"What content marketing has embraced better than anyone is that the audience doesn't care about the platform, they care about the content," Kevin Spacey said. "We don't care any more that a show is scheduled at 8 o'clock on a Tuesday night. It doesn't matter."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Actor and producer Kevin Spacey, the most highly anticipated speaker at Content Marketing World 2014, owned the Cleveland Convention Center Expo Hall within minutes of stepping to the podium.
"Good afternoon," he said, to a crowd mostly on its feet. "I know what you're all thinking: What the hell am I doing here? What exactly am I doing at a Content Marketing Institute event?" He said he had asked himself the same thing, while munching on the orange candy he had picked out of his orange #CMWorld goody bag before his speech.
"I could give you 45 minutes on the ROI of effective SEO," Spacey joked. "That's right, I know your f-ing terms."
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View full sizeKevin Spacey says he couldn't refuse an invitation from Content Marketing World founder Joe "Itsy Bitsy" Pulizzi to come to Cleveland. But when "Joe 'Itsy Bitsy' Pulizzi" calls to invite you to the largest content marketing gathering on the planet, it's impossible to refuse, he said.
"Joe can sell you on just about anything. 'Hey, Kevin: I have this little event I put on, with orange candy, orange soda, and it's in Cleveland.' I made him sound like Joe Pesci, I'm sorry."
Spacey then did an uncanny impression of William Shatner accepting a similar invitation to last year's Content Marketing World.
"And we're not the only ones coming to Cleveland," he said. LeBron James has returned to the Cavaliers, Johnny Manziel is now playing for the Browns, and the Republican National Convention is coming in 2016, he said. "So clearly, Cleveland is the hottest place in the United States."
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View full sizeKevin Spacey pauses during the CMWorld Q&A to oblige a fan who asked for an on-stage selfie. Spacey went on to drop F-bombs throughout his remarks, much to the delight of a largely appreciative audience. One woman waited at one of the microphones to ask a question, only to confess: "I just wanted to ask if I could have my picture taken with you." (Spacey obliged.)
From Homer's "Odyssey" to McDonald's Ronald McDonald to "The Sopranos", "it has always been about the story," Spacey said. "The story is everything, which means it's our jobs to tell better stories."
When aspiring to do so, he said the top things to keep in mind are: conflict, authenticity, and audience. "Begin very simply, and then start building those blocks to tell that story," he said.
"Conflict creates tension and keeps people engaged in your story. The best stories are filled with characters who take risks," he said. "It might come from the career choices you make which run counter to what others thought you were capable of."
In 1999, during a trip to London to promote the film "American Beauty," Spacey said, "I was looking for something that would challenge me in a new and different way." He decided to move to London and start a theater company at The Old Vic Theatre. People thought he was nuts, yet Spacey did it anyway. He starts his 11th season there as artistic director in a few weeks.
"A lot of people in my business would've been perfectly happy" savoring the success they had already achieved. "But making this decision to do it was the most fulfilling decision of my life." He added, "Our stories become far more interesting when they go against the settled order of things."
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View full sizeKevin Spacey: "I think it's absolutely essential to keep in mind 'what is it that makes something feel absolutely genuine' to an audience." Good stories require authenticity, Spacey said. In a world increasingly made up of spin, "I think it's absolutely essential to keep in mind 'what is it that makes something feel absolutely genuine' to an audience," he said. "We turn off when something doesn't feel authentic."
He quoted his "House of Cards" character Frank Underwood: "There's no better way to overpower a trickle of doubt than with a flood of naked truth."
Spacey cited Volkswagen's 1960 decision to hire the Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency to launch the VW Beetle in the United States. Americans were then driving big, American-made cars -- not cars from German factories built by the Nazis. So how did the agency do it? With cheeky ads that said: "You think I'm small? You bet I'm small. I'm also cheaper, more economical, and can fit into the smallest parking spaces," Spacey said. He said Apple and Patagonia take a similarly authentic approach to their marketing messages.
He said television's decision to embrace reality has enabled the creation of hit shows like "The Sopranos,' 'Weed,' 'Homeland,' 'Six Feet Under,' 'Dexter,' 'Oz,' 'Mad Men,' 'Game of Thrones,' and 'House of Blues'" -- shows that would not have been possible 15 years ago, when networks believed characters had to be good and wholesome and perfect. "I think audiences have shown they want complexity."
Spacey said the current crop of shows marks a third golden age of programming, "because the creatives have more control over their story than ever before."
The role of Underwood in "House of Cards," swimming against the stream in a U.S. Congress "dominated by a self-centered, ethically questionable group of politicians," was so appealing and so well-written that Spacey said it was the first leading television role he had accepted in years.
When Spacey's team pitched it to the networks, "every single network except one -- Netflix -- demanded that we shoot a pilot," he said. But they didn't want to, because a pilot would have to establish all the characters and storylines in about 45 minutes. "Netflix was the only network that said: 'We've run our analytics. How many [episodes] do you want to shoot?' We said, 'Two seasons?' and they said, 'Go for it.'"
"Can you imagine what we would've gotten from a network that didn't support us?" Spacey asked. "We were not forced to compromise or water that story down. That first scene [of Underwood strangling a dog with his bare hands] set the tone for the rest of the story. Netflix embraced targeted marketing and brand rather than ratings."
The lesson for those at CMWorld? "Stay true to your brand voice, and the audience will respond to it with enthusiasm and passion," Spacey said.
When asked by one CMWorld attendee, "How do you create the characters you create?" Spacey answered: "I don't. The writers create the story. I'm only the interpreter. Keep that in mind: You're only as good as the material you have."
The third part of the equation is audience, Spacey said. "What is a film that's shown to an empty room? Give them content worth sharing, as BuzzFeed has done with success." Amazon just spent $1 billion to buy Twitch, a website where people pay to watch other people playing video games, Spacey said. "This is a thing."
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View full sizeThe crowd at Content Marketing World gave Kevin Spacey standing ovations before and after his talk."What content marketing has embraced better than anyone is that the audience doesn't care about the platform, they care about the content," he said. "We don't care any more that a show is scheduled at 8 o'clock on a Tuesday night. It doesn't matter.
"The audience wants control. They want the freedom to binge [on what they want to watch]. How many bingers do we have here?" he asked, as the audience applauded. "Give people what they want, when they want it, at a reasonable price, and the chances are they won't steal it," he said. Otherwise, it becomes like "Game of Thrones," which he called "the No. 1 pirated show in the history of the medium."
The content can be as simple as a dumping a bucket of ice water over yourself to raise money for ALS research. "You don't have to skydive out of a balloon in the stratosphere to get somebody's attention," he said. "Anyone with an Internet connection and an idea can develop an audience."
He praised the Internet's "democratization" for flipping the conventional formula on its head. "It's no longer about who you know or how much you can afford, but what you can do, which means the talent is rising to the top," he said. "Nike's new slogan should be 'Just F--ing Do It.'"
"For someone with more than 30 years in the business, there has never been a better moment for folks like us," Spacey said. "The audience has spoken. They want stories. They're dying for stories." And if you give them what they want, Spacey said, they will talk about it, carry it around with them, share it, "and enjoy it with a passion and an intensity that blockbusters can only dream about."
"A computer can make the same sounds that Eric Clapton makes with his guitar, but it's not the same as when Eric Clapton does it," Spacey said.