Resurrection through Crucifixion: Michal Szpak. Nonfiction

June 11, 2016, 5:30 p.m. Cieszyn, Poland. Despite the weekend the central square is still half-empty (Fig. 1). However, by 6 p.m. (by half an hour before the announced concert) the square quickly has filled with people, and not only with citizens. All of them came for the concert of just one artist. Scarcely he had finished his performance, the square became empty again, because the audience was going away, freeing up space in front of the stage without waiting for other artists who had been announced in the program.

Fig. 1. Cieszyn, Poland. June 11, 2016 [1; 17].

Who were all these people who had gathered in Cieszyn for only one artist, whose performance would last just over an hour? The spectators couldn’t be named by only one unique single term: for example, “fans of pop or rock music”; “an adult audience”, “hipsters” or “children”, “bystanders”, "mostly female audience" or "mostly male audience", “citizens” or anybody else to describe the artist’s audience of fans from the marketing point of view. But look into the audience. Do you see over there in the distance the little boy who is sitting on his father’s shoulders? And do you see on the right front of the stage an elderly gray-haired man, who is leaning on the fence? Or do you see near him in front of this fence in a wheelchair the girl, who was brought to the concert by her mother?...

Probably the most correct name of this diverse segment of fans is just "people". A similar target audience is difficult to classify only by the traditional segmentation criteria such as gender, age, economic status, occupation, musical preferences etc. In such situations the marketers begin to use subtle and sensitive psychological segmentation criteria only after a very profound study of features of the audience. The "people" segment was surrounded by not big crowd of people, which just relaxed in special tents with tables scattered around the square perimeter. And when you look at this picture from the outside, for sure, it would be still too difficult for you to see in these photos the unique brand-management tools for scaling by other brands in the future, which are especially from sectors not related with show-business.

But this concert had one secret. It was invisible. In the distant opposite corner of the square in front of the stage there was a tower, and on the top of it there was a web-camera (by the way, photos of the square were made with this web-camera). Thanks to this camera, as well as thanks to VK-group (about the musician’s art) [1], which had found a link to the broadcast by this camera, at the same time with people on the square in real time the difficult for counting number of representatives of the internet-community from all over the world was watching the concert... But the most remarkable in this concert was a fact (just imagine!!!) that web-"viewers" were watching this live concert! Without sound!.. They were just watching...

Of course, we could argue that web-fans just wanted to see the artist, but such a claim would be too superficial, primarily because the distance from the webcam to the scene was dramatically far to see even his silhouette. What made the online community together with a segment of "people" virtually be present at this concert? Today such involvement of the target audience is phenomenal in any branding. So I’ll focus on this fact in details from the marketing point of view.

Fig. 2. Concert in the іnformation society ([2]).

In modern high-tech information society it is difficult for me as a marketer to tell a name of the other show-business star, the target audience of which will even watch online live concert far from the HD-quality state and without sound... As a last resort - they will wait for the appearance of the concert records (Fig. 2.) in the web, which can be seen later when it will be convenient for them.

The consumer information society, which has been formed by marketers and high technologies, becomes too sophisticated, and consumer behavior has become extremely consuming and functional-oriented. It applies not only to physical goods, but it scales in the markets which sell emotion too: "If the consumer comes to the concert of an artist, it means that the artist is obligated to entertain him, because the consumer has paid for this."

For example, even the only one concert of Madonna in Kiev in 2012 was marked by a wave of negative emotions from her own fans. One of the main reasons of it was too long expectation of the singer by the public. Although such kind of delay - is well-known and considered to be quite effective psychological tool (which has already become a traditional marketing tool) of the creation of an artificial "product" deficit. Previously, such kind of tools has provoked even bigger needs of this product among the target audience. However, as we can see, this traditional marketing tool has already exhausted itself rapidly as well as most of the other traditional tools of marketing and brand management [3].

On that day, Michal Szpak appeared on the stage of Cieszyn.

Video 3. Michal Szpak's performance in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest ([11]).

Fig. 4. Michal Szpak’s accounts in the social medias [12; 13 – July, 2016].

In the information society popularity of the stars of show-business begins to yield to popularity of Internet bloggers that are much closer to their target audience through the network, in contrast to the traditionally deficit stars of show-business (for example, in 2014 the game video-blogger PewDiePie bypassed stars such as Paul Walker and Katy Perry by his rating of the popularity among American teenagers [4]). So basing on this example, it can be concluded that for the marks which claims to be the brands in the information society in the future, it’s necessary information and communicative technologies must be extensively used. In particular it can be realized through creating public and regularly updated corporate accounts in all social medias.

