Marshmello's Fortnite Concert - Why It Matters (& You Should Care)

One of the biggest -- and perhaps most surprising -- media/tech stories of the year so far is DJ Marshmello's recent virtual online concert on mega video game Fortnite on February 2nd. Nearly 11 million people played and watched the DJ set in what has now become the most attended music "concert" of all time. Following this event -- which is sure to revolutionize the music/media industry and overall strategic marketing and engagement thinking -- Marshmello's weekly YouTube video views grew by 100+ million, the number of followers on his Instagram account ballooned by 1 million (within 4 days), and he was tweeted out over 50,000 times on Twitter on the day of the "concert." And, get this -- importantly, 80% of those who "experienced" Marshmello's virtual EDM concert didn't even know who Marshmello was or didn't consider themselves fans. And, perhaps most importantly, it is reported that the massive success of this virtual event is driving significant real world ticket sales for Marshmello's real world concerts. 

So, this grand Marshmello/Fortnite experiment demonstrates the power and potential of virtual online engagement driving massive real world tangible offline engagement and business/monetization opportunities as well -- in what I call the "Online/Offline Virtuous Cycle."  This phenomenon is real -- and is something everyone in the world of media, entertainment and brand engagement should not only ponder -- but actively pursue. This applies to all of you reading this (who should think about how online brand/customer engagement can fuel offline engagement -- and then back again).   

After all, we still go to the movies, don’t we? We still fight traffic and the throngs, and still pay for expensive popcorn when we can watch from the quiet solitude of our own homes. Why? Precisely because we are social creatures, and we don’t always want quiet solitude. Have you experienced watching a thriller like 2017’s blockbuster It in a theater and, then, the same thriller at home? “It’s” (yes, pun intended) an entirely different experience due to the entirely different energy generated in the big communal room versus your smaller private room. It’s simply more thrilling to watch a thriller with others who gasp when you gasp and jump when you jump (or even trigger your jumps in the first place).

 The virtual and physical worlds absolutely can (and should) be connected in this increasingly disconnected digital world in which we all “communicate” with each other more, but frequently question how meaningful that communication is and whether we are part of any real community. Remember Pokemon Go? That’s what I’m talking about. And, that’s just one rather small possibility. Let’s think much bigger. 

 Disney is perhaps the single most multi-platform media company on the planet. The Mouse House practically invented offline real-world brand engagement with its theme parks, and now plans to take its vision significantly further. Disney -- soon-to-be Netflix’s new SVOD arch-nemesis – announced in 2017 that it would open immersive Star Wars hotels where each guest gets his or her own storyline. Talk about a truly multi-platform experience. Now, The Force can be with you anywhere you are – online, in movie theaters, in merchandising, in virtual reality, in theme parks, and now in hotels where the line between where your guest status ends and your active participation begins, blurs. 

 And, how about Amazon? This new Media 2.0 juggernaut thinks anything but small. Amazon constantly amazes, especially in its understanding of, and increasingly aggressive action in, delivering a full 360-degree multi-platform branded experience that increasingly incorporates offline live, real-world experiences and brand engagement. 

 Amazon debuts its motion picture Originals, including Academy Award-winning movie Manchester By the Sea, in movie theaters (not online). In another fascinating example of counter-programming, Amazon increasingly builds out and operates Amazon “book” stores across major U.S. shopping malls, while others tear them down. And, in its most audacious multi-platform move to date, Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.4 billion to humanize its overall brand and engage more directly with us on the daily. Don’t think for a moment that Whole Foods is just about groceries. Amazon undoubtedly will market all of its produce – especially Prime memberships – across its stores, offer us special Whole Foods incentives to sign up for Prime, lure us into shopping more online, and gather even more data about us and our shopping habits all along the way. Think of it as being your very own 360-degree Amazonian journey that brings new meaning to the term “super”-market. 

