Customer Reviews

The Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives

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This book is not worth your time or money. "The Entertainment Economy" is a Fast Company article expanded to 300 pages. If you've been awake and breathing recently, you know that the entertainment component of almost anything is becoming increasingly important. Providing an experience, as opposed to simply a product is becoming more important. A hit movie can open the doors to sell complimentary merchandise, which may end up being more lucrative than the movie itself. OK, so why does it take 300 pages to explain this? It doesn't, just read the reviews people have written, and keep you eyes open when you go out in the world.

So much sizzle surrounding this book, from the glittery cover to Judy McGrath at MTV.."I laughed, I cried, I took notes" Come on, get real, a box of Kleenex would be a better investment! I've never given a book one star in the past, but trust me, this is all it deserves.

It is the best of books, it is the worst of books. But for those of you interested in becoming self-supporting, even wealthy, beloved and famous artists, ignore Michael Wolf's book, The Entertainment Economy, at your own risk. The only thing really shocking about this book is that it sets down in cold, facile language the rules of getting your product into the raging currents of the media deluge. At first glance it is a discouraging read for those who still harbor thoughts about the sanctity of artistic expression. Look a little deeper, though, and realize that what this mega-media consultant has given you is the keys to the kingdom. Instead of thinking of yourself as another lonely writer, filmmaker, or singer at the mercy of a hostile media universe, change your self-concept to that of an AEO, or Artist-Executive Officer, of your own entertainment corporation. Because the bottom line to people like Wolf and the media clients he serves is money, market share and mo' money.

From this vantage point, which has you thinking tactically about the business of finding an audience, as well as strategically about the nature of your expression, Wolf's book can serve as a manual in how to breach the citadel of entertainment corporations who control your ability to achieve your objective. As Sun-Tzu said, "It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on, " and in this vein I offer ten maxims gleaned from Wolf's book which describe the objectives, operations and thought processes of the enemy: Maxim I: There are rules to the game, learn them. Does it make any sense to spend your whole life developing your artistic expression to lose the opportunity at the final gate because you are ignorant of certain entertainment business fundamentals? The concept of the AEO, or Artist-Executive Officer, is a hybrid - in today's media environment you have to develop your craft and understand the rules of business if you want your work to reach an audience. There is an upside to subjecting yourself to learning the rigors of dollars and sense business considerations - it quickly rubs off any juvenile shine your work may have to it. Maxim II: You are competing against everything else. Everything. From an entertainment executives point of view, every product in the media multi-verse is simultaneously competing with everything else out there - not for honor or recognition, but for market share and consumer dollars. There is no such thing as an isolated medium, so your product has got to stand up to universal expectations of production and entertainment value no matter what medium you are working in. Maxim III: Your product must fulfill the audience need to be entertained. Having so many entertainment choices available to us at any given moment and so little time in which to enjoy them, Wolf says, has the effect of, ". . . upping the ante for each entertainment decision. Not only is a bad movie perceived as a waste of time, it also represents a major opportunity cost in terms of other fun one might have had. The value of each leisure moment is increasing, and with it the consumer's demand that time spent be high-quality time." Maxim IV: Be aware of trends in society and entertainment. Your goal as an artist is to be, " . . . so in touch with the times [you] can express the longings and desires of mass humanity . . . what we are talking about are people who can feel the vibrations in the air and catch the wave of mass culture," says Wolf. Maxim V: Your product must be finely tuned with an eye toward Maxims III and IV. The first hurdle you have to pass is the "Who Cares?" test. Then it must simply entertain a mass audience in such a manner that it becomes a cultural tsunami that will have you exclaiming, "I'm King of the World!" Maxim VI: The market is growing, more content is needed. For Wolf, we're living in a New World Entertainment Order, with the opening of developing and formerly closed markets, the explosion of new programming channels from satellite TV to MP-3 and the, "Entertainmentizing of the Economy." With this phrase, Wolf describes the addition of entertainment content to every aspect of our lives, which leads us to . . . Maxim VII: Artists have the upperhand over the suits because they are hungry for content to sluice through their channels. Wolf describes a, ". . . fundamental shift in the balance of power in every aspect of entertainment. In two words: talent rules." Maxim VIII: The suits control distribution, deals and marketing more than they do content. Don't let them intimidate you - if they didn't need you, they wouldn't talk to you in the first place. The fact is, suits and talent are locked in more of a symbiotic embrace than the death tango of the mongoose and the cobra. Maxim IX: Entertainment is an alchemy which hasn't been bottled. Do not panic. In case of panic, paste this phrase to a wall and beat your head against it. The demand for content is here to stay. Develop your craft, respect the audience, understand the society in which you live and you will sell what you have to offer. Someday. Maxim X: Every entertainment concept, product and empire started with an idea that didn't exist before. Not only should you not panic, you should be feeling pretty good about yourself. Last year's phenomenon percolated in the back of a busboy's mind for perhaps as long as twenty years before it broke all land-speed records on its way to a gazillion unit sales. In the end, you have an equal chance as anyone who shows up with the right product at the right time - especially if you know the rules of engagement beforehand.

