Do we agree with and, if so, how can we apply the fringe sales concept described by Seth Godin?
First, I think Seth is correct. Obviously, or I wouldn’t be posting. Right off, I’m thinking about whether I’m one of the “mass” group (those that ignore ads) or in the early adopter group (call me a laggard and we might have beef).
With few exceptions, I’m in the “mass” group. Those exceptions are few because there’s only a few things I’m truly interested in or find extremely important. Sound familiar? I early adopted Google Chrome, for example, because I spend so much time on the web and was not happy with Firefox, let alone Explorer. But for the most part, I’m in the mass group even in areas of interest such as music. There’s just too much available NOT to apply a significant filter and just plain ignore most of what comes across my field of perception.
I was at Bonaroo several years ago. It was fun, but I actually remember very little. Substance-intake aside, I do remember a band that I didn’t stay to watch (I went to the Medeski, Martin, & Wood tent instead): The Flaming Lips. Why did I remember? Because everyone was talking about them and how crazy they were and that they jumped around in bunny suits. This is just an anecdote that doesn’t prove Seth’s point. My point is, The Flaming Lips achieved the first levels of marketing success–recognition and recall–just by being remarkably different and garnering the interest of a select group of early adopters. (For those that haven’t heard of them, The Flaming Lips are not new; they’ve been successful over the long term and are known for exceptionally bizarre live shows.)
I came across an interesting example in another area of entertainment with the guerrilla-advertising campaign for Dante’s Inferno, a video game based on the first part of a medieval epic novel in which a man descends through hell. Their advertising campaign was most successful when it targeted the early-adopting and truly interested few: Video Game Bloggers! (there’s some fun stuff to read in this breakdown of the campaign)
Okay, so if this has piqued your interest to consider how this might help you, here’s my thoughts on the how:
The Agent
How are we and what we offer clients remarkable? Across the way at SportsAgentBlog, we find a piece on the potentially damaging result of agents’ intuitive knowledge that remarkable is important to marketing. However, the difference for those that promise big results and what Seth was talking about is to focus on whether the PRODUCT is remarkable (i.e. the agent and what he’s doing). The RESULTS, which are the subject of so many false promises, are to be judged by the consumer/entertainer/client.
The Client
How are our clients and what they offer remarkable? I think this is an area where agents can start to contribute much more value to clients. The old saw is that artists don’t want to sell out and adhere their art to the “business realities” espoused by agents, producers, et al. The revelation based on fringe sales is that it’s not about selling out or buying in, but pushing the art to the extreme and striving for perfection. And if that artistic extreme incorporates neo-strange oddness ala The Flaming Lips bunny suits, that’s cool because they are remarkably different.
The Target
Lastly, we need to consider our clients’ clients; i.e. the consumer. Who are the select few early adopters that care so much that they’ll spread the word and make your clients’ product successful? For music, I am patting myself on the back some because I’ve written about this in earlier pieces: DJs that actually put shows together (unlike many U.S. terrestrial-radio DJs) are a perfect example. For actors and many others, we realize there are folks between the artist and the end-consumer. A film actress needs to self herself to a director before an audience of film-buffs can give the thumbs up and spread the word. However, applying Seth Godin’s thought, we can see some other opportunities, such as focusing on getting exposure with film societies and (again) bloggers devoted to serious acting.
That said, there’s an implied point in Seth’s talk that will be very important to your client. While “safe” is risky (because it’s near-guaranteed failure/mediocrity), “risky” is still risky–i.e. your client’s remarkable will not necessarily match-up with enough folks (or the right kind of folks) to proliferate via word-of-mouth or reach enough folks to make money. In other words, the counsel we agents might find ourselves providing would-be entertainers is:
Commit all the way and make your art remarkable. If that doesn’t grab people , then we’ll have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves and give it another go.