 No surprise, then, that Amazon’s brick-and-mortar ambitions don’t end there. In August 2018, Bloomberg reported that Amazon was eyeing leading Indie movie theater chain Landmark Theatres. Just imagine receiving the full Amazon treatment on your date nights. Amazon will offer Prime members discount tickets and tasty Whole Foods at its theaters. Amazon undoubtedly will strategically program the films we see (not mention the ads we see before they begin) -- particularly during the awards season -- in order to supercharge its hype machine and get us to help build Oscar buzz for its features. Even more audaciously, ever-crafty Amazon reportedly will open up to 3,000 more brick-and-mortar stores by 2021.

 Not surprisingly, visionary (yet now apparently sleep-deprived) Elon Musk absolutely thinks this way. He, of course, is already “out there” multi-platform-izing in the most audacious and fearless ways – with his Earth-connected Teslas, rocket-lifted SpaceX’s and particle-fueled Hyperloops (which, according to some visionaries whom I trust, are closer than we think in terms of becoming reality and undoubtedly will fully immerse us in content as we travel in “pods” when they are). Reports have swirled for years that Tesla’s very own new in-car music and media streaming services may be coming to your Model S(oon). Perhaps Apple, which stopped development of its own autonomous cars in 2017, should finally just buy Tesla and merge their shared stylized hardware/software, offline/online innovation-driven DNA (especially given all of the "sturm and drang" in the ranks of Telsa these days).

 Could this realIy happen? Yes, I really think so. In fact, I predicted this all the way back in 2013 and have the blog post to prove it.

 All these examples demonstrate that what we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a virtuous cycle of increasingly online/virtual social interaction that fuels the growing movement of offline/physical and downright tribal live real-world engagement. That, in turn, fuels more ongoing online social interaction, action and impact -- and then back again. Welcome to our new truly multi-platform Media 2.0 virtuous cycle and overall Zeitgeist. Welcome to holistic, 360-degree storytelling.

 Let’s first take the business of music where disruption rules the day and traditional revenue streams wither. All doom and gloom, right? Wrong. PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts global live music revenues to continue to rise sharply over the next five years, reaching $30 billion in 2022. Music festivals sprout up everywhere (I am obsessed with them). Why? Because these festivals become so much more than the music itself. The music draws you in, but the real magic comes from the like-minded community and shared immersive experience created during that moment in time. “Experience” is the key word (and result) here. Experiences and shared humanity are lasting. 

 Rick Farman, co-founder of Superfly (producers of Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, two of the largest U.S. music festivals) strongly agrees. In my conversation with him, Farman describes the need for actual live physical connection as being “the thirst for high-touch, authentic real-world experiences as people increasingly immerse themselves in the digital world.”  You have a symbiotic relationship here,” says Farman.  “Social media helps drive the communal aspects of these very social events, and mobile takes it to another level and amplifies it – driving the whole phenomenon of FOMO.”  

 Live Earth co-founder and executive producer Kevin Wall, an intensely creative media visionary and activist who has created and produced many of the largest live events the world has seen, adamantly agrees.  “Festivals use digital as a driver, but they are anti-digital in what they represent,” he tells me.

 So, how many digitally-driven content companies get it right and fully embrace their physical alter-ego? Not many.

 On the music side, we now know that Spotify’s and Pandora’s challenges are daunting (to say the least), and that they must either significantly diversify their businesses or be acquired to survive (Pandora smartly chose the latter in 2018). One part of that solution may be to bring their online customer engagement into the physical world of music festivals. Expand their brand into the real world in order to expand their overall connection (brand love) with their otherwise rather anonymous customers. Deepen them. Create a real differentiated and fully realized community. How about the Pandora Unboxed Music Festival? “Gold Jerry, Gold!” Again, the online virtual community drives more offline participation and success which, in turn, drives more (and more continuous) online brand engagement and success. 

