The Creative Consumer Revolution - Steve Rosenbaum - MediaBizBloggers
There's a revolution taking place and it involves a tiny camera, a bunch of folks hanging upside-down from a trapeze, and a woman with a face for radio and a voice that galvanizes a planet.
Ohhh - tell me more you say? All right.
The story begins with Cisco.
You know, the router guys. As the business of bandwidth and computing has begun its significant shift from the heavy iron world of mainframes and big corporate customers to the emerging creative class of kitchen table entrepreneurs, those guys have figured out that the money is where the bandwidth is. I first noticed Cisco poking around this space when it started buying product placement ads inside the Fox hit 24. But that was just the beginning. Today, Cisco is reaching out to what it calls "Creative Consumers" and creating a consumer advertising campaign that is produced by real consumers.
According to The New York Times, Cisco has hired a firm in San Francisco called Urgent Content, and is sending out Cisco Flip Cams to consumers to come up with "Low-Key, genuine organic moments."
Among them:
Wine Cam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqtb4ODAXGs
Lenny Kravitz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UApCdkFILKU
Subway Stop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGLoICHwb3Q
Burger Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzlxjcPWjys
You can see all the videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/theflip
http://www.youtube.com/user/theflip#p/u/33/VGLoICHwb3Q.
Cisco got it right - up to a point. Certainly the power of first person video is where it's at (Cisco did buy Pure Digital after all) - but there's something a bit upside-down about hiring an agency to ask real people to submit 'real' moments - the Do You Flip campaign is begging for a bit more social media, and a bit less top down authority and control.
Which brings me to the trapeze…
The folks at Cirque Du Soleil were looking for a way to galvanize their community to celebrate their 25th Anniversary. And while Cisco's community of Flip users is wide, diverse and without a central theme, the guys at Cirque had a community. A community of performers who'd spend the better part of their lives on stage with Cirque.
So they held a contest - reaching out to Cirque performers for entries - and here's what they received:
One Day In Japan: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/about/25/americas/community/cineweb/all-weeks/one_magic_crazy_day.aspx
Backstage Life: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/about/25/americas/community/cineweb/all-weeks/backstage_life.aspx
Reality of Dreams: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/about/25/americas/community/cineweb/all-weeks/behind_scenes_and_reality_of_dreams.aspx
Montreal Propos: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/about/25/americas/community/cineweb/all-weeks/great_people.aspx
There's no shortage of remarkable videos from Cirque... backstage, creative, fun, engaging - and all made and uploaded by cast members. Comparing the Flip Videos to the Cirque videos, one thing is for certain - this isn't an either/or situation. They're both organic and authentic. They both connect with audiences - and provide a unique unfiltered view of their worlds.
What can we learn from Cisco and Cirque? Well, for one thing, the emergence of the Creative Consumer is here. Keep in mind that while the Cirque performers have great storytelling skills, they're no more trained in filmmaking than the Flip folks.
Which brings me to the actual phenomenon that may really be the turning point in Creative Consumers…
There's no doubt that Susan Boyle was a sensation on Britain's Got Talent, but most media prognosticators thought that she was a one hit wonder. Britney, or Madonna, or Lady Gaga - that's the kind of talent that really sells records. Or so they thought. Now, Boyle's new CD has sold a staggering 700,000 units - and it's pretty clear that folks are looking for more than a pretty face.
Which brings me to the emergence of the Creative Consumer. The Cisco Flip video channel on YouTube has 1,200 members, and videos that have been seen hundreds of times.
Now, tune in here: www.Susan-Boyle.com. A fan created community that has FORTY THOUSAND REGISTERED USERS. And if you're wondering why, take a look at this video - it's been viewed 25,000 times:
http://www.susan-boyle.com/video/I-simply-have-no-other-words-bu
He's not alone - there are HUNDREDS of video responses posted here:
http://www.susan-boyle.com/pages/video.responses
Looking at The Flip, Cirque and Susan-Boyle.com, there's a real change in the air. Media is shifting from gloss and spectacular events to authentic, human, consumer-created media. The closer it is to real authentic emotions, the more powerful the impact and result. The tools have arrived. The bandwidth is here. But what media distributors and publishers haven't yet gotten their arms around is just how real people are impacted by content that is genuine and comes from the heart.
Makers, record labels, media companies, book publishers: if you watch one video, watch this one:
http://www.susan-boyle.com/video/What-Susan-Boyle-means-to-me-wm
This is the start of the Creative Consumer revolution - and Susan Boyle is the leader of the movement. She's the first, but she'll hardly be the last. Lady Gaga better watch out.
Steven Rosenbaum is the CEO and Co-Founder of Magnify.net - a fast-growing video publishing platform that powers more than 50,000 web sites, media companies, and content entrepreneurs to aggregate and curate web video from a wide variety of web sources. Currently Magnify.net publishes over 50,000 channels of Curated-Consumer Video, and is working closely with a wide variety of media makers, communities, and publishers in evolving their content offerings to include content created by, sorted and reviewed by community members. Rosenbaum is a serial entrepreneur, Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker, and well known innovator in the field of user-generated media production. Rosenbaum Directed and Executive Produced the critically acclaimed 7 Days In September, and his MTV Series Unfiltered is widely regarding as the first commercial use of Consumer Generated Video in US mass media. Steve can be contacted at steve@magnify.net Follow Steve Rosenbaum on Twitter: www.twitter.com/magnify
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