The role of "tactical innovation" in Web series marketing.

In a recent interview Erica Chenoweth, the co-author of " Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict " talked about why non-violent noncooperation and civil disobedience are significantly more successful than violence. One of the keys is what is referred to as "tactical innovation" and while the topic in general is quite different the concept fits nicely within a discussion of Web series marketing.

According to Erica, one of the reasons that the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 "failed" to meet their strategic objective (according to their rather strict criteria of success) while more recent uprisings have been effective is the extent to which they applied "tactical innovation. In the former case a single predictable tactic was used repeatedly leaving it vulnerable while more recently a myriad of tactical innovations have been applied to achieving the goals of the protesters.

Applying this same logic to Web series what we see all too often are Web series simply applying the tactics that have been successful in the past. That is not to say a series should not do those things, but using the logic presented above those tactics alone may not lead to a successful outcome. What may be needed in your marketing plan is tactical innovation. To put it in terms of the old Apple marketing slogan a Web series needs to not only "think different" in terms of its content but also in how it is marketed. The degree to which a series is able to innovate in its use of social media platforms, interactivity, mobile and the many other "technologies" that have become available the more likely it is to succeed. In other words once you have completed your market research of what has worked for other shows, sit down an spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to be innovative in your marketing approach.