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Tech Has Hacked Boredom – Now What? (Sponsored Post)

Posted by on 18 November 2019
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Tackling value and friction in global media and entertainment

“Everyone today – from networks, studios, distributors, producers and brands are in the attention business. Tech has hacked boredom,” says Scott Carlin, who recently joined us as Executive Vice President following a storied career with industry leaders HBO and Warner Bros. He calls out our industry’s challenge in capturing attention across all media forms.

Amid this significantly disrupted space, our team works consistently in the trenches of the streaming wars, helping clients understand the human science behind capturing share in the attention business. Our work here continues what we have done for decades in the media and entertainment space.

In this piece, I’ll dive into some of our most sought after insights to fuel you and your team as you prepare for 2020 – a year we feel will influence consumers’ media consumption habits almost as much as the advent of TV.

Accelerating change and churn

Mike Bloxham, SVP, Magid, compares us to dinosaurs, saying we’ve “become a society of video velociraptors, voraciously consuming our favorite shows on any screen available to us at all hours of the day and night seven days a week.”

So how do our clients “feed the beast” they have created?

With new OTT services announced with unforeseen frequency, it’s impossible for anyone to keep up with offers and pricing. Amidst the flurry of new entrants, content is still king and management teams that know how to value content, specifically which content attracts and retains viewers are holding an unassailable advantage.

The 2019 Magid Video Entertainment Study found that when signing up for a streaming service, 43% of consumers intended to stay with the service for six months or less.

That same study, which we field over time also found that consumers have about two SVOD subscriptions now and are willing to subscribe to a handful of services at around $40 in the future. This certainly doesn’t leave much room in terms of financial appetite for new services.

Today’s kids, tomorrow’s media consumers

In our 2019 Magid Mobile Study, nearly a third of 8-to-12-year-olds said that they’d rather be in a room alone with their mobile device than in a room with their friends and no mobile device. Yet, this same group and 13-to-17-year-old teens are more likely to recognize their smartphone addiction than are adults.

Sarah Holmes, SVP, Magid, often talks of kids not getting enough credit. These age groups are incredibly savvy in understanding family dynamics and negotiation – and are wonderful storytellers. More diverse and multi-faceted than previous generations, they’re seeking content that matches that level of diversity, while also holding media companies and personalities to high standards given their commitment to social consciousness. 

Technology is great. Human solutions are better.

Consumer attention is on the line and past behavior isn’t always the best predictor when technology is rapidly changing the idea of what’s possible. Consumers are continuing to engage in new behaviors, build new expectations, and seek customized solutions while adopting unpredictable patterns.

The solution to reach consumers doesn’t begin and end with technology. Instead, leverage technology and new trends to help make experiences more human-centric for consumers, while providing solutions that solve for the greatest points of friction consumers face and deliver value greater than the competition.

Every decision a consumer makes is determined by a nonconscious weighing of points of perceived value against an equally expansive list of perceived friction points. The key to predicting human behavior rests in understanding which points of value and friction are in a consumer’s nonconscious evaluation set and how they rank against one another.

For a deeper dive into our other insights, download the Magid Value:Friction 2020 Report for Global Media & Entertainment.

About the Author: Kate has significant experience in strategy, innovation and growth in a diverse set of industries including media and entertainment, energy, tech/martech, and hedge funds. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

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