The Serious Takeaways of Play. An Interview with Starcom’s Steve Bonner

The concept of “Play’ in this digitized world can take on many meanings. To Steve Bonner, Starcom’s Executive Vice President and Head of Cultural Intelligence, Play simply refers to activities that bring pleasure. His recently released study Live2Play examines, according to Bonner, “How people choose to spend their time and attention in ways that are fulfilling, enriching, sometimes educational, but often just really for pleasure.”

While video gaming fits into this definition, it is only one component. There are many other ways for people to spend their time at play. Live2Play deconstructs Play -a seemingly simple concept – in a highly nuanced way, leading us to compelling and evocative insights not only of consumer behavior but of society itself.

Bonner’s study used a hybrid methodology with a self-service platform to conduct quantitative surveys and two focus groups – one of families with children and another of Gen X men. For families the goal was to see how their children’s play evolved over time compared to their own play. “We asked what play meant to them. How do you define play for yourself and for your children? Do you think your children play enough or too much compared to when you were a child? How has play changed? What do you think the implications of the way play has changed for your children will be as they get older?” he noted.

The Gen X men group, “uncovered an interesting dynamic in their need for play and the way they play,” Bonner explained. “With men we asked, how do guys think about playing? How do they play in the context of friendships? That was, probably for me, the most interesting thing that we learned in this.”

Overall, what Bonner and his team realized was the essential benefits of play for a happier life. Using an 85 year old longitudinal study about human happiness as a lodestar, Bonner saw that, “one of the strongest, most highly correlated things to happiness is long term, deep friendships. Men tend to have a hard time fostering and maintaining long term, deep friendships with other men.” This is underscored through their play.

Play for men means competition and bragging rights adding an adversarial component to the way they play. “That diminishes the value of play because you're making it a competition as opposed to exploring the world around you,” he stated and added, “Einstein said that play is research. Kids play to learn about the world around them. Men want to have a winner and a loser most of the time when they play with each other and that can fray the friendships between them, perpetuating this problem.”

For men, this dynamic in play and happiness led to an insight explaining the rise in Gen X men's suicide rates and, possibly, lone wolf attacks. “That was a surprise,” Bonner admitted, “But we thought it was interesting because as a media agency, as a marketing company, we help inspire our clients to think about new brand behaviors for themselves. We think there's an enormous hero role for marketers to play in helping men play more helpfully and champion active play and curiosity-driven play.”

Another insight included how the definition of play for adults has changed over time. “We had people saying that as an adult, playing is like watching a show on Netflix or browsing the Internet or scrolling Tiktok. What that does is stretch the definition of play to include passive consumption of content,” Bonner noted. Admittedly, “there are a lot of organizations that are happy about that because they say, yes, play is important. Human beings need to play and if we can say that play equals consuming content passively then we all sleep better at night because we fundamentally sell the passive consumption of content.”

But for Bonner, “Our position was that we want to resist that creeping definition of play because it's becoming something passive. Play has to have an active element of decision making or of exploring different scenarios. If you remove curiosity and self- determination from play, you lose a bit of the benefit of play.”

The study also found that, “People define themselves by how they play. They will say, I'm a gamer or I like to dance or I'm a singer. I like to make music with my friends, collect things, build with Legos,” indicating a changing definition of play as one ages and a different concept of play for their children. “When you talk to people in their late 20s to 40s, they will say when I was a kid, playing was going outside. We'd run around, play with the neighbors and have fun. Now it has become a digital thing which creates dissonance in parents who say that their kids spend most of their play time on screens. It makes life easier for me but I don't know if it's good,” he explained. For brands, “I think brands can take action against this. How do you make screen time feel healthier when parents feel they're outsourcing babysitting to a screen.”

Understanding the role of play in individuals and in society through this type of quantitative ethnography is a much more expansive way to better define the true essence of brands. Bonner’s role in this effort is clear. “I am fundamentally concerned with looking at the world through people's eyes as opposed to looking at the world through a brand. It's very easy in our business to look at things through the lens of a category.  But what we really care about is what people really care about. We are incessantly curious about what it is that drives people and makes them unique and special. That fundamentally takes you to a place of play.”

