The Past as Prologue: Why the Katzenberg Memo Endures - Michael Kassan

As I prepare for my fireside chat with DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg at Advertising Week my thoughts go back again and again to what may be the entertainment marketing visionaryamp8217s greatest productionNo I amp8216m not talking about Shrek Iamp8217m referring to Jeffreyamp8217s legendary memo in 1991 to what were then his fellow Disney executives in which he lamented the dependence of his industry on blockbusters and huge stars warned about the disintermediation of the theater system by the emerging platforms of the time ie videocassettes et al and cautioned against relying on technological wizardry over good storytelling And those were just the high points of what was a 28page essayThe memo was promptly leaked to the media and quickly went the 20th century version of viral amp8220Fax machines were humming all across Hollywoodamp8221 as the Los Angeles Times would put it 20 years later in an appreciation of the memo which it described as amp8220propheticamp8221 The entertainment trades and major newspapers all picked up on it with many running the memo in its entiretyJeffrey39s take on the business and where it was going has been read and reread by people all over the world since then including myself this weekend Certainly to content creators it remains something of a bible amp8211 the ideas it champions and the insights it explores fax machines and VCRs notwithstanding are even more relevant in todayamp8217s marketing ecosystem than they were in 1991 For all of usSome ideas are transcendent That is why they endure And thatamp8217s why weamp8217re still learning from the Katzenberg memoTrue few if any could predict the emergence of something like the Twitterverse back in 1991 Jeffreyamp8217s insistence that story comes before all resonates even more powerfully in 2013 and across all disciplines and industries Today not just the studios but brands distributors even individuals are all creators And a retweet is shared content after allThe strategic rationale behind every content creator and every content technology provider rests on the same foundation Katzenberg used to advance his arguments in the memo Content recommendation for example is by its very existence an explicit acknowledgment that the way to true consumer contact is through a good story And the success or failure of every multiplatform campaignamp8212which is every campaign of any consequence these daysamp8212rests as much on the durability of the story as it travels across channels as it does the effectiveness of the media plan that propels the effortOne of the subjects Jeffrey and I will be discussing at Ad Week is DreamWorksamp8217 acquisition of popular YouTube channel Awesomeness TV A storytelling platformamp8212he would have called it a medium in 1991amp8212that was an attractive acquisition target not because it offers entry into an emergent channel but because it does so on the strength of a strategy in which as the Katzenberg memo so famously proclaimed amp8220the idea is kingamp8221It will be fascinating to hear what Jeffrey believes are the dynamics moving the ecosystem today and what he predicts will be the forces that will take us to success or failure tomorrow Whatever they are I have no doubt that longago memo will remain relevant to them as wellTo hear more from Jeffrey Katzenberg regarding content creation and distribution amp8211 please join us on Wednesday at our official Advertising Week session The Adolescence of Content Marketing at the Liberty Theater 234 West 42nd Street The show starts at 5 PMMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media LinkedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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The Past as Prologue: Why the Katzenberg Memo Endures - Michael Kassan

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