7 business lessons from The Wiggles, whom I hate—Part 3
Welcome, and thanks for stopping by! Subscribe to my RSS feed so you don't miss a single exciting post (or any of my regular ones). Thanks for visiting!
Welcome, members of the AB Blog Pack!
Glad you’ve dropped by. I hope you like what you see. Comment, stumble, and digg to your heart’s content!
If you really like what you find, please consider subscribing. Enjoy!
This is the third and last part in a three part series on The Wiggles, why they’re so successful, and why I hate them. Part 1 went up Tuesday, and part 2 went up yesterday.
Today I discuss the last two reasons The Wiggles have been so successful. I’ll also share my idea for making them a lot more fun for me to watch, even though there is zero chance this idea will be made real.
Reasons 6 and 7 why The Wiggles are so successful.
6) They repurpose.
The Wiggles do not create a new show’s worth of material every time they create a new show. They use cartoons produced for international versions of their shows to add a bit of foreign culture to the program. Then they’ll turn around and say, “Let’s visit a concert!” and POOF! A clip from a Wiggles concert. A two minute cartoon from the Japanese Wiggles, a 3 minute performance from a concert and, just like that, they’ve covered 25% of the air time for the show.
Save time and effort if you have resources you can reuse.
7) The Big Lesson: Work smarter, not harder.
If you look back over the lessons I’ve discerned from my subjection exposure to The Wiggles, you might notice a trend. All the items suggest they’ve made every effort to take the pressure off themselves while making sure everything gets covered. They don’t try to do be the whole act. They don’t try to manage all their business affairs. They don’t try to create a whole show from scratch every week. They don’t even really innovate all that much. Instead, they deliver what they know the kids want, they make good use of what resources they have, be it archival material or talented people, and they delegate what they can to competent helpers.
I’m not saying being a Wiggle is easy. (Try typing that while keeping a straight face!) But to make it more manageable, those four guys have clearly worked hard to create a system that allows being a Wiggle to be manageable and still allow for crazy amounts of growth and success.
Work smarter, not harder.
At last: How to make The Wiggles more watchable
Note: This idea is strictly for making the show more watchable for me, and as soon as you read it, you’ll understand immediately why it can never happen. Here it is:
They need to kill Murray. Every week.
It’s obvious, right? Just look at his shirt! Plus, if they do it every week, it’ll fit in nicely with the need to be consistent.
But, of course, it will traumatize their target audience: young children. So I don’t see this one happening any time soon.
Well, that’s it for The Wiggles, and not a moment too soon. I hope this series has been enjoyable and has given you something to think about. I’d love to know your thoughts, so please leave a comment if you’re so inclined! And make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss Casual Friday!
At first I thought it was a South Park reference. Then you said, “look at his shirt.” I am trying so hard to not bust out laughing that my sides hurt.
Now I’m picturing a South Park Halloween episode where they dress up as Star Trek characters. And of course Stan would see it coming from the first minute of the show, and spen the whol episode waiting for it.
—
On a more serious note, you missed out on one lesson: Swallow your pride. I know that what they’re doing works very well. I know that children love it. But I couldn’t act that way. I’d feel “fake”.
This goes beyond ignoring what people outside your target market like. You have to ignore what you like. If you want to kill them after listening to their DVD for a couple of hours, imagine if that were your job.
–
You make a great point about swallowing your pride. I imagine the multimillion dollar paychecks each year make that a lot easier now, but when they were first starting out it had to be tough.
This also seems to be advice that all the car dealers in town follow–at least the ones who advertise on TV.
–
Thanks for commenting!
Good catch, I was going to mention sales. The unease I’d feel trying to act like the Wiggles is the same feeling I get trying to do sales. I can’t bring myself to do the thing that I know will work.
PS: Check the taborder on your reply form. The email field comes up after the submit button.