Evan Shapiro (IFC) hosted a good call today in advance of the 2012 RealScreen panel he's moderating next week in Washington, DC.  The panel includes Bill Davenport (Weiden & Kennedy Entertainment) and Mike Duffy (Electus) and me.  My friends know the title of the session is one I'll have trouble with: Branded Entertainment: The Pitch & The Process. 

Evan's a good friend, a smart dude, and his networks always find ways to win.  You can read some of his thoughts on the industry here. We can debate what "branded entertainment" even means, but I doubt any of us on this panel care to anymore.  I'm pretty sure I'm the sole panelist at the entire conference who cringes when anyone says I do branded entertainment.  What I hope we'll do is agree on two things in this conversation:1) Most Branded Entertainment concepts are not good for networks and not good for marketers.  They crash into networks and brands like unidentified flying projects.  They almost never work, even when it looks like they might, despite what all the decks and trade stories tell you after the fact, and before.2) CMO's, producers, agencies and programmers -- we all have one boss: The audience. (Also known as the consumer.)  If they don't love what we do, it doesn't matter what the research says, and it doesn't matter that we think our show is fucking amazing.  They're turning the channel, they're closing the webpage, and they're not picking that brand up in the aisle.Not sure how this will go, but I have mad respect for what these guys have accomplished and the businesses they've built.   Even though I'm a bit of the outsider here, I kinda like it.  And, in the hands of a moderator like Evan, there's a chance we could advance the dialogue the industry's been stuck in for the last decade. Here, a team of experts in the burgeoning branded entertainment realm revisit a hot-button topic covered in last October’s realscreen Branded Entertainment Forum in New York City. When it comes to bringing brand-funded content to non-fiction networks, what are the walls that become apparent in the process between brands, broadcasters and producers and how can they come down? This panel will illuminate the key issues in the discussion, with insight from advertisers, agencies, broadcasters and producers who've found ways to work together to bring brand-supported TV properties to life.

I spent half the day today with the leaders of our digital music group, at the space where Sleep No More is running.  An inspiring background for us, as we planned some crazy shit for later this year.

(Take an interactive tour of the space, here)It gave me a chance to consider what we're trying to accomplish in digital in a new, disembodied way.  As Sleep No More's director helped break the show down to its component parts, I thought about the visceral connection audiences have with a breakthrough interactive experience.  What those audiences users give, and what they take away.From a social perspective, Sleep No More raises questions all programmers, developers, storytellers and marketers must struggle with, now more than ever:- Why beginnings, middles and ends?- How do we hold space for viewers to co-create the narrative, and why is that so important?- Which variables must we control so that we don't have to control the ones we shouldn't?- How do we provoke emotionally satisfying experiences for audiences who wonder if something more compelling is happening in the next "room."- How do we "share" an experience?The storytellers we love most don't strive to create "content."  That's because content = matter.  And matter doesn't move you.  Experiences do.Experiences are moments in time and space that are here, then gone.  They are "never before" and they are "never again."  The greats -- Homer, Shakepeare -- gift us experiences that cause change in the universe and in our selves.What Sleep No More teaches reminds us is that the path we take through an experience is the experience.  And when we preserve the order of our perception, we can come close to remembering what it felt like.

Scratch launched a blog today.  I hope you like it.  Click here for my welcome letter, then check out the buffet of awesomeness posted by Scratchers.  We're just getting started...

I promised myself I would write down, at some point, what it felt like to sit in the crowd at the Detroit Auto Show and watch General Motors take its first huge (public) steps towards Millennials.

This isn't that post in a cogent form, but I can't help sharing how proud I am of my team for its groundbreaking work.  The results speak for themselves.  So much is happening so fast, I hope by putting a snaptshot down here I might remember what it felt like.  That simple. 

There, on the big blue stage, was GM's North American President, Mark Reuss, followed by Global Youth Marketing Head, John McFarland -- our friends, partners and clients -- explaining how the automaker's work with Scratch has informed design, engineering and marketing decisions across the company.And there was Anne Hubert, who runs our consulting practice, up on the huge screen, championing the very generation that is right now transforming the auto industry, forever.When I turned around to see if anyone was actually paying attention, this is what I saw:Baller!  And my stupid bberry cam could only capture a fraction of the global press barrage.Throughout the day, like a feed, friends and colleagues sent us links to all the press mentioning our work with GM, many with lines like GM gets help from MTV to woo millennials; GM built the concepts after interviewing high schoolers, college students and young professionals, with the help of MTV’s Scratch division, which targets millennials; and The design was done with the aid of MTV Scratch.Here are but a few:

• “Mark Reuss building success at GM North America” (Detroit Free Press) 
• “Auto Makers' New Reality: Cars Aren't a Must for Kids” (Wall Street Journal)
• “2 sporty Chevy concepts reveal young-buyer strategy” (Detroit Free Press)
• “Chevrolet Tru 140S concept previews Cruze coupe” (Car Advice)
• “Detroit Big Three pull out all the stops” (Financial Post)

 

What's more, a slew of mainstream and auto media picked up on the dramatic shift in GM's approach, and celebrated it with headlines like:

• “GM knows that striking a chord with the youngest generation of new-car shoppers—the under-30 crowd, or Millennials—is imperative for the brand’s future growth.”
• “Chevrolet MyLink democratizes infotainment, coming to 2013 Sonic and Spark”
• “Chevy aims for millennial market with two concepts”
• “Chevrolet aims 2 concept cars at Millennials”
• “General Motors takes aim at first-time vehicle buyers”
• “Chevy's latest concepts -- crafted by the kids” 

 Yes, we're just getting started.  But I remember when Carlo DiMarco told me in an elevator once how sad it is that we don't take a moment to enjoy the moments.  Carlo, you were right.  Tonight I'm sitting here with a bottle of wine and a pile of insights on a generation I'm in love with.  Taking a moment to let at least some of this seep in.