 Young upstarts, like new Asian youth-focused and music-heavy 88rising, point the way. 88rising has fast become a major new lifestyle brand that started online with some of Asia’s most popular influencers, but increasingly focuses on offline engagement as well to deepen its brand’s personal connection with fans and the creators they support. 88rising’s Double Happiness tour boasted several sold-out shows, and the young upstart also held its first major LA-based festival in Q3 2018 (the Head in the Clouds Music & Arts Festival). Given that 88rising could gauge exactly what its audience wanted based on online engagement, it was not at all surprising that Head in the Clouds quickly sold out.

 It goes the other way too. Hey, music festivals, harness the energy from your magical weekends that typically dissipates when the weekend is over. Mobilize that passionate community you created. Continue its life and extend that energy online and on all platforms. Continue the conversation and almost-tribal sense of community beyond the physical venue itself via ongoing virtual interaction and social media.  You’ll be glad you did. So will your investors. You have the new Media 2.0 tools to drive success like never before. 

 Instagram is one such increasingly critical tool. Remember, in the words of Ray Winkler who designed Beyonce and Jay-Z’s 2018 On the Runtour,  “A show no longer starts when the curtain rises. The show starts the moment the first person takes a picture of it.”  Those Instagram moments are lasting. They extend the brand. KAABOO, the major music festival that just completed its successful fourth year in my backyard of San Diego (and has now expanded into Dallas and the Cayman Islands), smartly thinks this way. It increasingly seeks to extend KAABOO brand engagement throughout the year.

 Now let’s take video. How about Netflix, the granddaddy of the OTT video space? Yes, Netflix is the category leader. But, it too faces its own existential business model challenges. Netflix’s customer experience is all virtual. Why shouldn’t Netflix try to differentiate itself from its increasing list of behemoth competitors (like Amazon, Google/YouTube, AT&T and Apple) that have fundamentally more diverse business models? Why not bring the Netflix brand and experience into the physical world much like Apple did with its stores -- and Amazon now smartly does with its new “book stores” and Whole Foods? 

 That may mean differentiated Netflix stores. But, it also may include Netflix-driven theater experiences (again, Amazon is already there), Netflix-branded community screenings, film festivals. Myriad possibilities exist. After all, online video services like Netflix gather deep user data of like-minded viewers in cities across the country. If any of these premium video services successfully create physical communities under their individual banners, then they can leverage these new offline experiences to drive further and magnified success online. Netflix apparently now “gets” this, after first resisting the urge. After mocking Amazon in 2017 for its strategy of releasing its feature films first in theaters, Netflix announced in 2018 that it would do the same.

 Traditionalist Viacom signaled its recognition of these new online/offline possibilities in 2018 when it first made a surprising move to buy VidCon, the premier industry conference dedicated to online video and its creator community. Viacom undoubtedly will shower all of us attendees with its online brands throughout our very real experiences as it seeks to expand its VidCon vision globally. But Viacom didn’t stop there. As year-end approached, Viacom’s MTV bought the SnowGlobe Music Festival in order to directly link the critical live, experiential element to the overall MTV music experience. When announcing the deal, MTV explained that SnowGlobe represents an important next step in MTV’s “resurgence by expanding deeper into live events.”  Kudos to Viacom. Well played.

 And, let’s certainly not forget the sports world, which exhibits perhaps the deepest and most personal type of fan/brand engagement. I am proof positive of that. As go my Minnesota Vikings, so goes my mood (just ask my wife and two kids who frequently avoid watching with me on any given Sunday out of fear for what may happen next). Our wide world of sports frequently now leads on the Media 2.0 online/offline virtuous cycle front, as we watch increasingly powerful “smart stadiums” being built in which we can simultaneously engage and experience both actually (with our family and friends at the game) and virtually (with our friends online watching from home). Just think of the data our favorite teams, and the brands that support them, increasingly collect all along the way.

 These are just some ideas and concepts that hold the potential to be transformational. Perhaps these concepts spark some ideas of your own in your own personal quest to be innovative and fearless.

 Action, remember? Not merely reaction. Or, even worse no action at all.