This approach is also vital for brands seeking cultural relevancy. “You have to understand what people care about outside of your brand. That's at the root of everything we do. Job number one should always be to make the experience something a consumer is going to care about and then figure out how to make sure that it provides the biggest or best return,” he concluded.

 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

The Pursuit of Human Truth. An Interview with Starcom’s Kelly Kokonas on the Global Media Intelligence Report

Kelly Kokonas, Executive Vice President Global Data Strategy, Starcom WW, is staying on top of technology and its impact on global media, “whether,” she noted, “it is the implementation of technology, application of data and information insights, product research, advanced analytics and a whole slew of other data-driven solutions.” 

But it is not only a changing landscape. It is also inconsistent in its evolution and adoption. Kokonas’ agency has fielded a Global Media Intelligence study, in partnership with eMarketer, for the past nine years for over 40 countries and 2 billion internet users, revealing the trends and differences in consumer preferences by country. The results continue to surprise.

The Value of Global Media Intelligence

“There have been a lot of changes across the decades,” Kokonas explained, “and trying to find a data source across markets for time spent with media was elusive because there were a lot of data sets across markets as well as a lot of data sources that gave slightly different stats. So this Intelligence report has become a really great resource.”

This study has proven to be a strategic asset for Starcom clients, she stated, “at the campaign level, when we are doing strategy work, understanding people’s changing use of media over time, the direction and magnitude of that change. But it also has a great value at the portfolio level of brands or across categories, where this data is used as a foundational understanding for local and global budgets and what to spend by channel.” It also helps to inform advertisers on emerging channels which may be harder to measure and, “the return on investment may be lower.”

Revealing Global Trends

Having a decade’s worth of data enables Kokonas to see profound trends. “Ten years ago we were tracking household broadband penetration,” she mused, “and if any market got to 40% it was a digital revolution!” Fast forward to where we are today, “it is further accelerated by mobile and mobile experiences which further accelerated overall video viewing including more VOD and the rise of the smart TV in the household.” And then, she continued, “you have to consider all of the changes in the different markets.” Brazil, for example, ranks ahead of all of other markets in mobile phone usage, while Russia is, “still a media landscape in transition with digital devices and activities becoming more main stream for the first time in this report.” China, she reported, “is always an outlier. Consumers lead in adoption of smart devices such as a digitally enabled wristband or smart doorbell or smart appliance.” The magnitude of those changes year to year will continue to be profound.

Revealing Global Consumer Behaviors

With all of the convenience and connectedness that technology offers today, are consumers becoming more demanding of its capabilities? “Certainly consumer expectations are high,” Kokonas admitted. “We can infer that with the proliferation of devices for these digitally enabled experiences, as people are surprised and delighted with what they can do on their mobile device or with a branded experience, there is enthusiasm for more of these experiences.” These experiences go way beyond static advertising which people may want to avoid. “It’s about premium experiences that people are drawn to, that they love and get some benefit from, that makes them lean in and engage in a transaction with a brand in a different way,” she explained. All of these experiences are intertwined with commerce as behaviors are tracked through the funnel enabling a clearer understanding, “of the why and the how and the how frequent things are happening between consumers and brands.”

Brands Harnessing the New Technology

Industries are feeling the impact of new technology. “There are a lot of different opportunities in every single vertical to harness the possibilities of emerging technologies,” she explained, from mobile banking to CPG involving mobile payments and commerce. The extent to which individual brands harness the power of new technology depends on their digital maturity – just like the differences across countries. Some clients, according to Kokonas, are even strategizing in product development and their commerce development, “and the extent of those specifics depends on the category, the brand and the maturity of the market.” For marketers who want to harness voice, the report enables them to, “see which of those geographies have a mature enough marketplace around voice assistants for us to invest part of our marketing dollars and expect a positive return.”

