Movies, Music, TV – what can you really learn from Entertainers? A LOT!
May 25th, 2011 // 10:41 am @ Scott
Tonight, I’m going to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean Movie…and I can’t wait.
I love going to the movies, although I don’t make it but a couple times a year, I always see the “history” makers, or should I say “money makers”.
A close personal friend and client of mine has a “movie night” every week, and I think it’s great. That’s a routine I intend to copy someday.
There’s reasons why I enjoy movies so much, but that’s not my point today.
Nope. I want to talk with you about Entertainment in general.
Movies. TV. Music.
The three industries that make the world go round (unfortunately, in many cases).
When it comes to marketing and making money, there’s something you’ve got to pay attention to, it’s like the lesson to end all lessons of earning giant amounts of money.
In every one of these Industries there are people AT THE TOP that we could all name. Perhaps your kids could name them much more easily than you.
First, let me provide a little dramatic demonstration to prove what I’m about to tell you.
(disclaimer, my numbers will not be pin point accurate because I’m not taking time to look up the specifics, but they’ll be in the ballpark, good enough for my point.)
I am fascinated by the BUSINESS of Entertainment.
So, when a blockbuster movie comes out, I always look to see how much money it brings in opening weekend, and then my curiosity usually drives some further research.
Here’s what I found…
The top grossing opening weekend movies, say the top 25, where all dominated by:
The Pirates, Harry Potter, Shrek, and the number one was The Dark Knight.
Understand with all the Harry Potter movies and the Pirates and Shrek, that made up like 10 of the top 25 or something crazy.
Tonight, when I return from our family movie outing (daughter’s birthday), we will plop down on the couch and watch the recorded episode and finale show of American Idol.
On this show there will be an estimated 30-50 MILLION people watching, maybe more, and those people last night cast votes probably over 100 Million to choose the Idol between two incredible YOUNG people, 16 and 17 years old respectively.
Staying in the Music Industry, take Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga as examples, two of the hottest ‘fan favorites’ on the market today.
Now, if you know anything, you know they are as far apart and opposite as it is can humanly get. Yet, they have both won the top awards, sold more albums than any artist in recent history and are on top of their worlds – At The Same Time.
How about TV, well, if you want to know how much money Charlie Sheen was getting paid before his infamous collapse and crash course with society, it was something like $10 or $20 MILLION a year, something like that.
How about THE DONALD, my main man, and any entrepreneur who doesn’t marvel and study his every move and every word is simply not that serious about business.
He had a private phone conversation with Bill O Reilly when he was explaining why he wouldn’t be running for President and he said one of his major considerations was it would have been about a 300 Million dollar swing by NOT doing the Apprentice. Now, I don’t know how many years the contract was and it would have been for about half that number for reasons you wouldn’t know if you don’t follow the political arena, but none the less – the Apprentice who was now moved to ONE regular and ONE celebrity version EVERY year is doing just fine and paying Mr. Trump a load of money to stay on the show.
Okay, let me rub it in for a minute to get my point across.
Take any one example:
The Pirates movie did $90 Million on opening weekend.
American Idol is the most lucrative show on TV.
Donald Trump makes millions from TV alone.
Taylor and Lady Gaga sold more than a million records of their NEW album.
Most business people will not make as much money in their LIFETIME as these ENTERTAINERS will in any given year.
Most businesses will never impact and transact with as many customers in their LIFETIME as these ENTERTAINERS will in any given year, some any given night.
Now – I do NOT tell you that to depress you, I tell you that to IMPRESS you to pay attention to what these people are doing, to how these industries work.
They are marketing and money machines and you should be learning from it.
Let me give you 3 shortcut answers and I believe are the MAJOR reasons that they are successful.
These 3 things are EXACTLY what you can take and replicate in your life.
1. In every case, in every movie, singer, TV show – the people making the most money are getting paid for WHO THEY ARE. They have PERSONALITY! They stand for something, mean something, represent something.
Think Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean
Think Shrek
Think Harry Potter
Think Donald Trump
Think Ryan Seacrest, Steven Tyler, Simon Cowell
Think all four of the final contestants of American Idol, distinct personalities.
You see the – they are all CHARACTERS!
Personality attracts your audience, it attracts money, it makes your curious and people want to follow you, they want to be a part of what you are doing.
I always tell my members and clients, there is only one thing that your competitors truly cannot copy and replicate – that’s YOU! The examples I’ve used here are in high demand because of this reason. They are not just ‘somebody’ they are WHO THEY ARE – and you must work on develop that WHO with yourself.
Your Character.2. Next, each of these Shows, People, Entertainers, are specifically for SOMEONE. They have and develop Audiences. Some of them have more broad appeal than others, but they are still very defined and in our words NICHED.
My example of Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, each represents something very different, yet stand for something very similar. But they have a distinct and drastic different way of demonstrating and connecting with their fan bases through their music.
They know who their audience is and they CONNECT.
You must constantly work to connect more with your audience, study your customer, and be strategic in your approach. You must BE FOR SOME GROUP/NICHE of people specifically. Remember if you are for everyone, you are for no one.
Once you commit to this, you will win big! And you’ll know, when you start to repel others you are attracting the ones you want.
3. Finally, they leave you in suspense, there is always something New, and they have a NEXT! But you don’t always know when or if it’s coming.
You have to buy the current Album, because it’s new and who knows when they next one will come out.
You have to go see the Pirates Movie, you saw the last one, you can’t miss this one, and you never know what’s going to happen. It’s suspenseful as soon as the credits roll from that last one.
You want to see who gets fired, what drama ensues.
You have to make your business and interaction with your customers engaging, fun, and unpredictable (in a good way) and always have something NEW, BIG, DIFFERENT that you can share with them and get them excited about.
You can learn a lot from the Entertainment industries, and I could go on with examples.
Today, I want you to see the similarities between the highest paid entrepreneurs on the planet, and work to build yourself and your business with their models in mind.
Be a Character. Create and serve an Audience. Always have an unpredictable Next.
Scott.
Category : Blog
