m-cause

Lets face it.  We’re still living under the immense influence of global media conglomerates.

“Ordinary” memes (e.g. new social and political ideas, film & book buzz, etc.) that propagated so efficiently through our culture in the 20th century were driven (in part) by the big media companies.

This is still the case in the early 21st century.

A lot has been written about the rise of self publishing + grassroots content creation and the age of the social web.  Sometimes, however, we should take a step back and recognize that big media conglomerates still have a strong hold on modern culture.  Indeed, popular culture reflects competition between memes (stories, ideas, jingles, etc.) that can be easily repeated and spread (see this book for more on this theme).

At the end of the day, big media still has big money to build & distribute the big memes of our day.

Below is a top-line list of the big, consolidated media companies that, in many ways, direct most of what we watch, listen to & read.  These giant companies are vertically integrated, controlling everything from production to distribution.  They own TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, cable channels, movie studios, music labels & even consumer goods divisions.  And yes, they even control much of the Internet (see stopbigmedia.com for details). See freepress for a full break down of each media giant’s holdings; I’ve only listed a couple below per company.

• TimeWarner:  Consists of Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, CNN and currently does around $50 Billion in Revenue.
• Disney:  Controls Touchstone, Miramax, ABC, ESPN, etc. and does roughly $35 Billion in revenue
• Vivendi Universal:  A European media powerhouse that controls, among many others, USA network and nets $20 Billion in revenue
• NewsCorp:  A $25 Billion powerhouse with 20th Century Fox, Fox news, Sky TV, TV Guide, etc. under its umbrella
• Bertelsmann:  A German based media group controlling Barnes & Noble, BMG music, RCA, etc. ($20 Billion in revenue)
• Viacom: Paramount, CBS, MTV, Simon & Schuster, and much, much more…

Disney is a very interesting group that really creates everything once they have a big idea–including consumer goods. Disney’s consumer & retail group does around $2.5 Billion in revenue and they have big plans to transform their current shopping experience.  Over the next 5 years, their vision is to transform 340 retail stores into “Imagination Parks” where interactive entertainment, recreation and commerce all merge to create theme park like shopping (see this article for more). Interestingly, Steve Jobs, who knows a thing or two about transforming the retail environment into an experience, is providing a lot of input into this transformation from his new seat on the Disney board.

Disney could easily become a consumer goods powerhouse in the next century…

Traditional Brands as Publishers–Competing in the Big Leagues?

With companies like Disney already making big $$$ in the consumer goods space, more & more traditional consumer brands are realizing that they can become like the media giants.  Heck, for years marketers have created content…why buy air time from the guys listed above when they can subtly (or not so subtly) immerse a consumer in their brand?  One stand-out example here comes from Blendtec.  Blendtec’s Will It Blend series lauched on YouTube & became so popular that people started shelling out hard earned cash to buy the first 50 episodes. (see this article for more)

So, marketers from every type of category are learning how to become publishers…what this all might mean for society, consumer culture, & the 21st century will be covered in a later post.

Media conglomerates have played a big role in the evolution (or devolution in many cases) of modern consumerism over the past century.  What role will the “new kids on the content block” play?