Seat at the Table

An ongoing challenge faced by high-tech marketing and public relations is how to explain technology in simply consumer terms.  ZDNet’s David Berlind does a great job here in explaining a difficult technology any consumer of MP3 players should know about – DRM, which stands for Digital Rights Management (it’s what prevents you from giving away digital songs you buy).  DRM is something that journalists and consumer advocates have been fighting for some time as it prevents true ownership of copyright material.   I don’t think any explanations really get through as they are a bit techie..which translates to boring to the consumer. 

But take a look at this video or transcript.   David invents a new acronym that stands for Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection – that’s right, CRAP.  David’s video explains CRAP in a great, animated fashion so that even a layperson would enjoy it (if they watched ZDNet videos – doubtful).   However, just as important is that the acronym itself sends a message – any product that uses CRAP (or DRM) should be considered crap by the consumer.

While most technology marketing and public relations programs can’t go this far in messaging, they can take a lesson in the effectiveness of explaining technology in simple, plain and even entertaining plain english.  Otherwise, their advertising and pr messages are likely to be tossed into the crap message bin.

P.S., Note to all of ZDNet videos.  Inject a bit of humor and plain (and, yes, sometimes a bit crude) english and I’ll bet viewership goes up.