Business Storytelling and Branding - John Lloyd’s “An Inventory of the Invisible”

I had never known the significance of TED talks until I started my Bachelor’s degree program at Full Sail University. Now, I try to watch them as often as I can. Every time I review a video from the site, I am often times bewildered by how well the information is presented and the point made by each and every speaker. 

In a world so enthralled by the power of influence and the everyday norm, I repeatedly find myself asking the same question: “What is the point?” Meaning, why is it that I do the things I do everyday? What is my overall goal in life? I feel that lately we have all been concentrating so much energy on how to start a business, attract our target market and our careers to the point that we have forgotten the simple fact we are all in the same boat, traversing the unknown.

In John Lloyd’s TED talk “An Inventory of the Invisible” he begins the talk by asking the audience what is invisible. His response: “Everything, I would say. Everything that matters except every thing and except matter.” Throughout the talk, Mr. Lloyd gives many different examples surrounding the topic of how much we, as humans, do not know. “Thomas Edison once said, "We don't know one percent of one millionth about anything.”” So what does this have to do about media? Everything.

After watching this talk in its entirety, it started to make me thing about the entertainment industry and how much of it is dependent on data, analysis, trends and research. While this information is relevant (to a certain extent), I feel that we all need to recognize it’s place as tools and make better media by expanding our imagination just a bit more. Too many times have we seen remakes, remixes, etc in the market. What we all should take from this specific TED talk is to be unafraid to create something new and make mistakes. We need to learn through our experiences and open up our minds to take us to that next level.

References:

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_an_animated_tour_of_the_invisible

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_inventories_the_invisible/transcript

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/apr/11/interview-john-lloyd-comedy-producer

To Cut or Not to Cut? That is the Question.

     I believe that we can all agree that cord cutting has become a fairly common topic of conversation within the entertainment industry. With so many different instant streaming services being introduced into the market constantly, is it inevitable that television will follow a similar path as the music industry? In my own personal life, I subscribe to Spotify, Netflix, Hulu and many of these other newer services. Previously, in a prior post, I wrote about the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable and whether or not this will cause a spike in people cutting the cord. Brent Lang wrote in this article that “the percentage of pay television subscribers who said they definitely plan to discontinue their service in the next 12 months climbed to 10 percent, a 2 percent gain.” The television industry is definitely changing.

     What is most interesting about this change is the simple fact that more and more people are resorting to their mobile devices to view content. The introduction of the smartphones and tablets have definitely made a large impact on the industry as a whole. If you have not done so already, check out Aereo. They have come up with the ingenious idea to take what is being broadcasted for free over the antenna and swing it back to the internet for live streaming. It has, however, caused a majority of the broadcasters to react with a lawsuit. The company has been able to retain service, for now.

     In the end, the main goal for everyone in this industry is to turn a profit in order to continue producing new content. (Thus, we all know what the effects have been due to piracy via torrent sites.) What needs to happen, more than anything, is an update to the overall business model. Cable television thrives on subscribers and advertising sales. However, in the instant streaming world, what does the audience prefer? For instance this Forbes article mentions that ““Hulu Plus carries current season episodes for 5 of the top 6 US broadcast networks, which is something that Netflix is only able to do for a select few shows in international markets,” Devitt says, noting that parent companies ABC, NBC and Fox have made huge amounts of their content available on Hulu, which currently boasts a TV catalog of 86,000 episodes from 2,900 TV series. In other words: Netflix may be great for binge watchers, but cord-cutters looking for next-day viewing of their favorite shows are likelier to go to Hulu Plus.” So if many are looking to cut the cord and resort to instant streaming, what will we choose? A service that costs less with more content readily available (with commercials) or a service that provides content within a later timeframe and no commercials. Only time will tell.

Initial Post

     For my very first post on this blog, the timing could not have been more perfect for a topic to discuss. The news of possible merger between Time Warner Cable and Comcast has been hemorrhaging the Internet. Consumers from all over the United States have not been holding back their points of view. From CNN.com, one gentleman tweeted: "Sweet. We will never have affordable, high-speed internet in this country," said Allen Christopher of Winston-Salem, N.C.” These two companies are the two biggest cable and Internet service providers in the country. Comcast is currently the biggest shareholder of NBC/Universal and now with this possible merger, they could have even more control of the industry. What is very interesting is this strategic move by Comcast to dominate the market. However, what does this mean for media?

     From my point of view, I feel that in the future television will become a thing of the past. Ever since the introduction of instant streaming services like YouTube, Netflix and Hulu, I firmly believe that in the future we will watch everything through the Internet. Devices like XBOX, PlayStation and AppleTV will replace our cable and DVR boxes. Already, we are starting to see a huge increase in the amount of ads that appear through some of these services, YouTube via my AppleTV especially. According to TIME magazine, “right now kids’ television is a big sticking point keeping people tied to their cable providers.” The younger generations are becoming more and more accustomed to technology and sometimes understand it better than their parents. The real question here is whether or not the conglomerates will adapt to this change.

     The Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger could possibly be the deciding factor determining if we will see a huge increase in cord cutting. Everyday, I talk to many consumers that have decided to cut the cord and primarily rely on instant streaming services to watch content. With the increase of original content appearing on these sites, it is no wonder why this is becoming a huge topic of concern.