However, it is not enough for building a strong brand, primarily, because the mechanical side of this tool can be cloned by competitors easily. This trend has already started scaling, and many brands begin to promote their accounts slowly in social networks by supporting the regular contact with their target audience. Today also many stars of the show-business have larger numbers of subscribers, but their concerts are not watched by audience without sound in real time... Then what is the secret?

High technologies today are diffusing into branding. But the technology by itself is deadly and it isn’t safe, because the high intelligence without morality is transforming into a race car without brakes. I’d like to paraphrase a famous aircrafter: we can not overtake the technology that is already ahead us, but we can move from the opposite direction to it for meeting. Therefore, the incoming process should take place – it is the diffusion of the brand ideology into technologies. Real brand power ("brand equity") is something intangible that competitors can not replicate.

Therefore, through analyzing of different brands it can be seen that the successful brand often has a concrete person behind it – it must be a strong Person, with the exclusive look, the soul and the very individual and unique history. After all, the strong Person is almost impossible to be cloned, such as it could be possible to do with his/her physical or virtual visualization. For example, the visualization can be copied, improved and even we can make it perfect. But if there isn't the strong history behind the visualization, the visualization as the marketing tool will lose its efficiency. All people, who were on the Cieszyn square during Michal Szpak performance in real time (physically or virtually by online, with the sound or without it), through his personal social media accounts or due his fan-societies in different countries had known his history.

Video 5. Michal Szpak, Cieszynie, Poland 11.06.2016 ([17]).

Many scientists recently began actively discussing an innovative hypothesis that the fundamental concepts of "time" and "space", in fact, do not exist [3]. But in practice, the Internet, as a global communication tool, has already destroyed them. If there is the information about a particular brand in the Internet, so it can easily move in space (the information is available from anywhere in the world) and in time (publications, which have been made in the past, are available now and will be available in the future). In addition, the network has almost destroyed any language barriers. Therefore a trademark that builds its information presence in the Internet has the potential of explosively and instantly transforming to the global sized brand.

This feature of the information society recalls and “resurrects” the past. It gives the second chance to any activities that has been carried out in the past, to become effective in a different scale. Therefore, if the activities of the brand in the past haven't brought it the commercial success in that particular historical period, it does not mean that this activity hasn’t been effective. "Man does not live by bread alone!" There are many reasons for this: maybe there was not an appropriate time, maybe a particular market was not ready to respond economically or maybe it just was not the target geographic market or actually it was not the target audience.

Audio 6. Michal Szpak, titular single "Po niebo"/"To the sky", album "XI" (2011).

Video 7. The clip of the animated film "The Ugly Duckling" (2010), directed by Garri Bardin.

The new target audience, which has been attracted by the Internet, regardless of their geographical location and linguistic features, today can quickly refer to the full scope of available online information about the brand from its past, present and future times. It means that the attitude of the audience to the brand will also be formed fast, explosion-like and with very concentrated. And it’ll be exactly the same attitude for building and scaling for which the global brands have expended time in years, and sometimes in decades traditionally. We should realize it as soon as possible;)

But there is the only one condition. The explosively transformation of the simple trademark into the real brand will be possible only after testing by time. The time tests the ability of the brand to overcome different periods - good and bad (and the last is even more important) - and still be able to survive and stay in the market. It’s the Resurrection through the Crucifixion. And it was not invented by us. But the history that becomes the main informational message to the future (which is able to touch hearts of the target audience, and therefore - to immediate scale) can’t be intentionally thought up. It should be lived through, accumulating it during the time and making it known.

Fan-Video 8. "The last bend", Michal Szpak / Michał Szpak - Ostatni Zakręt [18; 24]).

In the most ancient fairytales the main character turned into a real hero only after he had passed all the tests, such as: fire, water and copper trumpets. The hero’s sustainable fortitude to these tests always inspires the readers to respect him as a minimum. Because although time has tested the brand on its flexibility to the changing marketing environment factors, but it doesn’t break the real brand and doesn’t change it internally under this influence.

Video 9. Michal Szpak during the casting to the polish “X-Factor” contest, 2011 ([1; 14]).

