Have you seen that show Rock star Supernova? I don’t really watch it but my girlfriend is nuts for it. If anything I’d call this seemingly generic reality/elimination show a next-gen reality show. The business model behind this venture is fantastic and I applaud how they use the internet to up-sell music. Although I’m sure they are making a ton of cash from ads — this show has partnered with msn to sell music tracks of the live performances aswell as the originals. Pretty smart idea, they are making people fall in love with music and by bringing them to the website to vote for their favorite users – they can purchase this music while in that pumped up emotional state.
This idea will no doubt be reused for different purposes. This got me thinking - so now you get to hear my first TV show idea ever!! The purpose of this show is to sell performance cars and performance parts. Get a group of like twenty young talented drivers and every week have them compete in various racing events (i.e. Autocross, drag racing, drifting, rally racing, track lapping etc.) When drivers win races they can get championship points + money to modify their cars with brand name performance parts. People could go online to vote for their favorite car/racer and that could translate to more money for more parts for that person’s car. Now when your online you could see complete performance breakdowns of every car and the parts they have modified them with (w/ links to buy them!).
What would make you want to buy a decked out Mustang more? Watching an American idol sing next to one? Or watching someone DOMINATE a track in one? Also do you think you’d sell more performance breaks and suspension if people saw the difference it made for the drivers on the show? From going to these events I have fallen in love with a couple makes and models that I didn’t even think twice about before. Car companies should be seriously thinking about stuff like this, people aren’t falling in love with the premium cars right now. They are falling in love with the stats and reviews of the economy cars. This could be the tool that motivates people to spend a bit more when they go out to buy a new car.
This got me thinking about other ways of selling content. For the Xbox 360 - have you played Burnout Revenge? This game has some of the hottest music I’ve heard in a long time! I hadn’t heard of most of these bands until I heard it in the game, infact I wouldn’t really pay attention to it playing anywhere else. When I’m blasting through the game this music is pumps me up, so wouldn’t that be the perfect moment to try to sell it to me? If you could buy each track through the Xbox live market place, Microsoft would have a lot more of my money right now. This would be a great way for the publishers to make more revenue off the game. If anything that could lower the cost of having big name music in game titles. Maybe it could even lower the prices of the game if they made more money of the music sales than the titles. If that was the case wouldn’t they want more people playing the games?
Take a look at Amazon Web Services (AWS) – these services provide a complete API to their product database designed specifically for this purpose. An example idea of this using AWS was my Social booklist idea I mentioned earlier. AWS is a perfect building block for businesses that are designed to get people excited about(and buy) content they would have never found on their own.
Are you starting a online business? Why not give me a call and we can brainstorm your business model - I can help you find some new techniques of generating revenue!
