O.J. Simpson Changed Media + Marketing
The Ringer, Bill Simmons new sports & pop culture media platform, recently had a podcast titled “Media vs. OJ Simpson” where they reviewed how the “trial of the century” was played out in the media. For those of you old enough to remember the trial or are hip enough to be watching FX’s hit show “The People vs. OJ Simpson” (photo credit), you will remember the craziness of the white Ford Bronco chase through the verdict. What people are just now realizing though is how the trial’s media coverage in many ways signaled the beginning of two important trends that are impacting the media industry and marketing in the 21st century. The two developments were: Segmentation of Media Audience & Introduction of Reality/Social Media.
Media Segmentation: The trial gave rise to niche media outlets (National Enquirer, Court TV, even CNN among others) saw massive audience growth as a result of the interest in the trial and the ongoing, nearly 24/7 coverage of each days events. Cable television was introduced in the 80’s but the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and upstart Fox) controlled the vast majority of the television audience, and newspapers were national and respected daily’s such as NYTimes. However the trial gave a platform for consumers to be aware of and start to engage with new channels of content, which led to the explosion in cable tv channels in the late 90’s and early 00’s, and foreshadowed what was possible with the internet in its infancy in ’95.
Reality/Social Media: OJ Simpson was a major celebrity, a face and personality the vast majority of Americans new from movies, commercials and sports casting, not to mention his hall of fame professional football career. He was a person many people felt they new, which led to an insatiable appetite from the public to consume details about his life and the horrific murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson & Ron Goldman. This fed the opportunity for niche media outlets and started building the case for reality tv (late 90’s and early 00’s) and social media (late 00’s to present). The opportunity for real-time integration of a persons life, real or perceived, led to the change in content creation.
The combination of channel segmentation and reality/social media opportunities, has led to audience reach issues with the traditional marketing channels of television and print. This led to a need for marketers to look for new channels to reach consumers and gave digital, which grew precipitously in the 2000’s, digital channels, an open door to grow into dominance, thanks to it’s ability of frequency + reach + relevancy which drives direct business results. Nobody understood twenty one years ago how much the OJ Simpson trial was a seminal moment in media production, consumption and ultimately marketing; forever shifting an entire industry.
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