In Search of a Video Tribe
“A product does not achieve truth until it is socialized.”
Human beings are tribal by nature; we are biologically (and chemically) engineered to be attached to a family, group, or community. The most salient example of human’s tribal nature is seen in sports. The universal love shared with a group of individuals for the hometown professional sports team or undergrad’s collegiate sports, gives consumers a space to have their attachment needs met – being a part of the higher narrative (Laker Nation). With all professional and amateur sports grounded to a halt, cable networks are left with a substantial content void as consumers are desperately missing the comradery, and conversations, that sports nurture.
In times of social isolation, consumers are yearning for new spaces to consume video but still want to be a part of a tribe. As a result, consumers have turned to video streaming services seeking popular narrative content via on-demand platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and Prime Video, which has resulted in a 85% increase in video streaming traffic across the internet. Although these services are abundant in personalization features, which help users quickly find content to self-identify with while in the “four walls of the home,” hence good videos can still close in on consumers as the video experience lacks tribal elements (socialization).
In the guise to address this consumer pain point, video streaming platforms are running to the socialization territory to give users the “picks and forks” to help evangelize the service to friends both inside and outside of the platform. The socialization of a product builds a viral consumer loop that attracts new users, and brings back current users to the service, helping to build a community around the content or product (Network Effects). The most recent real-world example is the trending topic of “Three Films to Watch on Netflix” via Twitter. Netflix fans on Twitter are driving awareness of movie content to attract new users and bring current subscribers back into the service to watch films that most interest them.
This viral consumer loop is most desirable to video streaming services because the users execute the marketing duties “for free.” Video streaming services can help improve this viral loop by re-engineering their socialization features in a pyramid fashion by enabling the following features:
- Sharing (Foundation): communicate their admiration, joy, and appreciation for a piece of content with a community of users (e.g., social media post, group chat message, merchandise).
- Cooperation (Second Tier): work jointly to improve the content recommendations and video experience for the entire community (e.g., ratings, reviews).
- Collaboration (Third Tier): coordinate together to improve a piece of content or video viewing experience (e.g Zoom Virtual Happy Hour)
- Collectivism (Top tier): entire community governs the experience, and coordinates and collaborates to develop new creative experiences that the product owners did not create (e.g., Wikipedia).
Over the past two weeks, video streaming services have accelerated their social features in hopes of making users feel a part of a tribe while confined to the home.
Bringing Shared Love & Joy Immediately to the Home
The mixture of movie theatres and tent pole film franchises concocted the perfect social cocktail; here, a tribe of fans can gather to share in their joy and admiration for a globally accepted film (e.g., Star Wars, Avengers). This dynamic extends beyond the theatre, as signature films arm consumers with the necessary pop culture information to participate in office chatter and social media threads; hence, feeling connected to the tribe.
However, movie theatres tested the boundaries of how much a consumer would pay for this social dynamic. Ticket prices rose way faster than the speed of inflation; the cost of attendance for a family was well over $100. Also, home TV megahertz (audio) and pixels (visual) improved exponentially, and cloud technology brought movies immediately to the home. As a result, many people wanted to bring franchise movies to the home for a more affordable social experience. But the traditional movie window process delayed that process by weeks and months, hence compromising consumers, with limited funds, ability to participate in a tribal affair.
With consumer’s current mobility constrained due to biological conditions (COVID-19), movie studios have decided to meet consumers’ needs by releasing movies immediately (or shortly after theatrical) to the home. NBC Universal had the initial courage to upset the forty-plus year marriage with theatres to soothe consumers’ tribal needs. As a result, Trolls World Tour, NBC’s signature animation movie franchise, will be released on transactional video on-demand service (Amazon, Vudu) for $20, the same day as the theatrical release. Other movie studios, Sony and Warner Bros., will follow suit, but without a current subscription video on-demand (SVOD) product, consumers are limited to a 48-hour watch period. Hence, users do not have unlimited time to socialize around the content.
