This time, though, Reality is not relative; it’s not decided by cultural or social norms; it’s not linked to social channels or digital magic….
The Boston Marathon Massacre is a Reality defined by death; murder; terrible human destruction; terror; and at its core – hatred…pure and simple. This Reality bit and it bit very hard.
Yet, make no mistake. This is a Reality that is global – it’s a Generation World phenomena…it’s a Reality we have watched; read about and become inured to…until it bit us…up close and personal…but it’s the same Reality nevertheless.
How many of us have seen or read or heard about or even, sadly, experienced similar events in other parts of the world?
Schoolchildren murdered; wedding revelers maimed; policemen gunned down; holy places destroyed…we shake our heads and wring our hands – if even that…and somehow are thankful we don’t live in those places…until it happens where we are…again…
Baghdad; Mumbai; Karachi; Cairo; Beirut; Jerusalem…these are some of the geographies that trip off our tongues as we deplore terror and its aftermath – but unless we live there or in the region, I’m afraid that our interest level and attention span is short and getting shorter.
Until it happens here – here being wherever we are…and it happens to people like us…close to us…people whom we can relate to in everyday cultural and social terms.
Let’s be clear – whatever makes us uniquely who we are…socially; religiously; nationally…whatever divides us geographically…whatever makes us unique by tradition – can often divide us…sadly…but hate for any of us comes from the same place…Listen:
Evil is a global Reality. It knows no boundaries; respects no laws; is not contained by fences or borderlines; has no prejudice, in that it often attacks its own.
Generation World…an outcome of our digital potential…has also given evil new and richer spawning grounds as our magic gets perverted…think Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars….
Did you watch the live broadcast, through any source, of the Academy Awards, known more popularly as the Oscars?
Did you watch it time delayed – depending on where you live? Or perhaps just follow it through various postings across a host of channels? Or maybe even just discuss it with a friend to share a “Like,” or an agreement or disagreement with the judges’ choice, or perhaps just to register your desire to see one of the selected movies or one of those not?
Chances are – if you live in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago or London – you might have…this at least according to Google Trends, which pre-Oscar showed a “zero” search trend just about everywhere else (to be fair – Texas and Florida showed a small interest…), and post-show seems the same.
Yet, the night is being touted as the be all and end all of the movie industry – Hollywood’s biggest night – global entertainment’s number one event. The producers claim an audience of 1 billion viewers aggregated — across all channels. Nielsen will no doubt beg to differ, as early numbers show growth of the TV audience to be flat, which would make the hurdle to an audience that large, highly unlikely – but I’m ready to bet it’s big…
Let me be even more cynical and share with you the fact that the aging or should I say graying (makes me feel better) live audience has over the past ten years aged twelve! And according to the Nielsen Ratings, the overall audience has dropped as many as 10 million viewers over the past ten years – although it has clawed back up a bit and is expected to do the same this year as well.
All in all – an event whose time has come? An anachronism? A relic of a past age? Or is something else happening here?
Let me begin with a favorite topic – follow the content: Great movies going in, the right hosts and show material and guess what – more people watch, stay tuned in and talk about it positively. And more – given the right hosts and material, the audience expands – Generation World – younger people come in without alienating the older.
No magic – no digital bounce yet – simple – make it interesting and they will come.
Now – let’s look for the bounce!
So here is the sad truth – I wanted to know, in aggregate, how many people interact with the Oscars. I searched and searched some more – and then yet again – across every engine – through every permutation – and the only information I could find on audience size was from Nielsen; or was the billion number dropped by Seth MacFarlane, the host.
It’s as if we had entered a time warp and were back at the original ceremony where the audience was measured by the 270 people in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
The winner for Best Picture was Wings(a silent movie), which also won for Best Engineering – watch it – it’s worth it.
I might also point out that in our age of always on – anywhere – everywhere – instantaneous connections, the first Oscar was awarded in 1929, only two years after the first transatlantic telephone call was made from New York City to London. Transatlantic calls cost $75 per three minutes.
So here is my question.
Are we fooling ourselves?
Do we (me very much included) ascribe more to our digital connectivity than maybe is true?
More to the point – do we just make sweeping assumptions and bombastic predictions because we ourselves with our smartphones, tablets, pads, networks and latest greatest apps just happen to see the world through our own digital eyes – and miss the bulk of the world – who are not connected in the same way. And to whom the luxury of tweeting or posting about our current mode, bad service at a restaurant or latest status is as alien as Mars.
Or maybe we are not so isolated and the deepest truth is that we are all connected; there are many shared values – Generation World is in fact a growing phenomenon.
To begin with, we need more information – the best movies from anywhere make money everywhere else – meaning that global movie sales are what drive fame and fortune – no matter what the home market for the movie is.
For example, Avatar made 70% of its close to $3 billion outside the US. Same for Titanic – and the list goes on.
Second, I continued my searching and discovered this fact – the most recent Oscars were seen in more than 225 territories internationally via traditional broadcast, VOD and online streaming – this according to Disney and the deals they have cut around the world. Clearly a larger audience than the one measured by Nielsen….
Finally I thought I’d share a comment recently made by the singer Adele, who performed her Academy Award-winning theme for the latest James Bond 007 movie Skyfall at the Oscars.
Asked at the Grammys earlier this month how she felt about the prospect of singing to Hollywood’s finest, and hundreds of millions watching live around the world, she answered, with characteristic frankness: “I’m shitting myself.”
And there you have it – proof of the globality of the event and its huge and interconnected, engaged audience.
We are still in our digital infancy – flailing around – picking up everything and throwing it away just as quickly – but every day brings new understanding, new engagement, new learning and amazements.
