Harness the viewer’s voice to inform development, licensing, programming, and windowing strategies
Jerry Inman, CMO Whip Media
In today’s dynamic and ever changing entertainment industry landscape, understanding the pulse of your audience has never been more crucial. As the Chief Marketing Officer at Whip Media, I’ve witnessed firsthand from our client base, including the biggest and brightest studios and streamers, the transformative power of having direct, authentic engagement and sentiment data at your fingertips to help you decide what to greenlight and what to program. This granular approach isn’t just about numbers; it’s about tapping into the heart of viewer preferences to inform development, licensing and windowing strategies. Here at Whip Media, having 2.5M monthly active users (MAUs) within reach, provides a real-time pulse of the largest global panel of TV and film enthusiasts. Let’s dive into how this new sentiment data added to content measurement is reshaping the industry from the audiences’ point of view.
Understanding Viewer Preferences: Anticipation and Engagement Insights
At the core of modern content strategy lies the need to understand what content is resonating with viewers and what are they dying to see next. By measuring anticipation with true title-level viewing intent and viewer engagement data down to the episodic level, you gain a nuanced view of audience preferences. This detailed insight allows content creators and distributors to ascertain not just the popularity of a show or movie but to dissect which episodes or scenes are striking a chord with the audience. It’s like listening in on a global conversation, where every action and engagement tells a story.
Content Stakeholders’ Needs: A Multifaceted Approach
For stakeholders in the entertainment industry, this depth of measurement is invaluable. It informs development by highlighting successful themes and narratives. Licensing decisions become more strategic when you know exactly what type of content is in demand. Programming is no longer just about filling slots but about curating experiences that viewers genuinely want. And windowing strategies? Having competitive viewership data at your fingertips can provide insights from streaming platforms that can help fuel content windowing strategies.
Deciphering What Works: The Blueprint for Success
Identifying what content is working isn’t just about celebrating successes; it’s about creating a blueprint for future triumphs. Should we produce more thrilling crime dramas, or is the audience leaning towards heartwarming comedies? These decisions become data-driven, reducing guesswork and amplifying potential success. The choice of what to produce or acquire becomes a strategic maneuver, guided by the compass of viewer insights.
Strategic Placement: The Where and When of Content
Understanding where to place content is just as crucial as knowing what to produce. Cross-platform viewership data and respondent level data (RLD), play a pivotal role here. It tells us not just who is watching but on which platforms they prefer to engage.
The Talent Factor: Aligning Stars with Viewer Preferences
Talent is the face of content, and their alignment with viewer preferences can make or break a show or movie. Through episodic-level measurement, we can understand which actors resonate most with the audience. This data-driven approach to casting selection ensures that the talent attached to a project is not just a big name but the right fit for the target audience.
Conclusion: The Future is Now
In conclusion, adding engagement and sentiment intelligence directly from the pulse of the people down to the title and episodic level is not just a trend in content measurement, but the future of the entertainment industry. As we move forward, this viewer-centric approach will continue to shape how content is developed, licensed, programmed, and distributed. At Whip Media, we’re excited to be at the forefront of this revolution, harnessing the power of viewer insights to create content that not only entertains but resonates on a deeper level. The future of content measurement is here, and it’s more detailed, insightful, and impactful than ever before.