Welcome to part 3 of my series on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Henceforth MLP:FiM)This one is taking a lot longer than Introspection, because introspection is cheap, and you have to do it quick before the moment fades, while analysis is time consuming and you have to do real research.
This one is less about my personal experience, and more about the collective experience and it's influence on popular culture, the blogosphere, the Chans, et cereta, and as such there is the matter of disclaiming that I have not seen the entire elephant. I have not read the entire internet; deal with it.
From where I sit, here's how it is:
It's all about respect. People want it, need it, and crave it, and if you give it to them they will, ironically, be more than happy to debase themselves for your amusement (See: reality television, the Jackass series and wannabe actresses trying to get a break).
There are two demographics that modern media tends to treat like predictable, drooling imbeciles, who will buy anything that panders to their desire for pink dresses and fiery explosions. Exposing these people to quality products is like exposing a dead-fall knotted stand of jungle, that hasn't seen fire in a hundred years, to an incendiary grenade.
You'll get a lot of flash out of that, and with a little guidance that flash will turn into a firestorm.
First, the creator must express their respect for the audience from first contact; either in the work itself, or in pre-release marketing (This thought inspires a train that will form a later post on the life cycle of the post-WoW MMO). The creator takes the initiative in this dialogue, and it's important to start things off on the right foot.
Likewise, you have to show that respect from square one, so new prospects don't have to wade through no-effort crap to get to the good stuff. Opening MLP:FiM with a two part episode was a ballsy move; what if kids didn't become invested quickly enough to take an interest in the resolution? Could kids even learn all the major characters in that span of time?
Once you've shown your audience some respect, and earned their respect in return, you have to maintain that respect, and keep pushing out quality product. Even Naruto understands that every third season must contain content, or the fans will stop coming back to see if it's gotten good again (It seems that even DBZ fans oft lack the patience for Naruto's pacing).
You might get a flash following with pandering and fluff, but pandering is cheap, and that audience will abandon you the minute a new panderer appears. While it's possible to pander to an audience that you respect (an act indistinguishable from producing quality products), remember that cheap pandering will cost you the respect of your fans, who will feel betrayed and give you negative buzz.
This is a serious danger point for the way Hasbro is handling MLP:FiM. They got the brony fanbase as a free extra to the audience they wanted to reach --an audience with actual income, rather than an allowance-- but then overtly accepted the adulation of these free fans, and pledged to continue serving them. The potential threat here lies in the nature of the brony demographic, and the way this paradigm alters their reaction to the product.
Bronies, are media consumers, down to their black, culturally conflicted hearts. As such they have an intuitive grasp of context and presentation, that many of them are not even aware of. The physics and furniture in Ponyville are preposterous, but that's okay, because it's a show for children, and they know to turn those parts of their brains off when the show is on. When the show becomes "for grown-ups too" there's a risk that a significant portion of the fanbase will see the unnoticed shift in their expectations as a lower quality product. A lower quality product would be a betrayal of that new promise, even though it is only the promise, and not the perceived quality thereof that the producers have control over.
Thankfully, the movement has gravitated to charismatic, creative leadership, that clearly shows a solid understanding of consumerism, and a long haul philosophy toward sustaining a fandom. Not only do these grassroots leaders make great apologists, explaining this new need for logic back into the proverbial fridge, and making pink Celestia toys (Celestia is a White horse, but marketing knows pink is what catches the eye in the pink aisle) into a joke, rather than an endless flamewar.
They are also the best marketing team Hasbro could ask for. They are consumerist enough to know they can help this fledgling series survive, and Hasbro has allowed them to do just that.
Ponycraft 2 is a viral advertising dream, and with leadership and infrastructure to support the pony video trend it spawned, this has produced more minutes of viewed, free advertising than anyone has the capability to calculate. --and nobody is blocking these spots, they are seeking them out with a hunger for more. When you win over disaffected creatives with nothing to do but build monuments to your glory, you ensure your glory spreads so far and wide it gets banned from many major content distribution sites.
Sadly, much of this content will be porn, or of poor quality, or both. That's user published content; them's the breaks. Thankfully, with consumerist leadership that wants you to succeed your fans will construct infrastructure to help the quality producers to succeed, which helps your free advertising spread faster and be more effective.
"--But Felblood!" I hear some of you cry, "All this happened on it's own! Hasbro didn't do any of that stuff; the bronies did it. What can marketers learn form this act of God?"
I reply, "Who is Hasbo?"
The people at Hasbro have fostered this movement in some way at every turn. There have been missteps to be sure, but after step one (Introduce quality products respectfully) and step two (keep feeding them quality products), they hit step three out of the park.
Let people love you.
Acknowledge their respect respectfully, not just with the quality of your work, but with your marketing and corporate messages. You don't want to create a perceived conflict between the creatives, and marketing and management, as the fans will side with the creatives over the stuffed suits, and blast your company internet wide (causing the unemployment of the folks they were white-knighting for).
Your creative people are respected by the people who consume their works. Let them show a reciprocal respect, by interacting with the fanbase and consuming feedback. So long as it's made clear that your people take suggestions, and not orders, this will add to your pool of grassroots respect and internet buzz, without overly empowering the overly self-entitled crybabies who are the enemy of all positive buzz (these people are what makes "kid's stuff" that has become "for grownups too" such a risky maneuver. See also: Comic Books). Bonus: also tricks your creatives into working for you for free, whenever they blog or tweet.
Encourage fanworks, but don't attempt to control them. Any attempt to tune the signal sends a very sinister message, and destroys the credibility of your free advertising agencies. However, you can still use your position as the actual owner of the IP as a bully pulpit to issue requests from, rather than ultimatums. (This saves you millions in suing your own fans, and is in many respects more effective.)
Actively encourage fans to create responsibly; you want them to build systems that promote quality fanworks over poor ones (to reflect the quality of your product) and that allow users from all of your demographics to have a positive web experience. This means that pornographic fanart should have a place to exist apart from everything else, so people who aren't looking for it can avoid it.
You can't build this yourself, because your control over that system would compromise it's supposed neutrality (Remember that your fans want you to stay in business, too.). However, if you start handing out respectful suggestions for features, these types will often drink up that feedback. --It means that you acknowledge their existence amenably, and feel their work is worthy of further development.
Of course, if you respect your customers, all of this comes naturally. They're probably smart enough to ask you for it, if you know how to listen.
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