We are like parent and child in one – we watch ourselves, amazed at what we can do, and marvel at what we learn. Yet we have no guide to lead us, so our missteps are probably more frequent and our recovery longer.
We have a lot to figure out and there is more thrown at us every day – which is why I rail against the analysts and pundits who speak in the absolute, who deem it necessary to forget anything that has ever happened before, who need to tout everything as the latest and greatest in order to monetize, and who in general – in my opinion – are actually holding us back from the full potential of what we can achieve in this world.
Nielsen aside – people engaged with the Oscars through more human ways than we can count – and more importantly, the influence of the movie content represented has a great impact on shared culture, shared discussion and shared values –
As I said – we are just at the beginning – to look back at 1929 and say that 270 people in a closed room in Hollywood had no impact on the world is sheer nonsense – ergo, to suggest that in today’s always on/interconnected world it has no impact is equally wrong.
Let me end with a thought from one of the best…a movie that won three Academy Awards (Oscars) including Best Picture, and is in most, if not all lists of the top 100 movies ever made – Casablanca:
[Last line, as Rick and Captain Louis Renault walk off.]
Rick: Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
We are at the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and like all friendships it needs to be nurtured, grown, cherished…the future is yet to be written – let’s not write it out before it happens….
Final thought – whether you watched it or not – whether you tweeted, posted or merely mentioned it – I will bet that you will see at least one of the winners – and watch other movies from your own country and others – and therein is that beautiful friendship between us and content and the power of the digital world….
While we tend to throw these metaphors around – as we should – lightly and tongue in cheek – we wouldn’t really kill nor do we really want to die for a good idea – any idea for that matter – certainly not in our world – but rather we use these throwaway idioms to signify our passion and the inspiration we get from exciting new ideas. That is, most of us anyway….
I once wrote about “Falling on Swords” and considered various scenarios that might or might not be worth the ordeal – my bottom line, by the way, was that very little is worth it…and ideas were certainly not amongst them.
And therein lies the issue – if you won’t “die or kill” – if you won’t “fall on your sword,” then how passionate are you really? How seriously good is your idea? How much could it really be worth?
People who value open systems believe that is just the point – value comes not from owning but from sharing. Not from passion for what is mine but from passion for sharing. From understanding that access is the new ownership – it’s not what I hoard, it’s what I can use when I want.
I write this as I make my way home – mentally energized and physically exhausted – from an intense weekend in Marathon, Greece, where I attended a Marathon weekend of sharing, collaboration and teamwork – with 300 eclectic but like-minded people from around the world who had but one goal – leave with more than they entered because the sum of the whole was worth way more than whatever they might have given away.
The event is called Stream and is hosted by WPP (full disclosure…I work for them) in various locales around the world – but always with the same goal – put in a penny worth of thinking and take out a dollar…not a bad investment strategy – these days, n’ést pas?
The core strategy is simple – set up an environment where ownership is irrelevant and where passion is built by abandoning what you might have once held dear and precious – not because you have lost faith – but rather and better – because together with others you have built on your thinking and others have built on theirs and the resulting new mash-up is exciting, exhilarating, motivating…and by the way, might only last until another addition; another build on; another source of input.
It is truly a Marathon – with the understanding that solo thinking is for sprinters – who lose steam over the long term – while the most powerful outcomes will be built and evolve over time with deep and committed collaboration.
I listened to and participated in conversations ranging from discussing the launch of a new technology that cleans the air; to behavioral economics; to the problems brick-and-mortar retailers have with “show rooming”; to the notion of Generation World (shameless plug).
I watched an expert fly wild-looking drones; I tried the new Windows 8 operating system (a game changer); I drank too much cheap Greek red wine (worse on the stomach than the head…); and I saw a 3-D printer develop quick design prototypes…in 3-D…imagine that…must be why they call it that…
I shared meals, conversations, walks, drinks, ice cream, cigars – with a ragtag collection of interesting, smart as anything and open for anything people and came away with something new each time.
And again…here’s the key – I might die for your right to think but no way was anyone there going to immolate themselves for their own intellectual property – to the contrary – the key was to argue your point – own it – be ready to defend and then do it all over again with your new thinking.
Again – I reiterate – you have to be ready to burn – or else, why bother? – but in the end you burned with the clean passion of shared discovery and building new and not the smoky, stifling fire of the siloed old and used.
Listen:
“Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.” Sir Winston Churchill
You see – by definition Martyrs are created by those ready to die – who sadly have those ready to kill around to oblige – Stream is about eliminating both sides of that self-limiting equation….
So to those who believe in self-immolation; to those who are so passionate about their ideas that they practice suicide murder; to those who are so convinced they are right that they will kill you to prove it….
I say – I’m ready for martyrdom too – only the date changes with every new idea I listen to that affects the idea I’m holding…
And if you must wear a vest, make it grey flannel….
Do we think it is possible to create a Marathon experience for all the fanatics in this world? Get them together, throw them in a room and lock the door. Let the people in the Arab world who kill for a stupid video, the ultra fanatical orthodox Jews who won't allow the voice of a woman on the public radio ...
I've met a lot of passionate start-up CEOs since leaving Microsoft. Many are prepared to "die" for their idea because they have so much invested in it and feel that's the only way to be. Some cannot waver from their path or take on feedback because they seem frozen by the possibility of fluidity.
What I discovered co-writing the book Pioneers ...
The further I read in this article the more Increasingly insightful it gets... and I wonder.. how can we have the culture of Marathon in our agencies where, while battling as a team, the members still have to cash in some credit for their own. I don't mean I have a problem with that because at the end we all ...