In a figurative sense this process can be compared with the grass. When the grass is flexible and green, even if the heavy boots will have gone on the grass, it will not be able to destroy it. The grass will have just bended down at the first moment, but after some time it will be straightened again, because it will not have been broken. as it could happened, if the grass had been dried (Note: it’s possible if the trademark would continue to use the traditional tools of brand-management, which had already become obsolete).. The verification of the brand by time becomes a guarantee for its target audience, and therefore it shows the confidence of it in the future.

Video 10. Ave Maria. Michal Szpak [24].

Although the epatage style of the visualization of the public image of course is very important for the brands often, particularly during the first mile of their building. It becomes a marketing tool for sending the brand information message to be visible for the target audience and at the end of all – to be heard by it. However, in order to building brands even epatage (in its traditional sense) has already become outdated and has lost its effectiveness in the brand-management due to this tool mass scaling at this stage of development of the information society. The epatage has become the culture, and the culture (in its classical sense), on the contrary, has become the epatage.

In this regard, in the brand-management nostalgia becomes an effective alternative of the epatage [6]. It is subjected to music too, where the nostalgic approach has been named the “shazam-effect”. The shazam-effect is meant the tendency of outputting music performed in musical styles, which have been popular in the past to the tops songs. Due to the tool for identifying unfamiliar songs Shazam and the Chart of the Billboard magazine, which has been based on listening and on the Internet downloads of tracks, it has transpired that the music (which today's users like) does not always coincide with the music, which has been selected by labels [7]. According to the Spanish National Research Council, the song style, familiar to the brain, is more easily for perception and it ensures the popularity for the song. It is not unreasonable and innovative trend of the information society, which is known and used as a competitive advantage by very few specialists; in particular, this trend is not still fully understood even for customer-oriented marketing specialists.

In the information society it is much more important for the future brands to become native to their target audience, rather than to strive shocking it by something or to surprise it (although the result will be rather just a surprise, but it should not be the goal of the marketing campaign). In the conditions of the “regimes with peaking”, when there are reducing processes of entry and exit of brands from the market [3], the well-tried remedy to achieve this should be the resurrection of universal human values again [6; 8]. This can be explained by the fact that the universal human values have been repeatedly passing tests by time. It would be comparable with the history of humanity, where other tools have failed such tests. These values had always been a reference point in the chaos, and therefore humanity got back to them again and again. This is a fundamentally new approach to building a brand, but it has already appeared in the show-business (by Michal Szpak's appearance).

Video 11. Michał Szpak, "Byle Być Sobą", Buczek, 2016([1; Channel: Motion Media]).

I would like to repost one "receipt", which I have already once shared with the graduates of my University and it has been addressed to new Marketing Specialists. What will happen if we put on fire three identical and transparent pots with water, through a potato into the first pot, put a raw egg into another and place coffee beans to the third? Brew for 60 minutes. The egg and the potato will be cooked, and the coffee beans will be dissolved in the water. But this will be a very superficial explanation for what has happened.

After the solid potato will have been in boiling water, it will become soft and sodden. The fragile and liquid egg will become hard after it has been cooked "hard-boiled". They will not almost change externally. But they will change their structures under the influence of the factors of the equal marketing environment like in boiling water. In the same way people, whose are strong in their appearance will be pasted up and become weak, where other people, which are malleable and tender, will just become rigid and harden.

But what happens to the coffee? The coffee beans are dissolved in the new environment and change it, turning water into a wonderful aromatic beverage. There are distinctive people and brands that do not change due to external circumstances because of they have a unique internal content. Therefore they are able to change these circumstances and turn them into something new and wonderful.

Video 12. "Coffee" means to be like this!.. Michał Szpak Toruń 20.06.2016 ([17]).

On the way of brand building, marketers should communicate with their target audience using different images (the "clip thinking" of the information society forces brands to do this), which may not always directly characterize their souls or reflect them. But these images should be understandable for their target audience. Brands do this to effect some changes and achieve some their goals. The images will gradually disappear and be forgotten, but the message essence, which they have been preparing, will stay in people's minds. That’s why the format of achieving the goal can be anything, even by using striking, shocking or unconventional elements on the "fine line” (of epatage)…

Video 13. The clip of the film “Angel-A” (2005), directed by Luc Besson (with English subtitle).