Surprises in this Year’s Study

Emerging technology is expanding in some interesting ways. “Voice assistants tends to skew male and young which I find interesting,” she revealed, “and I am not sure why that would be. But then I remind myself that it is not an Alexa in the household but it is also geo-navigation.” In addition, she is seeing that the use of digital devices is increasing but the rate of the increase by countries can vary because of logistics and infrastructure. For example, digital viewers in Germany are still attached to traditional media and are not rushing to adapt to new tech, especially older adults. Part of this is due to a lack of robust networks since so much money was spent, instead, on reunification. Compare this to Hong Kong, which admittedly has a smaller geography, “but they also have some of the world’s highest rate of advanced digital device ownership which is encouraged by virtual universal internet access.”

Conclusion

For clients, Kokonas believes that the best use of this study is to expand the range of opportunities that marketers can use to reach the right audiences, even if standard measurement hasn’t quite caught up to the advancing technology. “It will continue to be elusive as to how to measure return on investment. I have not seen a marketing mix model on voice yet. There will always be this pressure, this tension to measure these emerging technologies and their ability to impact business. The best way forward is to test and learn.” But beyond that, she added, “It is about the relentless pursuit of the human truth. This data is really an awesome baseline for all of that, across so many different media channels and media experiences as well as across the different countries,” she concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

How to Harness the Media Evolution -The Big TV Conference

The first Big TV Conference, held in NYC in September, focused on a range of issues in the TV ecosystem from a variety of perspectives. But the Leit motif of the two day event revolved around data and its impact on the business. To buyers and sellers, data is as vital as ever. To content creators, data plays a greater role in understanding what is resonating with viewers, becoming, by extension, a crucial part of the creative process.

Framing the Issues

With radical transformation impacting traditional business models, how can companies manage the future? Domenic Dimeglio, Senior Vice President Distribution and Operations, CBS Interactive, framed the discussion by asking, “what is the business model that fills in the white space with consumers?” while Robert Weisbord, Chief Revenue Officer, Sinclair Broadcast Group, noted, “There has to be something unique about the offering.”

Executives can no longer complacently work towards simply meeting short term goals. Annual revenue budgets are only the start. “We have to prepare for a different marketplace with streaming cord cutting and much more data,” stated Jon Steinlauf, Chief U.S. Advertising Sales Officer, Discovery. It often requires creating internal teams focused strictly on the future. “We have a team within Discovery that was further along than we were to position better for the future,” Steinlauf added.

For Krishan Bhatia, Executive Vice President, Business Operations and Strategy, NBCUniversal, “Because we are a global distribution and content company, we spent two to three years integrating our portfolio to create value together.” This macro level approach could not be achieved unless there is internal cooperation and buy-in. “Culture is a driver of success,” he concluded.

Audiences

Kathleen Finch, Chief Lifestyle Brands Officer, Discovery, when asked how she would reach audiences of the future noted that it will be, “hard to know what the market will bear,” in terms of costs. “I don’t know what I am spending,” she added. The real challenge is measurement which, as Adam Rattner, Executive Vice President, Managing Director, Samsung, Starcom, explained, “Until we get great measurement it will be hard to monetize.”

For Lisa Heimann, Executive Vice President, Corporate Research and Strategy, NBCUniversal, “No one data source is good for anything. Which data is good at answering what questions?” She added, “Sometimes we need a census data set, sometimes we need to connect to viewing using panel data. The key is how we are looking at and using that data. Sometimes we look at specific sources and other times we rely on data science group using machine learning and AI.” For her it is essentially comes down to a mix of all data sources.

“We have to go beyond looking at overnight ratings,” she warned, but added, “Well, maybe for sports or news but it is dangerously unreliable. Not all viewing is captured by Nielsen,” because content across platforms, “need to have the same ad load.”

Advertisers

Advertisers are demanding two things from content providers; “Transparency of data for cross platform measurement and the creation of really compelling content. These are CEO-level questions,” stated Rattner.  For Sam Armando, Senior Vice President National Video Intelligence and Investment, Spark Foundry, there are measurement challenges that need to be addressed. “Clients want single source measurement to capture viewers across all screens,” he stated, “We have a lot more (data) pieces but the pieces don’t fit together.”

Researchers are stepping up to meet advertiser needs. Tom Ziangus, Senior Vice President, Research, AMC Networks is committed to, “Closing the loop,” in the consumer journey and, “Working closely with agency partners,” on addressing this challenge. “It is all about collaboration,” as he added, “We must figure it out together. What are the best practices and learning from our mistakes.” Don Robert, Executive Vice President, A+E Networks, confirmed that approach. “We take a consultative approach to try and figure it out. We are very committed and believe in the power of TV.”

