Bad Art

In comment to yesterday's Is MLM Craving Success? post remarking about Art Jonak's remarkable (97,250 views as of 9:12 EST this morning, and only days—not weeks or months old and out there IS remarkable) YouTube mlm product video, "g", the indefatigable Brit crit and bathwater drinking enthusiast wrote:

Yeah, J... but... technical term here... it's sh*t.

Howso? Simple: an MTV-type pitch featuring technobeat soundtrack with 'it makes you move' is of limited appeal - even to gen y-ers. There are far more intelligent ways in which the medium can be and is being utilized.

Ah... "limited appeal". Nearly 100,000 views in what... 72 hours. We should all have such "limited appeal".

Even worse, and an example of the moronic and manipulative nature of the underlying mentality is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpOwVliJh0Q from Jonak.

Firmly in 'dude, where's my brain' territory, it's just another example of the smug and self-reverential behavior which characterizes far too much of this business and thereby restricts appeal to a wider market.

I may of course be wrong...

Yes, you may... However, regarding the Crave For Energy Crave For Big Money vid, I cannot really disagree. Though it takes me a while to speak after stifiling the urge to throw-up <grin>. Even if I'm one of only a very few watchers who knows it's Jonak's (once belonging to legendary guru Randy Gage) black Viper that Mike Potillo (one of Art's leaders in VitaMark) is driving as if it was his... and obviously Art's "already in" the biz... and oh the hype of it all... and even though some "good" benefit points are made... it's still repugnant for MY taste. But then...

THAT (video) was NOT the subject of my post nor point.

What (I say) we have here is a "Take a lesson" real-world example of a medium (YouTube) and message (the "Crave Energy" spot) about a mlm product pitch that's kickin' bottoms and lots of 'em.

Many things (for me) to be gleaned from Arthur's "test". Such as, the energy drink market slugs down 70,000,000 of the mother's little helpers every day! And the fact that only 2% of them care the slightest bit and whit about the "healthy or no" character of what they're putting into their bodies fascinates me. (You mean there IS some percentage of the nutritional beverage market who actually wants a juice that tastes good? Like that.) First and first... Crave's potentials want ENERGY. That's it. That's all. And THAT's a lesson for me on the "marketing" side of what I'm doing as a network MARKETER.

So, I'll keep watchin' and waitin'. You see, my company and me, we sell a powdered energy drink, too, and that's one part of my invested interest. But there's more... much more. Such as the use and power of YouTube... how will Arthur "monetize" such click, click, clicking away, clicking at the mention of... fame (or such noterity, as I'm guessing "g" will brand it). And speaking of branding...

For me the opportunity for learning here (and up and over there) is huge and I AM proud of Art's process and success in the matter. Always a fine feeling to watch the student surpass the teacher for those teachers interested in knowing what makes that happen...

Comments

[Art Jonak]

Hey fellas,

Good discussion. As usual, in order for there to be conversation, there has to be "disagreement." LOL!

Couple of quick insights.

First, this was all about TESTING *before*
we hit the marketplace.

1) We created the "It makes you move" video in less than 48 hours. It was simply put together to "test the market." This is NOT the official "Crave Energy Video."

However, we did learn a LOT from this very affordable test.

"MTV-type pitch featuring technobeat soundtrack with 'it makes you move' is of limited appeal - even to gen y-ers."

Could be. And then again maybe, just maybe MTV knows what they are doing.

Let me ask you, "How do you know it is of limited appeal, even to Gen Yers?" I'm open to learning.

From our limited testing, this approach actually does seem to work. And, all we are reporting are what's happening, the actual numbers. That's all.

"There are far more intelligent ways in which the medium can be and is being utilized."

Probably true. But somehow I've noticed the "more intelligent ways" rarely make it into the top 100 most viewed videos. There are millions of videos that struggle to get even 500 views in 6 months. I'm not saying this is a good thing, I'm simply observing what is so.

I've found that "My Personal Opinion" is of little significance. My best guess of what will work in today's marketplace is just that "a guess." The best thing to do is TEST.

As for the "Viper Video." This video was taken by a hand held camera (not even a video camera) in TWO takes. The purpose of the video was to create a light-hearted and fun role-playing "training video" for the team. We've learned by making our training entertaining and fun more team members get engaged in the lesson. Please don't take it too seriously. It was done in FUN by two guys having fun that day. That's all. Nothing else. :-)

However, the fact that the video DID take off on YouTube also taught us some valuable lessons. And it caused use to ask some critical questions about our marketing that we were not asking before.

Applying what we learned has helped us target our marketing to what the current marketplace is actually responding too.

It's by "doing" that we learn.

Thank you for the insights and discussions!

-Art

[g]

I'll return to this when I've more time. Meantime... the core of my work at Upline is simple: do stuff which doesn't overstate the case for NM, and which helps the 'ordinary' well-intentioned NM-er build a better business.

Toward this, JD Mann provides an excellent guide - slighy paraphrased thus: Every message from a NM-er should leave the recipient with a better impression of the business.

That's not happening with those clips or commonly with many NM 'personalities', and we tolerate it at our peril. 'Jonak's better than that - much better', the second clip is highly relevant - it cheapens Jonak and NM.

So yeah, I'll continue to 'rock the boat'.

;-)