As the internet creates all kinds of user-generated communities around the product output of major corporations, the smart play, it always seems to me, is for the corporations to step up and to create homes for those communities on their own turf, using the insider opportunity as bait.
Of course, these communities need to feel "free" and the management needs to continue to deliver what the communities that might otherwise be on their own want. The first silenced voice is the first person who works tirelessly to tear down what has been built and the entire effort boomerangs.
But with studios now offering little by way of identity that allows movie lovers to really differentiate and with even television networks becoming so interchangeable and DVRable that the meaning of a network is being undermined month by month by month, building community is a very smart play.
Shouldn't WB and MGM be doing the same with the fanbase that lives for their respective massive libraries? (MGM is doing a pretty good job with their MGM HD channel.) Shouldn't Viacom be making a major push to brand their studio as the one that takes you from Nickelodeon to MTV to Paramount to Showtime to VH-1 to Nick At Night?
It may seem like the world is jaded sometimes, but people still want to be welcomed into the family… even if it’s a beautifully produced lie.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/03/another_sign_th.html