Little Moons’ Post

Are you ready to take advantage of more digital real estate?? Check out the post below 👇 from the Amazon Ads team!

Okay, time to update last Friday’s article to see, which streamers are actually advertising their Halloween landing pages/collections? https://lnkd.in/gvd_EgUB First off, props to Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock and Hulu. They all have their Halloween collections right at the start, at the top. Good!   Prime Video still has their Halloween collection one click over. On Netflix, if you search “Halloween”, “Enter If You Dare” is the top option. (But it’s not on the front page.) As for jeers, Max still has nothing on the front page advertising their excellent “House of Halloween” page. Also, Hulu really pushes “Huluween”, but prioritizes their underperforming originals compared to classic horror films (that customers want to watch more). Again, Apple TV+ isn’t really competing. Then again, it’s not like that actually have scary/horror/halloween content to actually advertise, since they don’t have a library.

Bundling reduces churn by 2-3x for the SVOD players. Now the statistics the other way round would also be interesting - how much does bundling of video services reduce churn for Telcos' broadband and mobile offering? #connectingthedots #superaggregation #bundlingwars

For me, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw is required reading and he didn’t disappoint with the below. Per Shaw and data analytics firm Digital-i, less than 5% of Netflix’s original shows would have triggered the performance bonuses that the WGA negotiated during its strike. Yep, less than 5% of Netflix’s prodigious slate of originals  - about 18 in total - are seen by at least 20% of the service’s US users. So for every You People, Muder Mystery 2 and Extraction2, there is The Witcher, Shadow and Bone and The Diplomat that don’t make the bonus cut. What is not clear is how this performance metric is applied to licensed content. Does the extensive viewership of, say, Suits - the most-streamed title of the week for the 15th time, per this week's Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings- count? What about Gray’s Anatomy and NCIS, which have 417 and 443 episodes on the service and are consistently in the top 10? I assume it does, and I assume this means those gold-jacket-Hall-of-Fame-ers continue to be celebrated. And yes, “because of its output and the amount of time viewers spend watching, Netflix will pay bonuses for more shows than any other service.” But that said, since Netflix doesn’t embrace the same licensing/windowing strategy as the traditional studios, are those original programs at a disadvantage in seeking to reach this threshold? I can only assume they are. (Yes, I've made some assumptions here. If anyone has more definitive insight, please feel free to share 🙏 ).

As all of us learn as children, no good thing lasts forever. The days of consumers floating in an endless sea of fresh new content are coming to an end. Due to production budgets stabilizing across the industry as well as the production shutdowns resulting from the dual Hollywood strikes, it is very unlikely we will see any calendar year exceed the 599 scripted English series that were delivered in 2022 (per #FX's numbers). The rate of growth for streaming original titles has steadily slowed down in 2023, according to Parrot Analytics. Until this year, there had not been more than one quarter in a row of a shrinking growth rate in global streaming original supply. Now this growth rate has fallen for three consecutive quarters, Q1, Q2, and Q3 of 2023. This is evidence that a slowdown in streaming original output is arguably already happening, as a combination of both major companies shifting business models and cutting back, and the sharper drop off in Q3 likely a result of the dual strikes in Hollywood. #Netflix's volume of December releases in 2023 will be 39% smaller compares to 2022 while the domestic #boxoffice is currently projected to finish below $9B in '23 and '24, per The Numbers. Leaders at major Hollywood destinations such as premium cable network Showtime have emphasized known commodities such as #Dexter and #Billions serving as foundational programming pillars moving forward while #Disney CEO Bob Iger has gone back-and-forth publicly on the value of general entertainment. These comments suggest a focus on established material and genres with proven track records. A potential reluctance from Hollywood for content expansion and risk-taking may be sensible on paper in these more competitive, challenged and budget-conscious times. I'm well aware it isn't *my* money on the line when something gets the greenlight. But force feeding consumers widespread sameness also contributes to churn and apathy at a time when cancellations are on the rise and younger generations are tuning traditional entertainment out. I'd argue that the most in-demand new releases of 2023 (such as #TheLastofUs, #PokerFace, #Barbie) all provide something familiar within exciting and creative new packages. Next year promises to be fascinating for many reasons, but let's hope Hollywood isn't embracing the wrong takeaways amid an assortment of challenges.

