Finally, the industry has decided to move in the right direction. With an incredible number of illegal movies downloaded from the web, one shall be worry to see the movie industry going into the same direction as the music industry. IFPI estimates the trade of pirate discs was worth US$4.5 billion globally in 2005. At the same time, almost 20 billion tracks were illegally swapped or downloaded on the Internet in 2005.

For almost 10 years, the music industry rejected digital format totally and continued to sell CD and cassettes tapes. The music business completely disregards the digital revolution and the potential damages to its industry.

The results: CD sales continue to decline throughout the last decade. The CD, which in 2006 accounted for over 80% of total global sales, is rapidly fading away. In America, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the volume of physical albums sold dropped by 19% in 2007 from the year before—faster than anyone had expected. For the first half of 2007, sales of music on CD and other physical formats fell by 6% in Britain, by 9% in Japan, France and Spain, by 12% in Italy, 14% in Australia and 21% in Canada.

On the other hand, share of digital format increases steadily, placing Apple / iTunes as one of the top music reseller in USA. Paid digital downloads grew rapidly, but did not begin to make up for the loss of revenue from CDs. (read here)

The movie industry had even harder to resist, facing similar challenge where people copy movies and watch them on their portable player or laptops. The threat is even bigger since people usually consume movie the same as consuming food: you watch it once and you do not watch it again. The temptation to just download movie and not pay for a hard copy is high. Rare are the ones (I still belong to them) who want to enjoy the physical copy of the disc and still buy DVD and now, Blu-Ray.

The proposed solution that is coming from studios like FOX, called digitalcopy.

The idea: include a digital format with the hard copy. (GREAT! This is exactly what I would need as a consumer.)

How does it work ? The DVD or Blu Ray disc you buy is provided with another CD that contain the dedicated digital format. You insert your CD in your computer, enter the provided code and you are ready to transfer the movie into your preferred iPod or Laptop. I did not check yet which format was provided but at least the iPod is supported.

Consumers are not buying a format; they are buying a movie. Therefore, they should not be forced to follow technology in a world where it is so easy to copy and get hold on illegal movies. The solution is promising and I wish it could be extended to other studios and their entire catalog.

So far, only a small number of movies benefit from this concept but as consumers, we shall support it. New titles are regularly proposed from the Amazon.com website. Recent titles includes The Dark Knight and Wall.E

Guys, well done, continue on the same direction. This is a great initiative that deserves praise.

Have you ever calculated in how many ways you can watch a single movie?

First and foremost – you can watch it on the television. You can then record it to your VCR (if you still have one) or even download it to your computer.

It is then followed by the VCD or DVD or Blu Ray / HD-DVD disc. They all use a digital recording technology, use the same format (a disc) but the quality varies a lot between each format. VCD is mainly still used in Asia; DVD is the new standard while HDDVD and BRD are still fighting to take the lead on the high definition market.

This market does not take off because consumers are lost between those two formats and do not want to make the wrong decision. No decision being better than wrong decision, thus the sales do not increase. The second reason is the extreme complexity of this technology for the mass market which is lost between Full HD, HD, HD Ready, 1080p, 720p, 1080i etc. In addition to that, there are very few channels broadcasting in High Definition at this moment. Last but not least, the quality is not as good as it is supposed to be.

Anyway, let’s go back to my point. We have already evaluated how you could watch a movie using traditional methods. If you add the new technologies and new format, this is becoming ridiculous. Do you want to watch it on your iPod, on your UMD with PSP, on your Mac, on your PC, on your Archos; is it MP4, WMV, high definition or not, do you want to carry a portable DVD player? STOP IT!

There are a lot of advertisements to promote the legal download of movies. YES, but if people download movies illegally it is because it is easier for them.

If you are a good sheep, and buy your movies, then this is becoming a joke. You want to watch High Definition, you buy HD DVD or Blu Ray. You want to watch on a portable DVD player or at home movies that do not exist on High Definition, you have to get it on DVD.

If now, you want to watch it on your iPod and if you want to be legal, you have to get another version.

So what is the solution?

Mister Media companies, ONCE for ALL and ONE for ALL, this is the solution.

Consumers who are buying or renting movies are not interested in the technology. They want to watch a movie. So make sure when a new movie is released, all previous formats are included inside.

HD DVD is including a DVD version, this is a good start. But what about the MP4 or WMV files? Why should I buy a movie on High Definition, another version on UMD for the PSP or a digital file for my iPod?

Please, make sure you include the standard version with the High Definition as well with the digital versions. Consumers will be happier, will buy more DVDs and will get movies through illegal means lesser.

Do not repeat the failure of the Mini-Disc: listen to your target audience and their needs.

Think I have been on the subject of Apple and its products abit too much lately. I could not help it. Anyways, let us move over to yet another interesting subject: Die Hard 4.0 and Transformers. There has been so much hype and publicity around both these movies.
I am not referring to the movie, storyline, cast, etc. Feel free to find out more about that from IMDb (Transformers | Die Hard 4.0) . You can even read on an interesting comparison between the two movies here.

I am more interested in exploring the spirit of the movie from both a consumer and marketing point of view.

Die Hard still rides on its old age successful formula, a very traditional ‘good guy saves the day’ approach. It very likely that the director, Wiseman or even Bruce will tell you that they wanted to capitalize on past success while injecting more zest in the form of action and humor. But you know, it doesn’t impress the consumer anymore. We have been flooded with so many action movies since Die Hard 1 that it will take a lot more to get us to the edge of our seat!

Transformers, on the other hand, got it right. Not only were the action scenes unique, you can literally feel the ‘physics’ involved in those incredible action scenes. I can go on and on about all the aspects they got right, the awesome stunts, the appropriate slow motion sequences, etc. Even the robots were executed to perfection making it seem almost real, that is if you can accept robots being able to be transformed into cars.
Hey! There was even fresh new humor thrown in as opposed to the recycled tacky jokes in Die Hard 4.0.

Launching a campaign or a product is the same. There is a common saying, “Do what you used to do and you only get what you used to get”. At most, you take the risk element out. The best recipe for success is ‘change, adapt and be reactive and innovative”. This applies in movies as well. This is probably why Transformers will shoot through the global box offices.