Tuesday Buzz: Lessons From Amazon’s Rose Parade Parody

Every January 1, tons of people look forward to watching the Rose Parade  (opens in a new tab) in Pasadena, California. Parade broadcast coverage hasn’t changed much over time, but this year Amazon decided to shake things up a bit, which got them into trouble with some viewers.

Amazon livestreamed a spoof of traditional Rose Parade coverage starring Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon as bumbling, oversharing television anchors. The footage was hilarious, but some viewers didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to be a joke, reports CinemaBlend  (opens in a new tab). Amazon announced the special back in November.

The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish was hit with a flurry of one-star reviews from confused and uninformed viewers. “We haven’t been able to listen to a single marching band because Dumb and Dumber talk right through it,” complained one reviewer  (opens in a new tab). “Then we had to listen to his tale of depression in 2007 while eating raw salmon, because they supposedly didn’t know their mikes were hot.”

While a satirical or humorous take on a classic tradition is a great way to entertain people at an event—whether livestreamed or face to face—make sure to avoid frustrated and annoyed viewers and attendees by properly communicating to your audience that you’re just having a little fun.

New Year Reflections

Where did your #association  (opens in a new tab) rock this year? What is in store for the year ahead? This is the moment to share with your members: https://t.co/36ABKkCSZw  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab)

— Lowell Aplebaum, FASAE, CAE (@Lowellmatthew) January 2, 2018  (opens in a new tab)

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on the past and align association goals for the year ahead.

Lowell Aplebaum, CEO of Vista Cova, shares helpful guidance for communicating with members at the start of the year, in a post on LinkedIn  (opens in a new tab). “Even if your organization is producing the right content solutions for the right industry problems, it can still get lost in the noise,” he writes.

To break through the noise, he suggests curating and repurposing content you created in 2017. Consider creating some “best of” posts, he says. You can round up the top-performing articles on social media or write up a blog post about your most popular sessions from 2017 and link to accompanying resources online.

Other Links of Note

Is Pinterest ready to shake up its revenue model? NewCo Shift spoke with Pinterest CEO and cofounder Ben Silbermann about the future of the platform  (opens in a new tab).

People make a lot of effort to attend your meetings. The Event Manager Blog shares several ways to keep attendees comfortable  (opens in a new tab).

Ditch those tired marketing tricks. The Wired Impact blog details the marketing nonsense you should drop right away  (opens in a new tab).

Satirical Rose Parade announcers Cord (Will Ferrell) and Tish (Molly Shannon). (via Amazon)