Meat dresses and the future of media

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga may well make a box of frogs look sane (and have spawned some of the worst drag acts the world has ever seen), but she clearly knows her social media onions.

Tweets like ‘I am so excited for Hedi Slimane’s Paris show for YSL!!!! This is what its all about children. grab your popcorn. or your fucking baguette’ (punctuation model’s own) aren’t my cup of tea, but 29 million followers ain’t to be sniffed at.

Whilst the meat-dressed lunatic is busy keeping the massed hordes sated with her bread-based commentary, however, somewhere on a social network far, far, away she’s doing something far more interesting.

Little Monsters

Little Monsters is LGG’s very own social network. A space where committed fans can talk about…well, whatever they like, brought together by their shared love of her Ladyship.

A place where the Lady herself drops in to spread rumours and chat.

Where she makes her best fans famous via outbound email.

Where she can collect shed-loads of data, and use it to sell pretty hard (concert tickets right now, music directly in the future). Check it out here.

So why so interesting for us?

One of the problems with the standard paid/owned/earned model of digital media is that you spend lots of time using the first two to generate interest expressed in the third where you have no real voice, or control, or ability to capture data. Or sell. Boo.

That’s why this kind of collaborative media space – combining the officialdom of owned media with the reach and authenticity of earned – seems an interesting way to own more of the conversation and the data that goes with it.

It’s not just Gaga who’s at it – gaming companies do this brilliantly. But perhaps it’s time this model broke out of that particular ghetto and was embraced more widely?