I found out about this company while reading a post on Techcrunch over the summer. They had just received a big investment to further develop their brilliant idea.
The basis of their idea is to make music video’s interactive. It didn’t seem like much to me at first, but, I checked it out and it blew me away. They have essentially created a fully interactive (and entertaining) marketplace. This place is like Youtube meets Amazon!
Their technology lets them tag anything within a music video (places, people, products) and link content to that tag. You can click on any tag while the video is playing and it will give you product information, let you comment, let you purchase the item, tell you in witch other music videos this product place or person appears, let you share your find with friends and much more! It brakes the boundaries of interactive shopping and totally merges entertainment, with shopping and the power of tribes.
At the click of a mouse, you can now find out what product your favorite artist is wearing (or using) and effortlessly purchase it for yourself. You might have thought that product placement in movies was good, but these guy’s have brought the game to a whole other level. The product that is placed in the music video is not only seen by many, it can be purchased and shared on the spot.
While many might dismiss the idea that such a concept might work, I believe that it truly has a chance. I encourage you to consider the following idea: for centuries, humans have aspired to ideals. They have always looked up to others. At first it was people in their geographic region (family, friends, people in their community) but, at the dawn of the 20th century all this changed. With the arrival of mass media, the 20th century saw the rise of pop culture. A culture that created stars, glamour and a whole lot of fans. People started following others on a global scale. As chris Anderson so brilliantly states in one of his best selling business books entitled: ‘The Long Tail”: “We are a gregarious species, highly influenced by what others do. And now, with film, there was a medium that could not only show us what other people were doing, but could also endow it with such an intoxicating glamour that it was hard to resist. It was the dawn of the celebrity age.” This idea of stars and fame has been engrained in our society ever since.
Several (including chris Anderson) argue that the star & blockbuster era has reached its peak and started its downfall. Whether you believe this to be true or not, one things remains clear: the mass media that we consume continues to place several individuals (mostly musicians, artists and actors) in a spotlight that the whole world can see and look up to. Music videos are a big part of that world. They define the artists image. The public relates to the image that is portrayed within those videos. What is the best way to try and become that person that you look up to? Follow his lifestyle (portrayed image). Get where I’m heading now? If you know exactly what you’re favorite artist wears and uses and that you can conveniently buy it, it becomes easy to imitate his lifestyle. All you need is the money to do so!
The guy’s at Clikthrough have established a user friendly way of following your artist’s (presumed) lifestyle and interests. They seem to understand that humans look up to ideals, and that this isn’t going to change. They are giving consumers a way to follow these ideals. Furthermore, they have produced an efficient and brilliant way for fans to connect and discuss the latest on their favorite artist (fully integrating the power of tribes within their product offering). It will be interesting to see what effect services such as this one will have on the value of product placement. If I where a company, I’d be willing to pay a lot more money to sponsor an artist if I knew that people could instantly & conveniently copy his style.