Content Creators

There is considerable work being done to track and quantify how people discover and sample shows, “how they catch up and which programs they stick with and which ones they don’t,” noted Heimann.  “Content is forever now. How can we optimize it? Sometimes it is more down the road.”

For Courtney Thomasma, Executive Director, BBC America, AMC Networks, “We have more data than we know what to do it. We have ten times the amount of data than we had ten years ago. There is the danger of getting lost in the noise and quantity of data. How do we fuse? Who has access?” she asked.  Her solution is, “more experienced research minds to strategize the data,” which I heartily support.

And the numbers don’t have to be big for a show to be considered a success. Passion for a show counts which requires a, “Holistic sense of who our audiences are and weighting which audiences are most valuable for us,’ she added. Using research insights from one passionate show can often lead to the next. Using data insights, BBCA realized that Killing Eve was a good replacement when Orphan Black, with a passionate fan base, ended its run.

For Donna D’Alessandro, Senior Vice President, Programming and Strategy Insights, Discovery,  who started her career in Research, the challenge is the, “need to look fresh and real in speaking to a consumer right now”  because programmers only have a short window to engage the viewer. “If a viewer turns it on and thinks, it’s not for me, they will turn it off and never come back.”

Conclusion

With all of the challenges and opportunities in this Brave New World of Media, Ziangus summed it up rather succinctly. “We are a lot smarter and a lot dumber,” he quipped. That rings true to me. For all of the data acumen and insights we harvest, sometimes it seems as if we have more questions than answers. And that is perhaps the biggest challenge of all.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

The Media Crystal Ball

It is difficult enough to predict how the media landscape will look next year but it is arguably even more difficult projecting how things will look five years hence. A recent Mediapost event gathered some of the best industry minds together to share their thoughts about the state of the media state in 2023. Here is what they predicted:

TV Will Always Be Here

There was optimism regarding the robustness of the TV and the advertising business. According to Tom Goodwin, EVP, Head of Innovation, Zenith, “We tend to think that TV or advertising is dead but it is here to stay.” Further, there was a feeling that even old media has the ability to adapt and reinvent for the new digitized media environment. “The money keeps shifting to online and digital,” stated Brian Hughes, SVP, Audience Intelligence and Strategy, MAGNA. However, he believes that this momentum will slow that down and flatten as “old school media reinvents themselves.”

Delight the Consumer … or Else

Since consumers will have greater power to choose the ads they want to see, those companies that engage people in a negative way may experience blowback. Barry Lowenthal, President, The Media Kitchen, said that, “Facebook will be the big loser’” in the next five years because they fail at the “fundamental human truth” regarding shame about envy. “Facebook peddles in envy. Most feel bad about themselves after seeing Facebook,” he explained, “and you can't sustain a business on envy.”  He predicted that unless Facebook reinvents itself, they will lose money. “It is better to drive to gratitude,” he concluded.

There is also the thought that unless companies respect the consumer by providing them with relevant messaging (without getting creepily intrusive), consumers may decide to opt out and withhold their data and their attention. “Consumers will be in control of their data. GDPR will precipitate that,” noted Natalie Monboit, SVP, Futures for Samsung, Starcom USA, who added, “There will be a shift to drop data when in doubt. Consumers will have more self-sovereignty.”

Streamlined Processes Through Technology

Whether it’s the continuing increase in the amount and type of available data, the introduction of blockchain protocol into the media business, the use of artificial intelligence or the boundaries of privacy, all these issues will impact how we conduct our business five years from now. Monboit noted that, “Blockchain could be the one thing that disrupts today,” and has the potential to change the business.

Finally, it is important for media companies to continue to take risks. Sam Olstein, Global Director Innovation, GE Corporation, concluded that the biggest challenge today is the mindset to avoid more risks. Spending money on things that don’t pan out is “never wasted because it laid the bedrock for the next entrepreneur to benefit from previous mistakes.”

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com