Disco Infernal Warner Bros. Discovery issued their 3Q earnings today. Was there much to like? In the words of Paul Reiser, not so much. Total Revenue: +2% Net Loss: -$417 million TV Revenues: -7% D2C Revenues: +5% TV Ad Revenue: -12% D2C Subs: -700,000 It should be noted that, that despite selling content to Netflix, Amazon and seemingly anyone else who's buying, their TV content licensing fell -22% in 3Q. There were some bright spots - advertising on MAX grew +30%, and D2C showed a profit of $111 million. What does this mean for the future of The Brothers Disco and Zas, their ever-vested CEO? On Monday at 1p ET/10a PT, I'll be going through the 3Q earnings of all the big Media players, parsing the tea leaves and making predictions for the year ahead. It's both FREE and free of spin. Register and read all about it, here: https://lnkd.in/eC6CS6mW

The “Others” Specialty streamers like Shudder, Gaia, Curiosity Stream, Pure Flix, Brit Box, Broadway HD, and many more you’ve never heard of are growing and doing great. On the chart below, the Others have the highest projected trajectory while the mega streamers appear to be leveling off. There are advantages to selling a special service to a specific audience. Every single mega streamer has the exact same message in all their ads: “We have everything that everyone wants to watch!” While they certainly have the libraries to do targeted campaigns to reach specific audiences, they don’t do that. They all want to compete with Netflix, which has everything for everyone. Disney Plus now has Hulu integrated into the app. The Disney Brand means what now? It’s not a brand for children anymore. HBO used to have a brand… Sopranos, The Wire, etc. What does HBO mean now? Some network that used to exist and now streams on something called MAX? Imagine a hotel owned by Nike or Apple. You can probably see that in your head fairly easily. That’s a brand. Now, imagine a hotel owned by MAX or Hulu. Anything? Me neither. Media brands used to appreciate how important a brand is in connecting with viewers and maintaining a relationship. Yes, content is king, but I think most people appreciate a brand that values and appreciates viewers enough to serve content made for them specifically. As media companies go through mergers, layoffs, and search for profit, they’d be wise to remember that. Happy New Years and I hope you all have a wonderful 2024!!!

Liquid Death are taking an entertainment-first strategy to a new level. They're launching a TV show. The news came out a few weeks ago, and I'm surprised I haven't seen much talk about it yet. Maybe people think it's parody. It's definitely not. It's the latest example of a growing trend in branded entertainment. It used to be that the only way for brands to enter TV or film was through product placement. Brands like Calm, Nike and now Liquid Death have changed that. In fact, branded entertainment even has its own category at Sundance Film Festival. As it becomes harder to reach customers conventionally, branded entertainment earns mental availability instead. We yearn for even 10-second views through rates. How about 30 minutes? I've written a lot about how Liquid Death have built their team to make ideas like this commonplace. Founder Mike Cessario actually used to work on promos for Netflix, so this feels full circle. What's even better is that this big bold move started as a small bet. First, with the creation of the Thirst Murderer character, then with small flip book style cartoons posted as Instagram Carousels (I posted one of my faves in the comments). Not everyone can be Liquid Death but everyone can adopt the framework they use to earn Share of Voice. #entertainment #marketing  

We often see "creative" and "fun" ads, but then can't recall the product that was feature. That's a big miss for product manufacturers and a waste of money💰. This was an extremely well executed campaign. Saw the commercial the other night. Not only did my husband and I take note of the product being featured but we became invested in "replays" to see what "flavor" was featured in each showing of the commercial. We got the "message" that LAYS has multiple varieties of its classic potato chip and can now list a bunch of them. I couldn't do that before the commercial. Kudos to the creative team on this. Mission accomplished. 🚀 If you haven't seen the ad campaign, watch for it. #homerun #advertising #advertisingagency #advertisingstrategies #advertisingstrategy #advertisingcampaign #productpromotion

If you have a current cable buy in-market, do me a favor. Write an email to your agency on Monday. Ask them if National Geographic or Freeform are on your plans. If the answer is yes, ask them why. You can say: “An article from the Wall Street Journal this weekend said that Disney deemed these two networks not valuable in a strategic review. Why do we?” And if the answer is yes, ask them what the CPM you’re paying is. If it’s above average rates, even better - ask them why you’re funding the designated losers of a media company you’re buying from. The old way of buying video is stacking networks together to achieve a certain reach, frequency, and GRP amount. But it’s increasingly harder to climb that hill as viewership declines. Better yet, now we have some of the biggest media companies openly shit talking their own properties. And we can use that a signal to determine if we want to buy their shit or not. Just don’t let yourself or your agency be asleep at the wheel while making that decision. https://lnkd.in/eZuEXksc