Enough already!
As in the earliest days of commerce, new breakthrough ideas generate public excitement. There’s a fascinating show “The Foods that built America.” While focused on food products, it’s a look at the spirit, grit and original thinking in creating new iconic food brands. While we’re not inventing Twinkies, we can learn from the spirit of these pioneers in generating excitement through timely innovation and courage that shakes things up— evolves. After all, we are in media’s New Wild West and some of the same pioneering thinking can “evolutionize” ourselves.
There’s a lot talk of originality but infrequently, if ever, deliver noticeable ( key word ) original new approaches.
Sadly, we live in an era where tradition holds back growth. FM Radio and TV News can be pointed out as especially resistant to a level of originality that moves needles. A deep dive into the American psyche and you’ll hear “enough already” which means, ah, enough already !
Some examples of ‘enough already’ where good initial ideas are copied and pummeled into the ground, include :
-Funny insurance ads
-Breaking News and Storm Tracker type slogans and “hi tech” news sets that are flashy paint jobs which cancel each other out as if there’s an unwinnable arms race in set design and sloganizing.
-Left Political talk shows telegraphing Rush Limbaugh
-Auto Tune vocals. Joe Average may not know what that is, but they know that sound.
-Over exposed celebrities of limited interest to anyone over 16.
-Camp LeJeune water
-Another streaming service offering pretty much the same.
-Anything “lite.”
-Anything +
-Too many back to back ads
-Far left and far right politics that can be oddly interesting but have the mainstream head scratching
-Far left and right causes that are hyper specific and of little interest to the mainstream.
…and the list goes on.
While the market will often sustain a few of the above, it’s worth investigating ‘enough already,’ which signals an OPPORTUNITY to deliver the next version— that in time others will copy. Maybe one of the funny insurance companies will try cartoons and make the Emu or Lizard instantly dated.
Tough to pull the trigger in this economic environment but consider the mainstream, which is so ripe for new and next. Strange thing is that economic caution may hold back the potential for the right new ideas to generate significant new revenue. Aka organizational fear.
Trickier is that the mainstream doesn’t speak. It thinks. Politics aside, they will rarely vocalize feelings unprovoked … but they’re sure thinking them. We should be astute enough to recognize or discover the enough already factor and seize the moment through research, intuition, or both.
While we’re in the media business it’s easy to be too close to see the reality. Or too far removed to notice. But ‘enough already’ is real. Unsophisticated term in an age of complexity, but sometimes the answers are simply obvious.
Next time you, hear that song on the radio you’re tired of, or a style of programming that forces a cringe, Just remember that’s the opportunity presented by the challenging of enough already!