The Godfather is on AMC... I own the DVD collection, why must I watch this whenever this is on? As soon as I'm out, they pull me back in!
Great question. We've all been there. I can name a dozen films that fit into this category, including Dodgeball, Wedding Crashers, or any Godfather or Rocky movie. I have them all on DVD, but I too will get sucked into the TV broadcast.
But why? Clearly it's not a better viewing experience. There are commercials. The good scenes and bad language are edited out. The sound and audio quality are much less than on DVD.
I guess one explanation is laziness. We don't want to get up and put the DVD in the player when it's on TV. But I truly believe there is a much better explanation, and it's about connection.
When we come across "The Godfather" on TV, we want to tell our friends, like Marc did. We know there could be thousands or maybe millions of other people watching. Maybe someone will mention it the next day at work? There is some possible connection being made that doesn't exist when we're experiencing an event in a vacuum. It's the same with a song on the radio. It's why Blip.fm is becoming so popular, despite the fact that it can be pretty tedious to find a song. People want to connect, interact and share experiences.
This is why social media is such an important part of our business today. Consumers want this connection, and it's not just personal anymore. Real estate agents, are you on Facebook? Are you interacting, and not just listing? Loan officers, are you on Twitter? Are you quoting rates so your legions of followers know - at any given point in the day - what your current rates are? If you're not, you should know that your competitors are.
Your marketing needs to be the TV show that everyone's watching, not the DVD.