In information society to be a brand means not only having the global awareness, the fame, the highly efficient commercialization, but also having the great social responsibility, which scales a trend after the brand scaling. It will be difficult for the brand to balance on such “fine lines”, because the right to make even the slightest marketing mistake disappears: that can turn into the social "butterfly effect".

However, if the brand’s ideology is based on the human values and high morality, even in the global chaos the high values are becoming those internal and natural limitations that will prevent a large-scale social disaster. That is why the brands, that have such values, just need to uplift slowly to their level their target audience!

Fans-Video 14. Poland, Świnoujścia, Michal Szpak, Color of your life, 16.07.2016 ([1]).

P.S. After Michal’s success in the Polish X Factor contest in 2011, the audience asked for a rapid release of a new album [9]. However, the album's release was delayed because of the producers’ negative response, who had not accepted the content of Michal’s new songs then: they had expected “something more modern" [9; 10]. They were not able to see in this music the futurological forecast for the arising of the «shazam»-nostalgia in listeners’ minds...

Michal broke up with his producers. And in 2015 after some difficult years of his silence (only he knew, how difficult this period had been for him in the psychological, creative and deeply personal senses) he accumulated a lot of power and returned to the stage with a new professional Team! To the worldwide stage!

2016. High results of Michal Szpak’s performance at the Eurovision and global scale of his popularity, a double victory in a prestigious National Festival of Polish Song in Opole (at the SuperJedynki and the Grand Prix Winner at the Złote Opole), the title of the "Artist of the Year", a double platinum single «Color Of Your Life», platinum single and at last a platinum album «Byle Być Sobą», which became the best-selling albums in Poland, the highest ratings of popularity and the commercialization, and many, many other titles and victories…(this long list of Michal’s victories is updating daily now! For example, "Best Live Vocals" and "Best Dressed" at Eurovision 2016 as part of Wiwibloggs annual Vision Music Awards). Current schedule of performances and interviews of Michal Szpak has almost no days off and sometimes includes two or even three concerts for day; there are a lot of people who await him in every town in Poland and abroad. The tour to other countries is already planned [16]. But many foreign fans from abroad come to his concerts to Poland before-the-fact of Michal’s concerts in their native countries.

In addition to his traditional scene a fundamentally different form - the Virtual Scene (which is the unit of this nonfiction) has been added. «The winner takes it all»! Yes, it is the "copper trumpets"...

Fig. 7. Michal Szpak’s some achievements during two months after the Eurovision Song Contest (before 15.07.2016) ([1; 12; 16]).

Video 15. The performance of Michal Szpak with his cover version on the song "The winner takes it all" (ABBA) at the concert of Life Festival Oświęcim 2016. A few days after his winning at the Festival Opole 2016 [1]. (This song has the overtones as if words were addressed not to the certain person but to some people. But this is only my own subjective opinion...)

But the "copper trumpets" are the most cruel test, which is sent to a Real Hero (the brand) who has already passed "fire" and "water" in fairytales. Success could not be forgiven ... But people’s love to the brand has more power than "people’s laws" have. And do you want to know a forecast by the #Futurolog? Not only Poland which he loves so sincerely. And not only Europe. The whole World will belong to him. The Resurrection through the Crucifixion exists!!!

Video 16. The performance of Michal Szpak “Real Hero” / "Jesteś Bohaterem" (Amfiteatr Świnoujście) ([1]).

References.

I’d like to express infinite personal gratitude to whole global and international Fan Community of Michal Szpak all over the World, to each his Fan-Club in each country, including the special thanks to the charming Fan-Group of the artist in VK;) [1] and individually to each active fan-participant for unique and rare facts, photos, videos, links, lyrics, translations, which are carefully collecting by you, for your posts, comments, your sincerity and for my creative inspiration! You are the best, the best fans in the World!!!:*

