The Mavericks of Media Reveal the Big Opportunities of the Future

With a changing and transforming media landscape, the tried and true approach to business issues no longer works. What are the Mavericks of Media doing to meet the demand and harness the opportunities that this new media ecosystem presents?

“We are survivors, not just of Covid. We have adapted, adjusted and multi-tasked our way to 2021,” noted Audra Priluck, Vice President, Business Development, Media & Entertainment at Maru/Matchbox, and host of the annual Mavericks of Media event.  The past year has shifted the way we do business with effects that can impact years ahead. What are the trends and opportunities?

The Biggest Drivers

Evan Shapiro, Founder of eshap.tv, warned that while we may have our eye on the usual big media players such as Disney and WarnerMedia, there are “trillion dollar death stars” at the edge of the media universe such as Facebook and Apple, who are poised to overturn the business model. There will also be increased tension between the advertising and single unit sale business model to the recurring revenue subscription business model. And a dramatic shift from a Boomer and Gen X dominated world to Gen Z Gen Y. We will see this in not only, “The way media is consumed, the devices on which it is consumed,” but also the artists and content that, “reflect this complex, digital first and the two most diverse generations in western culture’s history,” he stated.

The Importance of Diversity

Tiffany Smith-Anoa'I, Executive Vice President, Entertainment Diversity & Inclusion, ViacomCBS and Kay Hill, Vice President, Brand Research, WarnerMedia, shared their insights regarding diversity in media. For Hill, “2020 really highlighted this subject and put it at the forefront because people were at home and were paying more attention to news.” For Smith-Anoa'I, “The narrative hasn’t changed. We want to have greater representation in front of and behind the camera.” Essentially we need to rethink how we are doing business, who we are and who we are not doing business with.

Hill explained that when conducting diversity research, “You ask, What does this audience want? What are they looking for? What do they enjoy? The answer always comes back – they want to see some form of diversity and representation on the screen in front of them.” Smith-Anoa'I noted, “Education is paramount. Equality doesn’t mean extra or more. It means equal - The same opportunity to fail and succeed,” and added that it had to be authentic and not mere tokenism.

Post Pandemic Predictions

Jack Myers, Media Ecologist and Founder of MediaVillage, shared his industry predictions for 2021. “The upfront will see record CPM increases, growth over last year’s upfront revenues in the double-digits and overall 2021 ad revenue for the national TV business will be up an estimated 8%, enough to return it to the 2019 levels,” he shared.

Myers predicted that radical industry transformations occur every 30 years and we are now at the threshold of the next 30 year cycle. “Marketers may be facing shifts in consumer communications patterns for which there is no precedents and for which they are ill prepared,” he predicted 30 years ago. We see it happening again today with the end of the great internet upheaval.  “The pandemic has accelerated the trends already in place and 2021 represents the first year of a new 30 year cycle that requires accelerated shifts in revenue strategies for the television industry,” he stated. This requires a reorienting of priorities and ways of doing business. Going forward, growth will occur through education and diversity.

Guilty Pleasure Programming

Maybe because of the pandemic, viewers are seeking out comforting and nostalgic programming. The trend towards guilty pleasure viewing has, as Jeremy Lejeune, Vice President Content & Consumer Insights, NBCU, noted, “A sense of indulgence in it. It satisfies a need. The benefit is escapism and the need for escapism is higher than ever,” with the pandemic. For Suzanne Persechino, Senior Vice President, Head of Insights Group, A+E Networks, “We can all relate to the great amount of anxiety and tension in our day-to-day lives through a pandemic. We have found that there has never been a more ripe time for content that has a clear and satisfying ending.” The big takeaway is that guilty pleasure content transcends boundaries – it can be scripted or unscripted, comedy or drama. But it must be of high quality with compelling, complex and well-crafted storytelling.

The Next Big Opportunity

Guilty pleasure programming is only one content type that has been successful this year. Other formats such as news also are highly popular and are expected to remain so, post-pandemic. For Eliza Jacobs, Director, Consumer Insights & Analysis, PBS, her company is committed to building out their brand by focusing on digital to grow their audience and expand their base. “We have a digital approach going forward on our own platforms as well as partnerships and building out a PBS News brand on a digital platform,” she revealed.

With a distribution source of 110 newsrooms nationally, Sean Fassett, Vice President, Research & Insights, WGN America & Antenna TV, sees his company as able to leverage strengths in both linear and digital. “News is a guilty pleasure,” he explained, “but it is also a necessity. There is still a need for news to know what is going on and how to keep their families safe. We focus on niche stories that give voice to the voiceless.”

Conclusion

The pandemic has changed the paradigm for our business in a myriad of ways. In some cases, it has accelerated an already predicted transformation and expanded the role of certain business models. In other ways it strengthened certain programming types and clearly defined the need for diversity. What the Mavericks of Media all have in common is their thirst for knowledge that will help the media industry not only survive but thrive. 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

 

Content Targeting For Greater Consumer Attention

Content targeting—ensuring greater consumer engagement—has never been more important to programmers and advertisers. But how can these creators capture viewer attention in a world of multiple devices and multitasking? At a recent Mediapost Programmatic Insider Summit, Nicolle Pangis, COO, Xaxis, indicated a need to focus on creating better experiences in content targeting. Indeed, there is a lot of innovation in the areas of creative, targeting, and technology that is advancing the industry.

Read more about how content targeting facilitates consumer engagement and attention.

Pivot TV Targets the Next Greatest Generation

Pivot TV, Participant Media’s new venture into television, is apt to change the single-screen television paradigm with its blend of multi-screen programming formats targeted to Millennials and their media usage tastes.

You may be familiar with Participant Media as the company that produces a blend of progressive and blockbuster films (think Food Inc and Lincoln). Their expansion from the big screen into the small screen comes with Pivot TV which will go live this August. Millennials who Participant CEO Jim Berk calls the new Greatest Generation seek entertainment that, like Participant, inspires and accelerates social change. Whether it is in their digital platform TakePart.com that connects content and actions together or their launch of Pivot TV, Participant Media encourages their audience to think and take action. 

Pivot TV President Evan Shapiro has always been a supporter of research. So it is not surprising that he used research to help craft Pivot TV’s brand promise and position with a study of 3200 15-24 year olds. The result was three target segments for Pivot TV: Allies who seek socially relevant content, Clicktivists who expand their influence online and Young Heroes who are true on-the-street activists. All three clusters are “pivotal” to MVPDs as well since they are the generation that operators need to reach for future subscriber growth. According to Shapiro, the target cluster groups are very politically progressive and seek the same attitudes from businesses. So there is a psychographic element to branding to these consumers that offer a connection that goes beyond strictly age and demo.

To capture these trans-media consumers, SVP Research Karen Ramspacher, has created an innovative measurement called the Participant Impact Index. “We are going to look at what people are thinking about and doing over thirty social action causes that the company has identified as important. We are going to look at their impact on the world and the impact on the viewer of different pieces of media around those issues.” This index will measure all types of programs across many networks and can also measure the halo affect for advertisers within that environment.

At their launch party back in March, Shapiro introduced several new original series, many with second screen elements.  Their variety show HitRecord TV is a good example.  Re-inventing an old program format – the variety show - Pivot TV is launching a multi-screen version that uses a community of cutting edge artists who perform across all available platforms. The result is a fascinating program offering that has the potential to draw in a new audience across several entertainment platforms and showcase new talent. An overview of the programming can be viewed in this video:

Can Pivot TV make its mark on the programming landscape for Millennials who are measured across platforms and attitudes? Stayed tuned for their launch in August 2013.