Michael J Wolf is a consultant, and it's in consultants's nature to get everyhting 5 years after everybody else, write it down in a simplistic manner, put a glitzy cover on it and give it a profound name, preferably with the prefix "In Search of..." or "How.... changed the world". Michael J Wolf is no exception. The book is littered with clean-cut examples, like being in "awe of a Disney cruise ship" or " realizing that the groovy sounds of Sheryl Crow could be used to launch a new GM product". It reminds me a lot of the writings of Michael Eisner in the Disney annual reports - clean cut, diluted, soulless and with a tone of voice that reminds us of when 40/ 50-somethings tries to utter the words 'cool' or 'hip'. Wolf isn't for real, he is an overpaid Harvard-grad who entered the biz at boardroom-level spewing out trivialities top-management about "downsizing, value-adding, entertainment- factors, yadda, yadda, yadda". This book is strictly for the Tom Peters clientele, the middle management types who once a year "take a walk on the wild side" with a "groovy" (and expensive) workshop and the compulsory buffet...in short, the wanna-be visionaries. See Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf, instead, it's a more entertaining combination of the author's name.

This book would have made a great magazine article.

Unfortunately, Wolf quickly establishes his premise (that entertainment is becoming an increasingly important force in all aspects of the global economy), and beats it bloody by about page 90. Thereafter, the book degenerates into a discussion of (a) how great his clients and potential clients are (Bob Pittman and Judy McGrath return the favor, by providing the blurbs shown on the cover of the book), and (b) how brilliant his analysis has been, from the time he was in college until today, cannily guiding media moguls down the correct and enlightened path.

This book, in short, continues the trend started by "In Search of Excellence" and "Reengineering the Corporation": Books by consultants who have somehow gotten us to shell out $20-25 for a hardcover version of their consulting firm's promotional brochure.

As I was browsing through Fast Company or Business 2.0 or one of the new business publications, I came across an ad for this book. Interesting sounding title, advertised in the right place, written by a self proclaimed "guru" who consults with major corporations on incorporating entertainment in their offerings. I figured this is gonna be an awesome book, flashy cover and everything. It was nothing more than a Fast Company article drawn out to be 300+ pages, seemed to re-hash the same things over and over, and I gained no insight in to the entertainment industry that was not already obvious or intuitive simply by being a consumer. A hit movie or hit show can open the door for a company to sell complementary merchandise, and generate more revenue than just the movie and account for most of the profits.....Providing an "experience" and not just a product or service is becoming more important for companies looking to pull in more consumers...and did you know the moon is not made out of cheese? Believe it or not this also is the case! Just read the review by Dan Ring of Amazon, and you will will get 90% of what is in the book. I suspect that the Experience Economy is similar but probably much better, because HBS publishing is a brand to be trusted that puts out quality publications, so if you are looking for a book on this topic try that one first! So much sizzle surrounding this book, from the glittery cover to Judy McGrath at MTV.."I laughed, I cried, I took notes" Come on, get real, a box of Kleenex would be a better investment!

