Free Rise

Media isn’t magic.

Oh, it used to be. Magazines, television, movies – these were immensely complicated endeavors crafted by brilliant alchemists in Hollywood and New York.

Today, the product is still great, but the magic is gone. A program about LA doctors may be shot in Vancouver, edited in Korea, promoted on MySpace, and distributed over Hulu. We don’t watch the news; we watch Jon Stewart complain about the news. And because seeming half of all media is dedicated to reporting on the half, we know there’s always a man (or Oprah) behind the curtain, even if we can’t see them.

It wasn’t always such. Check out this clip from WCIX (Miami’s channel 6) in 1984.

Besides the quaintness of the reportage and the nostalgia for radio’s not-quite-golden age, what’s most astonishing is the assumed naivete of the audience about the media business:

“Your ratings are what determine the amount of money you can charge an advertiser for being on your radio station. Obviously the more popular your station is, the more expensive it’s going to be for the advertiser.”

Got that?

Today’s teenager is probably more media savvy than 1984’s college graduate. And that savvy, compounded with an unfathomable choice of media platforms -– from YouTube to IMAX to On Demand to NetFlix to Xbox Live to… um, books? –- has made all of us more demanding, less loyal, and more skeptical. After all, if we don’t like what’s on the screen, we can make our own show. The long tail isn’t just getting longer, but it’s getting hard to distinguish the head.

And now, we’re all in on the joke.

A few weeks ago, I noted Lufthansa’s inexplicable decision to promote its very expensive business class service by handing out gummy, shrink-wrapped “croissants” with intimidating wholesale-style labels.

This a morning, a street team was standing outside the Montgomery BART station handing out foil packets of something called Propel, as well as stacks of coupons to buy some.

What is Propel? Damned if I know. The street team didn’t provide anything to explain what the product is supposed to be. Here’s all I could tell from the package:

• “Propel Powder Packet”: Okay, it’s a packet of powdered… something.
• “Vitamin Enhanced Water Beverage Mix”: I’m supposed to add it to 16.9 ounces (!) of water and “SHAKE GENTLY”
• It’s made by Gatorade, and contains “natural berry flavors.”

OK, I think I get it. I’m supposed to go buy a bottle of water and then dump this in it. It’s going to make the water taste like berries and deliver vitamins. So this is like Vitamin Water mix? Is it a sports drink? Is it sugary, low-cal? Is it meant to get me through my office work day, or replenish me after a workout?

All of this would be nice to know.

There’s also this issue: San Francisco is a green town. Only one product comes in 16.9-ounce servicings, and that product is now as politically incorrect as baby seal bacon. The $0.99-off coupons may be applied to a purchase of the bottled version of Propel, which looks exactly like bottled water.

Here’s probably what happened: The Propel brand manager budgeted for a street team to get samples and coupons out to active, urban populations. They didn’t really think a lot about the details, besides maybe how and where to maximize the distribution.

Here’s how they should have managed it:

• Educate: They handed me something non-obvious, without explaining what it is, why I would want to use it, or when I would want to use it. Instead of a coupon, they should have introduced the brand and especially the product.
• Entice: What’s motivating me to go through the trouble of mixing this with 16.9 ounces of water? Especially since I don’t know what it is, and if I don’t like it, it essentially ruins the $1.50 bottle of water I ostensibly bought.
• Position: Like most San Franciscans, I’m disgusted by our stupid everyday reliance on bottled water. Cleaner water comes through our taps than what’s contained in plastic (an oil product) and trucked in from municipal sources. Instead of positioning itself as an accessory to my bottled water lifestyle, Propel could position itself as a green alternative to products like Glaceau VitaminWater. After all, you can mix Propel with your filtered tap water, instead of buying “enhanced” water that’s trucked in from elsewhere. This would speak to eco-conscious urban dwellers.

Street teams have value. But so do planning and executing the promotions in ways that appeal to your potential customers. That takes forethought.