I saw a link appear in my facebook newsfeed today. This morning, USA Today published an article called “‘Glee’ has lost its voice in all the chaos.” Sadly, I found myself agreeing with almost every aspect of the article. What was once my favorite new show on television is quickly becoming something I endure, hoping and wishing, it will one day recapture its former glory. I wrote a blog entry about it in September shortly after the Britney episode, and while there have been moments since then, the show continues to slip.
I’m not intending this short entry to be a GLEE hater blog–I still have hopes for the show–but I do think we can learn something from its fall from grace. In my opinion, GLEE got caught up in its own hype. It looked at its own success and in the process of achieving ratings, it lost who it was.
Has this happened to your organization? Has it become too self celebratory? Did it lose part of its own melody? Has its voice slipped away?
I know that a lot of groups are getting more and more concerned with marketing, social media, and expanding rosters while the real focus should be on content.
A few days ago, I read a blog entry highlighting the successful launch of Tim Ferriss’ latest book. As it counted down the 12 lessons learned in the marketing effort, I was especially impressed with #1 “Write an amazing, definitive book.”
GLEE is no longer an amazing, definitive tv show. It was during its pilot, but now it is going through the motions. The same thing happened to HEROES a few years ago.
Let’s not let the same thing happen to us.
Yes, we can be great marketers and promoters–but before we get too tied up in that commotion, let’s remember exactly WHAT we are marketing. Let’s begin there and continue to revisit it as our core while we continue to grow.