As a $480 billion industry, entertainment represents about 7 percent of our economy. This makes it a worthy topic for analysis. Wolf gets off to a good start in the early chapters, telling us how entertainment became so pervasive a component of our work and education, as well as our leisure. We see the sociological and technical reasons. We are informed about the vast increase in entertainment media of all types, and how this competes for our attention. This is why only the best gets noticed; why so few books, music albums, movies, television shows, and web sites make money.

After the fourth chapter, though, Wolf lapses into a retelling of the obvious. Chapter 5 offers a few interesting tidbits on the lives and work of a few media moguls, but anyone who keeps up with business and technology news from the popular press will learn little from the rest of the book.

This book is an entertaining read -- as any book on this subject should be. It is hip, fast-paced, and easy to follow -- like clips from MTV.

I think the fundamental premise is wrong, however. Mr. Wolf feels that entertainment is changing our lives. It looks to me like it is the other way around. The rapid proliferation of technology and irresistible forces in the economy mean that the stress level Is higher than ever, people are trying harder, and need to be entertained in briefer, more satisfying doses. The book makes this point very well, but chooses to draw the opposite conclusion. If families had had nice theme parks to go to before Disneyland, then Disneyland would not have been such a big draw. Broadcasters could have raised prices a lot when they had the big market before cable took off. They were too myopic to do so.

Until the Internet, entertainment was usually reactive rather than proactive. Look how long it took Las Vegas to discover entertainment other than gambling and risque shows. The key point of this book for everyone is that we are in for an unprecedented boom in the value of the talent that provides good entertainment. This is caused by the fragmentation of the audience and channels of distribution. As a result, the good will look much better than ever amidst the increasing masses of the bad. A larger audience will want to spend money on the same things, creating a bonanza. Thinking through how to apply that lesson to your own business is a valuable question. Great entertainment values will be more useful than ever, and bad ones will be less successful than ever. Unless you can be great, don't bother seems to be the message.

Mr. Wolf has probably helped us all to overcome our misconceptions that entertainment is only for those in the "entertainment" business. Entertainment skills, properly-applied, can become a powerful force for any business.

What this book lacks is specific direction on how to apply this insight. My suggestion is that you apply an eight-step process. First, learn to understand by measuring what is entertaining and what is not about your business. Second, then begin to measure how entertainment is effectively helping or not in your key activities. Third, measure the current best practices in this area and estimate where the future best practice will be in 5 years. Fourth, surpass the future best practice by combining existing best practices in new ways that are unlikely to be duplicated by others. Fifth, estimate the ideal best practice (the sort of simultaneous marriage of business and entertainment that transforms both forever) by looking to other areas of human activity where is occurs. A good example may be the effectiveness of sincere efforts to solve terrible problems (like Johnson & Johnson and the tainted Tylenol capsules, and the work site experiences of Habitat for Humanity). Sixth, seek to approach the ideal best practice. Seventh, find the right people, resources, and motivation to get the right results in surpassing the future best practice and approaching the ideal best practice. Eighth, repeat the process as often as possible to build on success and what you have just learned.

From this perspective, almost all the entertainment companies outlined in the book have a lot to learn. They are quick to act on hunches and to spend fortunes on tests and marketing, but seem little interested in understanding the fundamental entertainment desires of those they want to serve. Mr. Wolf celebrates the moguls, but that style of management was long ago surpassed in other industries. Perhaps it should be no surprise that many entertainment companies make smaller finanicial returns compared to companies in other industries. This reminds me of the French wine industry a few years ago. People bought a chateau for prestige, not intending to make money from wine production and marketing. Perhaps moguls are more interested in the attention they get, than in the profits they should create. They may be suffering from "stalled" thinking and will need better thinking habits to overcome these limitations.

Why was it a surprise to Sumner Redstone that Blockbuster Video was not a core enterprise for Viacom's future? He is considered to be an extremely intelligent and able executive who was playing with lots of his own money. My conclusion is that he needed a better management process to avoid mistakes like this one.

Mr. Wolf should spend more time thinking about management processes.

