Of Nature

Last weekend, Comedy Central did something fairly interesting as part of their ramp-up to the release of Amy Schumer's movie "Trainwreck." They premiered an hour special from one of Schumer's favorite acts, a cabaret-style performer named Bridgett Everett, in between showings of one of Schumer's stand-up performances. (Yes, I'm aware that I write about marketing and advertising. We'll get there.)

If you haven't had the Everett experience... well, there really is no one to compare her to in popular media. She's a cabaret singer who performs in character, and the character is over the top in every way. She uses fairly unique physicality (Everett is, well, a large person) and unrelenting energy to create subversive comedy that provokes jaw-dropping astonishment. Her act takes exceptional editing to make it fit for broadcast, both for language and for visuals, and the devotion that she inspires from her audience is also remarkable.

Everett's voice is, like everything else about her, formidable. Like Schumer, she's utterly fearless in terms of selling out for the laugh. There is a courage here that's exceptional, and I have no doubt that in today's fragmented media marketplace, there's a place for her as one of a growing number of prominent and increasingly successful female comedians... though to call Everett a comedian is really a loss of accuracy, given how much of what she does is more musical theater than traditional stand up. Fans include Chris Rock, Peter Dinklage, Sarah Jessica Parker, Fred Armisen, Patti LuPone and more. Everett will perform on the Oddball Fest, a major comedy tour headlined by Schumer and Aziz Ansari.

So where does the marketing hook kick in? Because we are at the start of what is looking to be a long-overdue correction in stand-up comedy, where another art form and profession becomes more open to a wider swath of demographics. As a comedy nerd (and very occasional performer), I approve, because with each new approach, what's possible becomes a little wider, and a little more creative.

But what Everett does is so different from everyone else who is working today, so this also kind of counts as a litmus test to see what's possible, and in a lesser fashion, whether Schumer will be able to bring others with her on her rise to mainstream acceptance.

If Everett succeeds on a mass-market level, it speaks to a more diverse set of entertainment and casting options. Maybe more acceptance of bigger people and fashion options, or art forms (cabaret, in particular) that have been marginalized to certain groups and areas. (Oh, and maybe some *very* daring sponsorship opportunities.)

She's clearly not for everyone. But Comedy Central has put her in a position to be seen by a lot of people who have never heard of her before. Will it catch fire, or just stay in its own world? I have no idea, but anyone who can get a crowd of strangers to sing these songs, with these lyrics, out loud... is not somehow you want to bet against.

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If you found this interesting, please like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the quote boxes at top right of the page. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.

Deep Content Marketing, Or Making Money The Dead Way

Sell Thee Well

I am old enough to remember a time when music was (a) not something you could download, or (b) not something you could access at any point in the program. In addition to this dating moment, this: as a kid, I had the first Sony Walkman cassette player, with headphones, and used it relentlessly while delivering newspapers. Everything about that sentence probably made everyone under the age of 50 do a double-take. But from this old-time start, modern marketing takeaways await.  

Any number of people in my feed and life have been talking about the Grateful Dead’s final show at the end of a 50-year career. There are obvious lessons for modern marketers, about community, authenticity, craft, and so on. However, what is important is that the content went deep, with merit beyond the immediate hook. Ask any Deadhead what their favorite song is, and few will be able to keep their list below five, and will usually qualify it further by detailing the time, place and line up. While the Dead are a bit of an extreme example of this, you can get similar experiences from any band of the era.

For deep content bands like this, songs exist, and even to a limited degree, singles, but the more valuable unit of time is the album side. I am not a huge Dead fan – that is my older brother and sister’s domain – but the front side of “American Beauty” is a more or less perfect mix and experience, and I can not, to this day, feel satisfied with just the opening cut (“Box of Rain”). Ask a Pink Floyd fan about the first side of “Dark Side of the Moon”, or Dire Straits’ “Making Movies” (first album I ever bought), and you will get looks of reverie.

Compare this to the modern music experience, where you will rarely hear an entire song outside of your dedicated purchase, because no one wants to hear anything more than the hook, or at most, the chorus. Songs or sections that might reveal themselves to the listener on multiple listens (“deep cuts”, in the lingo) do not really exist, and it is not just a matter of short attention spans. The commerce dictates that most new music will break in soundtrack moments, in hook increments only, with only a very small percentage of the audience ever getting a chance to engage in deep content. Trust me on this: the modern bands would *kill* to have the Dead’s financial wherewithal.

Now, compare this to general e-commerce plays. In travel, the equivalent of a hit single might be a low price on a route that is useful to the traveler… but unless they get to a club membership, or start to engage with upgrades on a routine basis, they will just slide to the artist that has the next hit. Same with e-commerce with retargeting plays based entirely on price, or the “winner” in a search engine push, or buyers from a coupon site.

Getting to the deep content is not just good marketing, an opportunity to sell on customer service, or a chance to justify a CRM program. Rather, it is the key to transitioning away from shallow sales and limited lifetime value, and into sustainable profit margins, true word of mouth secondary sales, and growth that goes beyond the business quarter.

There is, of course, no shortcut to this stage. Just as it took the Dead decades to get to a self-sustaining community that meant filling live venues was rarely a problem, it will take a similar commitment on the part of your brand.

It is also not optional, assuming you are in business for the long term.

Fare thee well…

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If you found this helpful, please like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at the top right of this page. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.

If (when?) the Apple Watch fails, the IoT will be just fine

Limited Failure, Really

Two unrelated but conflicting items in the news feed this week:

1) Apple Watch sales fall 90% from the launch rush, speaking to how this is a bleeding edge product that mainstream users are not taking on.

2) IBM announced a breakthrough in computer chip manufacturing, which basically means that the next generation is going to be half as big as the current ones. (FYI, we are also now getting into the molecular level, with special facilities that eliminate all vibration, because Ye Gads, we are manufacturing things at a molecular level.)

So here is where I get to out of this. The Internet of Things is still coming, but it is not going to do so directly.

A wearable watch is, well, still a watch. There’s an entire generation of people who more or less missed that choice in apparel, and expecting them to just latch on because it’s tech now was always going to be a bit of a stretch.

However, what is most telling is that three million users went for it anyway, with many more going for FitBits. Other providers are joining the fray with lower cost items, but even if the eventual connected band market is 10X the current Apple Watch world, it’s “only” 30 million, or about 10% of the populace. Significant, but nowhere near smartphone numbers.

But those super-thin, super-small components? Well, those could go anywhere, really. Individual SKUs on apparel, to replace bulky security devices, and provide much more information about consideration and browsing behavior. Once the user owned the apparel, the pieces can communicate with each other and get to a baseline for health. Imagine, honestly, how much better preventative care could be if the populace has the option of frequent monitoring. Your clothing could save your life… and back to an e-commerce standpoint, items at a wearout stage could potentially alert a vendor.

The point is that the Internet of Things t will not be about a handful of high-touch, high-consideration screens that you, as an individual consumer, will purchase. Instead, it will be immersive, easy, and driven by market forces that speak to marketing and advertising efficiency at the consumer level, and manufacturing and shipping efficiencies on the front end.

So don’t take the Apple Watch sales as the canary in the coal mine for IoT. We are barely in the first few minutes of a very long game, where the benefits / players have barely begun to take the field. I realize that we are all on hyperspeed now, but this trend is going to be determined by more than monthly sales of a couple of SKUs.

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If you found this helpful, please like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at the top right. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.