Content Is Advertising: Twitter On Broadway

from the tweet-the-play dept

Tue, Aug 18th 2009 4:04am — Mike Masnick

We've talked a lot about how content is advertising, and we still get pushback from people who seem to think that we mean underhanded marketing or "product placement" is what we're talking about. But that's not it at all. We're talking about how good content is almost always advertising for something, and it need not be explicit at all. A great example of this is this NY Times article looking at how the Broadway play Next to Normal successfully used Twitter to promote itself. Rather than just setting up a feed to hype up the play, or to announce discounts, they actually had the playwright adapt the play for Twitter. And, from there, they ran the adapted version on Twitter, which built up a huge following, while specifically choosing not to go with a hard sell.

But it appears to have worked. The number of Twitter followers has ballooned, and there's been a nice correlation in ticket sales (admittedly, there may have been other factors as well, but there appears to be a lot of evidence that many attendees were drawn to it via the Twitter campaign). None of this was surreptitious. None of it involved "tricking" people. None of it involved "product placement." All it involved was making good use of good content to draw more attention -- and from there, people figured out what they wanted to buy. That's the point of content as advertising, and it's great to see it put to use so creatively.

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Filed Under: advertising, broadway, content, next to normal
Companies: twitter

17 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 4:21am

Sort of nice try, but not really.

Have they made a full production video of the show and put it on youtube, maybe. But making an adapted version for twitter and tweeting it? That isn't "content as advertising", thats just advertising, like a movie trailer.

In the end, they didn't give their content away as advertising.
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- Jim, 18 Aug 2009 @ 6:11am
  
  Re:
  If it were just advertising (and not at all entertaining) people wouldn't "tune in". Think of the super bowl commercials, many people tune in just to watch advertising. They are entertained by it.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 6:27am
    
    Re: Re:
    WHich is all nice, but it still isn't "the content" just "a content". An advertisement isn't a movie, a 30 second commercial isn't the superbowl (but some people do think it that way).
    
    Advertisements can be entertaining and all that, and they are in their own way content. But in this case Mike is citing, the "content" on twitter is just like an ad, it isn't the broadway show, it isn't even a video of the broadway show, and isn't even the text of the broadway show. It's at best a clever ad for the broadway show.
    
    Not all "content" is "the content".
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    - Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 18 Aug 2009 @ 8:13am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      No, it is "the content". This is an adaptation of the play. It's like the book version of a movie. It's the same thing just for a different medium.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 8:19am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      And if there wasn't the Broadway show?
      
      If a group of guys just went on to twitter and started doing an abbreviated play just for the sake of doing it, you would consider that advertising?
      
      Do you just lump anything that's done to improve sales into advertising?
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Kai, 18 Aug 2009 @ 4:35am

But move trailers are content too. I like watching good movie trailers, just as I like every other content that pleases me.
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 4:42am
  
  Re:
  Yes, but the trailer isn't THE content, It is a small subset, similar to a 10 or 15 segment of a song. It is the in store sample of a new packed food product, the sample size you get in the mail. It isn't the content.
  
  Again, Mike confuses the medium (tv, radio, magazines, twitter) with the message. Stripping away the medium, you get "broadway produced trailer to promote their new show", nothing more and nothing less.
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  - Steven (profile), 18 Aug 2009 @ 7:56am
    
    Re: Re:
    You seem to think there is some magical difference between THE content and content. There isn't. The Broadway show is content, but it is also advertisement for the actors and director's abilities. The twitter adaptation is content, but it is also advertisement for the Broadway play and again the director's abilities. There is no special THE content, it's all just content. If it's good people will tune in, and then seek more.
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Kai, 18 Aug 2009 @ 4:58am

As long as movie trailers are considered an art form, specific directors are hired to design the trailer and produce an appealing short movie, I would strongly consider a movie trailer as content.
Hell, there even are movies, where the trailer is more relevant, than the movie it's been derived from.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 4:59am

Again, AC confuses himself
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 5:12am
  
  Re:
  self induced?
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p0ps (profile), 18 Aug 2009 @ 5:30am

What is not content?
Content of the highest quality can be seen as advertising for other work by the same producers. Public expression seeks an audience that wants more, that will remember the name (or brand), seek out further contact with makers, further information on the subject.

While it's possible to dissect subsets of content, I think it's important in this discussion to remember that we can draw no meaningful general distinction between advertising and any other media expression.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 8:42am

The tweet's the thing wherein I'll catch fans with a reason to buy?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2009 @ 9:05am

The best content as advertising, or rather advertising as content, I've seen was before the movie "District 9". It was an ad for "The Jay Leno Show" which involved him and a reporter getting in a roadside accident, feeling guilty, making a police officer dig his own grave in the desert, etc...

I would gladly watch the ad again, and recommend others watch it (if I could find it online).
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TheStupidOne, 18 Aug 2009 @ 9:06am

What is really being sold here? It is just a ticket. If you go to the play you are only paying for a ticket. You don't get to own the play, the actors, the seat, the atmosphere, or anything but the ticket. So really the play itself is just a marketing tool to get you to buy a ticket. The comfortable seats, fancy decorations, high society feel, are all just marketing ploys.

So the twitter feed is just a free version of the play that got people interested in seeing the real play so that they would buy a ticket. Good Job
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key to freedom, 18 Aug 2009 @ 2:01pm

Self-promotion
Content self-promotion. Each time you post content you are saying something about yourself. Don't aim to make your product sellable, aim to make your content valuable. People seek value first. They want something useful, and they also like freebies. Cash will find its way into your pocket when you give people what is theirs.

"Next To Normal" understands this.

Ryan
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twitter, 21 Aug 2009 @ 8:28am

Nice info. it will come handy for me Thanks for the upload friend.
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