The problem with going boom

It is not enough to go big anymore. The model of “craft until (the inner circle thinks it's) perfect -- then release to (assumed) acclaim” used to work when there were fewer outlets, more focused attention and a slower communication cycle.

So you either go big, every day (which no one can afford). Or you have to adjust.

Try this exercise: Replace all of the music celebrity names in yesterday's “Spike Publicity” missive from Bob Lefsetz with major brand names. For example...

“[Brand Name] got everybody to pay attention for twenty four hours.

And now we're done.

[Brand Name's] reign was a bit longer ... but we all know when the [product] comes out it will sell for a week, and then fall off the chart.

Used to be it took forever to reach everybody. Now everybody knows in a day and then moves on.”

We'll see this play out again with the Super Bowl.

Lots of attempts at advertising perfection. One big boom. And perhaps one of these expensive efforts will remain relevant for a few months.

Lefsetz nails it (again, I've replaced his specific with my general):

“There's always room for great. The problem is it's almost impossible to bat 1000. Baseball players hit 300 and they're in the Hall of Fame. But in modern [pick your favorite industry] it's believed that nothing should be released before its time, so everybody massages the [products] into irrelevance.”

We're still enamored with tent pole media. We're still in love with the album, the campaign, the water cooler event. It's just easier to imagine: One item, highly polished and one release. Fewer people. Fewer things to think about.

But what we're really holding on to is the idea we can control it all -- and that by controlling, by only going big, you'll like us more. Like it used to be.

But look what Prince did last week: He didn't announce one big show to occur months later. He played six smaller shows less than 72 hours after news broke. He experimented, live. He brought his audience into his process. He moved quickly. He reset what it means to scale an idea. (And this is a guy who gave one of the best Superbowl Halftime shows ever.)

If you can afford to go big, once a year. Good luck to you. (Anyone know where Masterlock is now?)

The rest of us are like Prince. We need to step outside the single leap, the one time only effort. The era of one big idea told once doesn't exist anymore.