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In another thread, someone said TNA should be a 21st Century Wrestling Company. What does that mean exactly? I have been thinking about that and I have a few ideas.
1) Marketing. Lets face it, you don't need a marketing degree to see that TNA's marketing is nearly non-exsistant. How does on market nowadays and how can TNA do it. Its all internet and viral marketing.
And before anyone says it, not Twitter. Twitter is not a viable marketing tool, its a toy like Myspace was and will vanish into the fads of the past. What I mean is viral marketing. For example, there was a movie early this year called the Devil Inside. Its sucked ass. But I got to number 1 in its first week. Why? Its all thanks to viral marketing. Banners and ads for that movie were everywhere and they got attention. Yes the actually product sucked, but it got attention.
In the scope of wrestling was ROH Final Battle 2010. Now this is personal experiance, but I saw vids and banners of that on this site and Youtube. I had never watched ROH outside of a few matches, but I was interested. It was a good show.
TNA getting themselves on websites and heavy use of video ads( and done well), they could get at least a few curious to give them a look and maybe get a bite.
2) Media. This goes into marketing, but is broad enough to warrent its own spot. Again, this doesn't include Twitter, but a website that has some use, Youtube. Youtube has grown from a fun little fad to a powerful media tool that everyone has a use for. Even more remarkable is that many a inspiring movie maker has used it to make it big, abeit in a smaller way than Hollywood.
Rooster Teeth, Channel Awesome, Cinemassacre and others have become actual companies because of the use of Youtube. Additionally we have smaller producers, such as the makers of Marble Hornets(who became a web hit, had a bunch of imitators and are getting a DVD release) are getting decent attention.
So TNA, a big company, should be able to use it well? But how? Well, Impact is only 2 hours. Not always enough time a lot of stuff. Have and extend fueds on to the web. WWE I believe has already done it in a fashion, TNA could do it, but in a different way. Have "extended online" segements that show what happened outside of whats on tv, show what we didn't have time to show you.
Additionally, TNA could take what many of these small popular producers have done and make great use of them. They could have mini-movies in the fashion of Marble Hornets or the Joker Blogs ad create fueds, explain backstorys or hype debuting wrestlers.
Another site to use if Blip. Many of the above mentioned companies have moved thier videos there and it has helped them greatly. Longer videos and money from ads would be a big deal to the company good enough to take advantage.
3) Culture. Wait, what do I mean by culture? Well, what is going on in entertainment and media today? Well there is one area, TV culture. What is that? Right now its stuff like Jersey Shore and Kardashians. Sickening isn't it. Its all hype and flashiness and 3D effects. Empty and hollow. TNA has tried to get it and WWE is tring to get it, but should they want it?
There is another culture out there, the Internet Culture. Its memes and cynical anaylsis and tropes. Its taking the past and looking at it differently. Its looking at the present and for the most part, not wearing blindfolds. Its the modern counter-culture in a way.
So why should TNA go for it? Better question, why not? Internet is clashing with TV, both in viewing and cultural importance. Studios will use the net, but don't like it getting more pull than them. Net producers don't mind TV, but feel that they have failed and that they(net producers) can do better. Its a type of culture war.
TNA should do it because, well, not many are. Most shows on TV are embrassing the TV/Hollywood Culture (WWE included). What is TNA went for Internet Culture? Well all I can do is guess, but Id say it would open a new audience. The net heads would see some of what they've experanced on the vastness on the web being used on a wrestling show and think "What are they doing? Hey I get that referance. Hey these little videos are interesting"
Ok, perhaps Im just thinking outload with that one. But maybe not. It would make TNA stand out over most of whats on TV, including WWE.
4) Writting. Lets take you back to a simpler time. In wrestling, faces were larger than life heroes, heels were dastardly snakes. Fueds were simple battles of good vs evil. However, it started to get a little boring. Then ECW came along and along with the blood and fire, it changed the dynamic of characters. Faces were not clean cut and pure, heels less cartoonish and more evil. WWE later took this concept and popularized it. It was the Attitude Era and it was the most popular time in the industry.
Years later, while not as extreme, many of those character types are still around (more in TNA than WWE). However, they, much like thier more idealized predacessors, have become boring. What can be done? What hasn't been done? Well there is one thing, something that has become more popular in fiction: The Deconstruction. Wrestling has some many different characters that have been engrained into the wrestling culture, what better way to take those further than to decontruct them. It would bring a little realism (though not with all the characters, but most) to the product, but still maintain kayfabe. It would allow TNA to play around with concepts that have never really been done before in the industry.
Not to be all deconstruction, there are a mirrad of character architypes that have never been done that could intergrate into stories (In an hour I could find five on TV tropes to use) All it takes is to think outside the box.
