Digital Fatigue
Newsletter #140
This Week
Xbox’s PR Win
ICYMI: How to Create Wins All Around
Spotted
Before We Go…
1. Analyzing the Xbox CEO’s Latest Announcement
Here’s a story about how listening to your users’ pain points, and the pain points of your competitors’ customers, can turn into great PR.
One of the biggest challenges of the digital age is ownership.
Until recently, ownership was pretty straightforward. When you bought a CD or DVD, you had a physical item that lived in your house and was clearly yours. No one else had access to your copy unless you handed it to them.
But in the digital age, the lines of ownership have blurred. And it has created something of a nightmare scenario for consumers, called digital fatigue.
Libraries don’t own digital copies of e-books. Instead, they often license the right to lend them a certain number of times before they have to renew that license. Obviously, that isn’t an issue with a physical book. But as e-books have grown, these licensing models have put additional strain on library budgets.
Consumers are running into the same problem.
One man made headlines after losing access to a digital copy of The Lord of the Rings that he had purchased through Google. Google stopped carrying the movie in its catalog, and suddenly, his “purchase” was no longer accessible. The fine print, it turned out, indicated that he hadn’t actually owned the movie. He had purchased the right to stream it as long as it remained in Google’s catalog.
Heck, if you have a MyQ garage door system, you may not even own the right to open your own garage door without paying for a subscription.
It’s a real headache for consumers. And while subscription and licensing models can be a significant revenue generator for businesses, they can also become a significant PR headache as consumer complaints grow.
That brings us to the video game industry.
2. ICYMI: “No, but…”
You’re swamped. You have no budget. Whether in time or money, there are no more resources to add to the plate. Then a new communications request comes in.
It’s not a priority project, and it’s not fully aligned with your team’s strategy.
What do you do? Risk alienating a well-meaning colleague who came to you to ensure their communications need was well-executed and brand-aligned?
Or find another way?
Here’s our secret: the “no, but…” strategy.
3. Spotted
Jack Edwards is a TikTok creator known for his book content. He also interviews celebrities as they do press junkets to promote new films. Like any memorable interviewer, he’s found a schtick to stand out in the endless lineup actors face on junket day.
Edwards has a personalized book recommendation for everyone he interviews. The way he describes books is succinct and engaging — a hard skill for any storyteller to master. Here he is with his recommendations for Emily Blunt and Steven Spielberg.
4. Before We Go…
From The New York Times: McClatchy makes deep job cuts to newspapers around the country
“McClatchy, the newspaper chain that owns The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee and 28 other newspapers, made deep job cuts on Thursday to newsrooms across the country… Carol Marbin Miller, the deputy investigations editor of The Miami Herald, said in an interview that the layoffs and elimination of vacant positions were ‘a blood bath.’”
From The New York Times: Dopamine sites sell nothing, and people cannot get enough
“Named for the brain chemical associated with reward seeking, the sites simulate experiences like online shopping that can generate good feelings. In doing so, proponents say, they may subvert the habits of people conditioned to buy and consume. And the prices can’t be beat, since they are the same as the product lines: nonexistent.”
“Using a dizzying blend of colors and patterns, the shirt is ugly precisely because it’s designed to confuse surveillance algorithms — as Weckert explained, it’s the ‘interplay’ of ghastly colors and shapes that hide its wearer from detection.”