January 20, 2005
this is why blogging matters
In a recent gapingvoid post, Jon made an interesting comment about the effect of globalisation on the Hollywood entertainment industry:
Oddly enough, many of the people who do get out of the advertising business and into the movie business, spend most of THEIR time trying to figure out how to make enough money in the business to get OUT of the creative BUSINESS altogether.I know it sounds crazy when I talk about turning gapingvoid into a "global microbrand", but this is precisely why I'm doing it. There must be no square inch left on this earth where what I have can be taken away from me.It's an entertaining merry-go-round in itself.
And we see the "creative" jobs getting outsourced in the film and television business as well. From hiring Canadian, German, Czechoslovakian, or whatever-ian directors, production designers, editors or what have you in order to qualify their productions for foreign tax breaks or even better, foreign investment in the productions themselves - it is a part of living in the "global economy."
Unfortunately, global economy often = local pain. Especially in cases where technology (in the motion picture business, cameras, stages, etc.) or even locale "hipness" (e.g. New York, Chicago for ad execs) become the reasons for doing business in a specific place. As the tools to create become more and more accessible, and obtainable, and as exotic locales become more accessible via the internet, it will continue to dilute the power of the old guard talent.
What I think this means for those of us in businesses like this, is that we need to find a way to become our own open standard, global commodity or brand.
And I really, truly, sincerely hope you feel exactly the same way about your work.
This is why the internet matters. This is why blogging matters.
[FURTHER LINKS:] Tom Peters writes wonderfully on this subject. Here's a Fast Company article he wrote about "Brand You". And in a similar vein, another person you must, must, must check out is Evelyn Rodriguez.
[JUST NOTICED:] Tom Peters has added me to his blogroll. Rock on!
Posted by hugh macleod at January 20, 2005 12:10 PM | TrackBackHugh, You are the Brand for gapingVoid and thats why I posted a q to you in your posting
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/001285.html
Posted by: /pd at January 20, 2005 2:15 PMHello Hugh.
>> There must be no square inch left on this earth
>> where what I have can be taken away from me.
Wow. That’s quite a bold statement and unfortunately for the timid amongst us, you are dead on. We can either face this reality and deal with its implications day to day, or put our heads back in the sand and sell out our long term prosperity through protectionism.
My company sells Bluetooth radios into a market that is full of big, well funded, international corporations. Without selecting the right niche in which to live and building our "global microbrand" as you put it, we would be dead.
I have been reading your blog over the last couple of months and it seems to me that you have developed "The Hughtrain" well in terms of the style and substance of who you are, but I think that your "product" is much less clear.
Should the "Hughtrain" have an online presence as a company more than just a blog? I think so. If I want to hire you I can certainly email or dial you up, but in the world of products this is pretty sketchy. I would like to see a "Hughtrain" site with well defined products and services that could help me to understand more specifically how you can help my business. I think that your blog sparks the interest, but a well defined company site could help to make the sale.
Maybe this is what you meant whe you said that you would be "upgrading to much heavier artillery".
This all strikes cord with me because my company is exactly the opposite. We have well defined products, but have been much weaker in presenting who we are and how we empower our customers. You have gotten me started down the path to correcting this however, thanks for that.
Further to Byran's point ref 'The Hughtrian product'. Perhaps Hugh will be one of the freelance news editors paid by Googlezon as seen in http://www.broom.org/epic/
Just a thought . . .