I could come up with more, but its late and Ive been typing for a while on this. While this is just my view, its one that I feel that could work if done right
1) Marketing. Lets face it, you don't need a marketing degree to see that TNA's marketing is nearly non-exsistant. How does on market nowadays and how can TNA do it. Its all internet and viral marketing.
And before anyone says it, not Twitter. Twitter is not a viable marketing tool, its a toy like Myspace was and will vanish into the fads of the past. What I mean is viral marketing. For example, there was a movie early this year called the Devil Inside. Its sucked ass. But I got to number 1 in its first week. Why? Its all thanks to viral marketing. Banners and ads for that movie were everywhere and they got attention. Yes the actually product sucked, but it got attention.
In the scope of wrestling was ROH Final Battle 2010. Now this is personal experiance, but I saw vids and banners of that on this site and Youtube. I had never watched ROH outside of a few matches, but I was interested. It was a good show.
TNA getting themselves on websites and heavy use of video ads( and done well), they could get at least a few curious to give them a look and maybe get a bite.
2) Media. This goes into marketing, but is broad enough to warrent its own spot. Again, this doesn't include Twitter, but a website that has some use, Youtube. Youtube has grown from a fun little fad to a powerful media tool that everyone has a use for. Even more remarkable is that many a inspiring movie maker has used it to make it big, abeit in a smaller way than Hollywood.
Rooster Teeth, Channel Awesome, Cinemassacre and others have become actual companies because of the use of Youtube. Additionally we have smaller producers, such as the makers of Marble Hornets(who became a web hit, had a bunch of imitators and are getting a DVD release) are getting decent attention.
So TNA, a big company, should be able to use it well? But how? Well, Impact is only 2 hours. Not always enough time a lot of stuff. Have and extend fueds on to the web. WWE I believe has already done it in a fashion, TNA could do it, but in a different way. Have "extended online" segements that show what happened outside of whats on tv, show what we didn't have time to show you.
Additionally, TNA could take what many of these small popular producers have done and make great use of them. They could have mini-movies in the fashion of Marble Hornets or the Joker Blogs ad create fueds, explain backstorys or hype debuting wrestlers.
Another site to use if Blip. Many of the above mentioned companies have moved thier videos there and it has helped them greatly. Longer videos and money from ads would be a big deal to the company good enough to take advantage.
3) Culture. Wait, what do I mean by culture? Well, what is going on in entertainment and media today? Well there is one area, TV culture. What is that? Right now its stuff like Jersey Shore and Kardashians. Sickening isn't it. Its all hype and flashiness and 3D effects. Empty and hollow. TNA has tried to get it and WWE is tring to get it, but should they want it?
There is another culture out there, the Internet Culture. Its memes and cynical anaylsis and tropes. Its taking the past and looking at it differently. Its looking at the present and for the most part, not wearing blindfolds. Its the modern counter-culture in a way.
So why should TNA go for it? Better question, why not? Internet is clashing with TV, both in viewing and cultural importance. Studios will use the net, but don't like it getting more pull than them. Net producers don't mind TV, but feel that they have failed and that they(net producers) can do better. Its a type of culture war.
TNA should do it because, well, not many are. Most shows on TV are embrassing the TV/Hollywood Culture (WWE included). What is TNA went for Internet Culture? Well all I can do is guess, but Id say it would open a new audience. The net heads would see some of what they've experanced on the vastness on the web being used on a wrestling show and think "What are they doing? Hey I get that referance. Hey these little videos are interesting"
Ok, perhaps Im just thinking outload with that one. But maybe not. It would make TNA stand out over most of whats on TV, including WWE.
4) Writting. Lets take you back to a simpler time. In wrestling, faces were larger than life heroes, heels were dastardly snakes. Fueds were simple battles of good vs evil. However, it started to get a little boring. Then ECW came along and along with the blood and fire, it changed the dynamic of characters. Faces were not clean cut and pure, heels less cartoonish and more evil. WWE later took this concept and popularized it. It was the Attitude Era and it was the most popular time in the industry.
Years later, while not as extreme, many of those character types are still around (more in TNA than WWE). However, they, much like thier more idealized predacessors, have become boring. What can be done? What hasn't been done? Well there is one thing, something that has become more popular in fiction: The Deconstruction. Wrestling has some many different characters that have been engrained into the wrestling culture, what better way to take those further than to decontruct them. It would bring a little realism (though not with all the characters, but most) to the product, but still maintain kayfabe. It would allow TNA to play around with concepts that have never really been done before in the industry.
Not to be all deconstruction, there are a mirrad of character architypes that have never been done that could intergrate into stories (In an hour I could find five on TV tropes to use) All it takes is to think outside the box.
I could come up with more, but its late and Ive been typing for a while on this. While this is just my view, its one that I feel that could work if done right
