“The next order of the internet is making it small again... giving people the ten things that matter [rather than the 10 billion things that don't].” That is the future, “the ten commandments of the day, if you will”, according to Jack Black.
The first quote was actually from Summly founder Nick D'Aloisio, the teenager who in March sold his news reading app to Yahoo! for $30 million. Black, summarising it for him via the (new) OldTestament, said D'Aloisio “could have that”.
The two were speaking at a Cannes seminar today, drumming up interest for Yahoo!'s forthcoming online spooky comedy series, Ghost Ghirls, produced by Black's company, Electric Dynamite
The session also underlined how serious Yahoo! Is about challenging old media when it comes to video content.
Yahoo! head of video, Erin McPherson, said the Ghost Ghirls series would be optimised in real-time and pushed to people who like female comedy using the firm's vast vault of data. Whether people like the show would be quickly gauged from that same data pool, she said, and Yahoo! would optimise the series in-play.
That could include adding more shows to the series on the fly, if data suggested that is what viewers want. McPherson may also have been hinting at a potential Netflix model. “We are finding more is more. If people love Ghost Ghirls, we want them to be able to enjoy all of it.”
That, said McPherson, underlined the paradigm shift for brands and content. It's not about their ideas any more. Brands, she said, have to cede control to the people.
“Brands are underwriting a lot of what we do but there is still a lot of risk aversion in industry. We need to think more abut innovation. It is not a $150million film. We can create and optimise as we go … We are working collaboratively with users and then we bring in the brands. That is the paradigm shift; from [basing business on] what the brand is doing to what the people are doing.”
Jack Black thought that was good news. He couldn't give away too much about what might be coming next from his den of creativity “in case the competition is listening and do the same thing... only slightly better”. But he did offer a nugget from the vault that hit all those revolutionary notes.
That new show might just be “citizens arrest”, he said.
The ultimate power to the people.
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
Have something to say? Send us your comments using the form below or contact the writer at brendancoyne@yaffa.com.au
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.