A little podcast that became one of the most popular. A series of strange stories about a small town. An exploration of dark comedy and Lovecraftian horror. A place where the dog park is dangerous, and the Sheriff’s Secret Police are always around—and watching, and The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home flips tables for the fun of it. Or possibly to send a message.

A place where Cecil tells you the news.

Welcome...to Night Vale.

The first podcast I ever got into, it’s clever and funny, and sometimes even disturbing—and is a perfect model of how entertainers can make money.

Because while Night Vale itself is free to listen to, the group behind it is smart and set up a nice little arrangement for themselves in the form of selling merchandise.

As far as I know, Night Vale makes all of its money through only a couple of avenues: live shows, merchandise products, donations, sponsorships, and book sales.

You’ll notice none of these things are enforced on the audience. They are all supplementary to the main, free product.  

And Night Vale is not the only one using this model now. This seems to be a trend. Youtubers and Podcasters and perhaps even authors are able to make a lot of supplementary money through not the product itself, but the love of the product.

And it works. Because what’s a better method of advertising than free and high quality? And what is a more fun way to be a fan—what’s a more rewarding way to be a fan—than to help support the creators and get some sweet stuff out of it?

So now, if you see someone walking around Clearwater wearing an odd purple shirt with an eye logo on it: you know why.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

I walk a lot. I walk around Clearwater, up Cleveland Street, through downtown, and around the suburbs. I like walking. But it gets boring. And I can only listen to music for so long before I tire of my playlist.

So, enter podcasts. The strange resurging radio show style audio creation that in the world of streaming and Netflix and Hulu manages to still be a popular form of media with only sound to support it.

And well I could go into all the various reasons you should listen to podcasts, I’d instead thought I’d go into a strange by-product of the podcast world.

And that is sponsorships. Podcasts by themselves do not seem to make money, but with the new rise of companies that want to use many sorts of avenues for advertising: they have a financial life. In fact, these advertising companies may be the reason that this odd surge manages to hold and spread.

Take, for instance, the case of Audible.com. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s an audiobook provider, and if you like podcasts, well, you’ve probably heard of it many times by now.

Because along with Squarespace, a website hosting and design company—and a few others including, oddly enough, a mattress sales website—the podcast advertising market seems flooded with companies successful off of this model.

And like most new odd ways the world has found to pair art with marketing, I am fascinated by this new development. Sponsorships and patrons are now throwing money at the next new wave, and as long as there is an audience, there appears to be a company willing to lend money to its creation.

Between Patreon and Kickstarter making the fans able to make the things they love exist by their own wallets, and company’s willingness to lend support to popular things regardless of how strange it might be: we could be looking at new additions to the usual way we think about the entertainment industry.

And by God, isn’t that just as exciting as a new episode of Alice Isn’t Dead coming out on ITunes? If not more?

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

I’m a big Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland fan. I bought the nice, hardcover copy at Barnes and Noble on Sunset Point, and I quote it whenever I can.

So, as you might expect, I saw the 2010 CGI movie by Tim Burton. And... I liked it well enough. It was interesting to see various aspects of Wonderland (oh, I’m sorry: Underland) in Tim Burton’s usual style.

Over time, though, I forgot about the film. It faded from my mind. Like a lot of middle of the road movies do.

But, six years later, it’s back again. With the title of the second book.

I haven’t seen the new movie, by the way. So I don’t know how accurate it all is.

But I do know that despite all the panning from the critics for the last one, Alice has always been a big draw for people. For some proof of that, simply go to the Hot Topic in Countryside Mall.

And it tells you a lot about the marketing power of this property. It really is a classic, legendary book. And people wanting to make spin-offs is understandable.

In fact, no one ever stopped. Before people were bemoaning the avalanche of remakes and reboots and other “re” words, Alice had as many versions as perhaps even A Christmas Carol.  

It’s just that powerful. And in an uncharacteristic act on my part--I am here to tell you that even if the film isn’t all that good: Alice Through the Looking Glass is not a movie to point at and accuse of being part of the problem.

It’s always being remade. And I look forward to seeing what a new person will do with it once Burton’s done.

Who knows? Maybe Disney will do another live action adaptation of it, this time closer to the book?

I won’t hazard a guess, but whatever comes next will be curiouser and curiouser, and completely mad.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com.

You want to be a superhero. You want to be Iron Man flying through the sky. You want to be Captain America beating up bad guys. You want to manipulate objects with the twist of your hand like Scarlet Witch.

You’ll notice these are not questions. Because it’s true of most people, I think. Those characters are power fantasies. It’s one reason people like superhero movies.

And after watching Captain America: Civil War at Countryside Mall, I thought about something. And that is that some actors really do get to be—in a way--a superhero. Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man. I can’t even consider someone else in the role anymore.

It’s just him. His image is now tied to the marketing machine of Marvel. He has become Iron Man, in our hearts and minds.

Which is fascinating. Sure, other actors are well-known for being one specific role in film history, but this is different.

Once you sign up as a Marvel person - you’re Marvel. For a long time. Claimed by the canon. And with the constant crossovers of actors and storylines like the one in Civil War, you could show up anywhere. You exist in many movies and are expected to stay your character.

Imagine if anyone else was Black Widow but Scarlett Johansson? You’d reject it!

And I wonder if the actors are okay with that? With being part of the marketing for years to come? To only be able to leave the Marvel world by having their characters killed.

And in the world of comics, even sometimes that isn’t enough to leave your story.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com.

Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch fully released yesterday: May 24 (May 23^rd for us living in Clearwater). And though I am writing this article before it went live, I can predict its success. Because when you add up the “numbers” of what they’ve done to ensure popularity—the answer is obvious even in foresight.

Let’s go done the list shall we? Let’s examine the winning strategies employed by this one game company for its newest release.

·         Beta Gameplay

Many ways exist to improve the marketing of a product. But temporarily making it free is an effective one. The Beta released and years’ worth of gameplay time went into it from players already. Not only does this strategy allow for much more in-depth reviews to come out of the critic community before launch, but also for players to form an attachment early and guarantee sales.

·         Promo Videos

On a par with a short film, Blizzard released a slew of shorts with top quality animation. I haven’t watched all of them, but the few I’ve seen have impressive fights and decent stories. These are not merely ads or a marketing creation for the product. They are entertaining pieces of art.

·         Foresight

I covered this in a previous article on the site, but before the game went live, Blizzard announced no cheaters on Overwatch, clearing away a potential problem down the line regarding sales.

·         Good Art Direction

I’m not an animator. But I have listened to enough of them describe the craft to know that when it comes to animated characters one of the most important things is that the characters be visually striking even as a silhouette. It’s one of the reasons the Simpsons family is so recognizable at a glance. And a lot, and I mean a lot of work must have gone into making sure these characters popped to the eye the second you saw them.

And that only covers a fraction of what they did right for the release of this game. I expect it to make money hand over fist. Which, clearly, they earned.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com.