Photo Credit: Richard Tseng
Today: two online media moguls. Well, as impressive as that might seem, I suppose, as the group had little knowledge of either party. Chris Hardwick of the Nerdist and Felicia Day of The Guild acclaim both made appearances in my schedule.
Most saw Felicia Day, she was one of the keynote speakers, the one for the day. Besides being the the subject of many a guys dream, she has a perspective of media distribution that may elude to the future of tv and the industry. Felicia is writer, director, and actor in the web show The Guild, she spoke on how she built the show using a meager budget that afforded her a camera and utilized her own house as the set. The Guild is an example of the self-publishing movement the Internet brings – and seeing the show itself caters to online gaming geeks, it would poised for success. The show is now in its fourth season, but has gained a bit more gravity now that it has a couple of sponsors that helps bring a higher level of production to the modest web show.
The Guild is a great example on how the Internet can be activated to serve a certain niche more effectively than being part of a cable package for instance and serves to the ‘a la carte’ method of content consumption- a method of cherry picking certain shows and only paying for those you watch Though there are several means if distribution as soon as the web is involved.
The Nerdist is using a different model, but is still a pointed delivery method: podcasting. Yes, podcasting still exists. The Nerdistis an interview platform supported with comedic banter, but still caters to a niche audience. The podcast model allows for simplesubscription with automatic download – great for self-publication, and there is a wide range of software built to put together and publish podcasts.
If you hadn’t had a look at podcasts lately, have a gander. There is a huge selection of programming available for download – and most of it’s free! If you own something like a Roku, Boxee Box, or AppleTV you can watch podcasts right in your living room. Tonnes of content available out there.
As marketers, it begs the question – how are these self-publishing channels relevant? You could easy say that we already publish ourselves, the BMW documentary series for instance, but what can we do better? How do we decide to delineate between just putting a video up on a website, or submitting the content as a podcast, or perhaps a free show on AppleTV? The key with these methods of delivery is you start catering to the living room instead of just the computer screen. It gives credence to an investment into short film with higher emotional engagement and little -to-no publishing cost versus a 30 second spot with a million dollar buy-in.