If you want a breezy read about the entertainment industry, do buy and read this book. If you want something with more guidance for your business, you will need to supplement this book with others. The Customer-Driven Company is a good example.

Unless you currently think about entertainment as it might relate to your business now, this book will definitely advance your thinking about what the fundamental trends have been and what that could mean for the future of your business.

A breezy compendium of examples and hastily drawn conclusions, like you could get by reading columns in Fortune or Fast Company for several months straight. Filled with gems such as (this is paraphrase) "Tommy Hilfiger figured out that the way to reach young America was to have products associated with coolness". You keep thinking, well duh. Wolf must be a heck of a schmoozer.

According to Michael J. Wolf, "Locally, globally, internationally, we are living in an entertainment economy." In fact, that is the title of his new book which consists of ten chapters which proceed from an introduction to the "entertainment zone" to a "view from tomorrow." In between, Wolf carefully examines a full-range of business situations in which entertainment plays an increasingly more important role. For example, he focuses on the fun-focused customer, the e-factor ("there's no business without show business"), the battle for attention, the struggle for world domination, the genesis of a phenomenon (ie whatever redefines "success"), what he calls "enteractivity", brand empires, and the role of sponsors.

Wolf observes that "Within its home turf....entertainment is in many parts of the world the fastest-growing sector of the economy. This is as true of developing countries as it is of mature ones. But of even wider impact is the way entertainment content has become a key differentiator in virtually every aspect of the broader consumer economy." Moreover, "...where America's entertainment economy goes, the rest of the world is not far behind." Although he does not state it explicitly, Wolf views "entertainment" from two quite separate perspectives: entertainment as a commodity (films, videos, radio and television, concerts, athletic events, etc.) and entertainment as a strategy (eg to create a sense of being "entertained"). As Wolf explains, not all commodities are inherently entertaining but it is possible to nourish the appeal of virtually all commodities by use of appropriate entertainment principles.

In this respect, Wolf seems to agree with Schmitt & Simonson, co-authors of Marketing Aesthetics. Consider Williams-Sonoma which attracts customers to its upscale stores with the aromas of fresh-baked bread and fresh-brewed coffee, produced on-site by appliances it sells. Schmitt & Simonson assert that marketing is most effective when it appeals to most (if not all) of the five senses. Wolf would no doubt confirm that the nature and extent of that appeal will usually determine the nature and extent of a consumer's sense of being "entertained."

Every retail merchandiser should ask, "Who buys what we sell? Which images will be most appealing? Window displays, posters, counter-top promotions? Which aromas will be most appealing? Gourmet coffee, popcorn, chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Which sounds will be most appealing? Bach, Hole, Dwight Yoakam, Celine Dion?"

Wolf characterizes Ted Turner, Michael Eisner, Sumner Redstone, and Rupert Murdoch as "the conquistadors of modern business." Why? Because they and their associates understand so well that entertainment (both as a commodity and as an influence) has an almost unlimited global audience. To Wolf's credit, everything he says is directly relevant to almost any organization, regardless of size of nature. If an organization does not understand The Entertainment Economy, it probably doesn't have much of a chance of survival. Those interested in this book are urged to consider, also, The Experience Economy and Experiential Marketing.

This book is truely awful. As it was the only book I brought on my holiday I did finish reading it. The book title suggests an analysis of the entertainment economy; combined with the fact that the author is a (self-proclaimed) high-profile consultant to entertainment executives, the reader would expect a thorough analysis of the entertainment economy, inside scoops into succesful entertainment companies, and a new/original theory on the importance of entertainment and how it affects today's life. None of this is found in the book. The analysis goes no deeper than the author saying that some succesful retailers have managed to make visits to their stores an 'entertaining' experience, and that this is their competitive edge over others. Disney is succesful because it 'understands' the entertainment business and has been around so long. AOL is succesful because it merged with Time Warner. Thank you very much for taking so many pages to tell us this. I guess the author could not say anything interesting about anyone in the industry (executives or companies) because these are all (potential) clients. Don't buy.