1. VK: Michał Szpak /Михал Шпак/ Michal Szpak FanGroup – Режим доступа: https://vk.com/michalszpak.
2. Откровенные карикатуры о том, во что мы превратили наш мир. – Режим доступа : http://newsmir.info.
3. Юдіна Н. В. Управління майбутнім на основі концепції інноваційного розвитку // Антикризове управління економікою України: нові виклики. Матеріали ІІІ Міжнародної науково-практичної конференції (Київ, КНЕУ ім. В.Гетьмана, 15-17 грудня 2015 року). – К., 2015. - С. 124-127. – Режим доступа : http://futurolog.com.ua.
4. Блогеры становятся популярнее звезд шоу-бизнеса. – Режим доступа : vk.com/startup.futurolog.
5. Мы стали богатыми, потому что быстрее других поняли, что начались новые времена. – Режим доступа : www.kommersant.ru.
6. Юдина Н. В. Инструменты продвижения брендов в будущем: эпатаж или классика? / Н. В. Юдина // Бренд-менеджмент. - 2014. - Т.6. - С. 322-331. futurolog.com.ua.
7. Tomson D. The Shazam Effect / Derek Thomson // The Atlantic. – Режим доступа : theatlantic.com.
8. Юдина Н.В. Новое конкурентное преимущество – общечеловеческие ценности / Н. В. Юдина // Бренд-менеджмент. - 2014. - Т. 6. - С. 322-331.
9. Michał Szpak @ Dzień Dobry // Michał Szpak - International Fan Club. - Режим доступа : dailymotion.com.
10. Болезненная пощёчина для Михала Шпака – Режим доступа : vk.com/michalszpak.
11. Live - Michał Szpak - Color Of Your Life (Poland) / Eurovision Song Contest. – Режим доступа : youtube.com.
12. FB: Michał Szpak @Szpakmichal. – Режим доступа : facebook.com/szpakmichal.
13. Instagram: michal_szpakofficial. – Режим доступа : instagram.com.
14. Michał Szpak - rewelacyjne wykonanie utworu "Dziwny jest ten świat" w X-Factor / banzaj.pl. – Режим доступа : video.banzaj.pl.
15. Prusaczyk M. Michał Szpak: “W życiu nie brakuje mi odwagi” / Monika Prusaczyk // PetroNews.Pl. – Режим доступа : petronews.pl.
16. Michał Szpak. Official website. – Режим доступа : michalszpak.pl.
17. Channel : Teresa Tet. – Режим доступу : youtube.com/channel.
18. En.Lyrsense.com : Michał Szpak. - Режим доступа : en.lyrsense.com.
19. Channel: Michal Szpak - International FC. - Режим доступа : youtube.com/channel.
20. Channel: #madeinserce. Режим доступа : youtube.com/channel
21. Lyricstranslate.com : Michał Szpak. - Режим доступа : lyricstranslate.com
22. Michał Szpak (Oficjalny Fan Club). - Режим доступа : facebook.com
23. Israel loves Michał Szpak 2016. - Режим доступа : facebook.com
24. ...and many, many others.

Video-nonfiction 17. New Music video by Michal Szpak, “Rosanna” (21.09.2016). (C) 2015 Sony Music Entertainment Poland Sp. z o.o. na wylacznej licencji As Plus.

Yudina N. Resurrection through Crucifixion: Michal Szpak. Nonfiction / Nataliya Yudina / Міждисциплінарний футурологічний форум «Управління майбутнім на стику технологічних укладів» (Київ, 15-17 липня 2016р.) : тези, доповіді, статті / [уклад. − Л. І. Юдіна]. – К., 2016. − Режим доступу : http://futurolog.com.ua/publish/michalszpak_en.phtml. − ISBN 978-966-97581-0-1.

POST SCRIPTUM

W roku 2016 ukraińska marketingowiec i futurolog Natalija Yudina napisała pracę naukową na temat Michała Szpaka. Artykuł o angielskim tytule "Resurrection through Crucifixion: Michal Szpak. Nonfiction" ukazał się na portalu naukowym Futurolog.com.ua 15 lipca 2016 r., a w październiku został uzupełniony o angielską wersję. Wielu z nas uważało, że warto pokusić się o poszerzenie jego odbiorców. Teraz możemy Wam udostępnić także wersję polską.

Autorką polskiej wersji tłumaczenia jest: Monika Kanecka, Pomoc Edyta Gd. Redakcja, przygotowanie do druku, słowniczek pojęć i post scriptum Edyta Gd. Serdeczne podziękowania dla Teresa Tet Zajadło za cudowne zdjęcia oraz dla Ewa Kuta za pracę nad stroną graficzną. Podziękowania za pomoc także dla Agnieszka Teresa Trafas - Kanecka (Agnieszka Teresa) i Aleksandra Kowalska. Serdeczne podziękowania dla OFC Michała Szpaka za życzliwość i przychylność dla projektu.

Edyta Gd.