So, it has come to this.
We’re standing staring into the collective abyss of the annual holidays. Weeks, if not months, of not obsessively checking Twitter feeds, of not reading half a dozen industry blogs every other hour, of not having a calendar shouting appointments at us incessantly. Once we sink into it, there is no guarantee we’ll ever be able to crawl our way up again.
How will we cope?
Fear not. Below you will find five handy tips, to help you keep your edge and build that ladder that eventually will let you climb out of the pit of lethargy and see the light of the multiplatform TV industry again!
1. Get to know your audience
Now is your chance. You will have days and weeks to immerse yourself in your target audiences to really get to know them, their tastes, their needs, their wishes and their desires. Book that Mediterranean cruise if you’re doing something for the affluent elderly! Go on blind dates to your heart’s content if you’re producing a dating show! It probably is slightly more fun if you’re working on Temptation Island than on Dog TV, but that’s not to say you can’t enjoy yourself… and learn a thing or two, no matter what your target audience is.
2. Instigate a viral marketing campaign
So, we’ve already established that you have nothing planned for your holidays and no one who can stake a claim on your time, right? Well, now is the time to tackle the most mythical beast of them all – the viral marketing campaign. How in the name of [insert preferred deity here]can anything we do go viral? Now’s the time to find out. Shoot a clip of you pushing some ladies into a pool* and getting chased by their spouses, put it on YouTube, and try to follow all the great hints and strategies that are posted all over the internet. Evaluate the results, rinse and repeat.
3. Get social and build your brand
Since you have nothing but time on your hands, it’s time to do all that stuff that you know you should have been doing during the winter. No, not exercising, duh! I’m talking about building a credible personal brand for yourself online and on social media, of course! Set a goal of at least 500 tweets per day for a period of four weeks, along with 10 Facebook updates per day. If you tweet this much, it will last you the whole year, I promise!**
4. Diversify
Now’s your chance to get out of your comfort zone and go look at the world from another angle! This will help you immensely when it comes to generating new and fresh ideas come autumn. So, mix it up! Don’t read the book you’re reading, read another! Don’t meet the same people you always meet, meet new people! Don’t do the hobbies you like and love, do other hobbies! Don’t stay married to the same person, marry a new person!*** You’ll feel as good as new, come back-to-work-time!
5. Stay in the loop
Make sure you use at least a couple of the most important catchphrases around in every conversation, so you don’t get rusty. Tucking in your kids at night? Tell them the story of the siblings ROI and ROE who always got mixed up and never could agree on which of them was more important. Giving a speech at a wedding? Tell the story of the two kings – Content and Context – who both vied for the hand of the fair maiden Audience Engagement. Make sure to also drop “transmedia”, “multiplatform”, “UGC” and “Big Data” into the mix.****
Do all this, and in NO TIME AT ALL this purgatory will be over and done with, and we can start looking forward to some meaningful existence again. See you all at MIPCOM!
* The author would like to stress that it is advisable to agree on this with said ladies and spouses before the actual event.
** The author would like to stress that he had his fingers crossed behind his back while writing that sentence, and hence isn’t promising anything of the kind
*** The author would like to stress that in no way is it advisable to seek divorce based on a general opinion in a blog post
**** The author would like to stress that he does not accept responsibility for possible consequences if following this advice to the letter…
Simon Staffans is a format developer for MediaCity Finland, and a frequent contributor to MIPBlog. Follow him on Twitter here!