However, Disney was best equipped to capitalize on the opportunity; they too moved up their release window. The film Onward, post-theatrical and TVOD release, will be available a month later in Disney Plus ($7 per month). By enabling the release of a tentpole franchise, at a low price, Disney is lowering the bar for people to enjoy an entertaining, imaginative experience. They are also giving them an important pop culture event to communicate and share their joy across social media platforms; therefore, feeling closer to a tribe while isolated. This social dynamic will start Disney Plus’ viral loop, as Onward fans will share their love for the content with current and new fans to drive subscribers to the service.
Although popular franchise movies enable broad communication, franchise movies are not the sole reflection of what consumers desire from video content. Hence, how do consumers cooperate to elevate the niche and unique categories of content that they enjoy?
Cooperating to Define Pop Culture
Netflix stands at the top of the video on-demand hill (167 million subscribers), having mastered the personalization and delivery of video. Observing that competitors are running towards them, they are moving to the next battleground, the socialization of the video streaming experience. Having long collected both quantitative and qualitative data – ratings and reviews, Netflix wants to elevate the power of each user to cooperate in defining what content is culturally relevant to the masses. Netflix gathered each user’s preferences and video viewing behavior to create a “Top 10 Most Popular” videos in a respective region.
This unique feature strengthens the social ties between Netflix users. By having visibility into what is culturally relevant, users are peer pressured into watching: the fast pace romantic affair, Love is Blind, or the esoteric documentary, Tiger King. By watching this content, users can seamlessly enter their desired tribes because they are armed with information to connect with users on social media and group chats. This user behavior speeds up the viral loop; because users are encouraged to visit Netflix more frequently to watch content to stay abreast of what is culturally “top of the mind.” In addition, users outside of the service, suffering from FOMO, are nudged to join Netflix to better connect with the tribe. Although this feature improves the connection with others, the video consumption experience is still accomplished alone.
Collaborating Separately
To defeat the virus, social distancing is the preferred practice that all persons should embrace. Unfortunately, consumers are unable to invite a lover, friends, or family members over to enjoy video content. Hence, consumers miss the authentic collaboration over content, where persons share in unified laughter, or rewind a heighten action scene to collectively re-appreciate the leading character’s martial art skills.
Netflix, looking to build upon its social features, aspires to deepen the tribal bonds of their users by recreating collaboration in a digital world. Needing some assistance from an end-point viewing experience, Netflix smartly developed a browser extension for Google Chrome, the leading desktop browser worldwide (70% market share), to create “Netflix Party.” Per the Verge,
“Netflix Party will sync the playback across your accounts, so ‘ ‘you’re all watching the same thing at the same time from your accounts. Netflix Party includes a text chat function on the side of the screen (much like YouTube does during a live stream), so you and your friends can react and chat in real-time”.
Now users can duplicate a movie night with that long-distance special someone to binge Netflix “together but separately.” And after just realizing the value of intimately connecting with loved ones over content, Netflix is offering a 30-day free trial to acquire new users who want to join the Netflix tribe. This action, of course, will drive current users back into the service more frequently (retention).
With tools in hand to suggest content and watch it with loved ones, consumers are still unable to recreate the content and deeply immerse with a community of fans in a new world.
Turning Content into a Universe (Collectivism)
Video streaming services are in the early stages of their journey in tribalizing video. In the future, to quicken the pace of the viral loop, we will see new use cases of consumers sharing their love for content through virtual gifts, branded memes, emojis, and augmented reality tools to connect with the broader community. These items cultivate a “brand halo effect” around the content, setting the groundwork to transition the content into a world (or universe). Disney has long understood this dynamic by building a robust consumer products business. Netflix has recognized this opportunity by beginning to build out its consumer products division.
Next, users need a place to gather to coordinate and collaborate around their favorite content. Disney’s theme parks have long served as the ultimate destination for imagination. Here consumers gather to coordinate and cooperate in exploring their imagination and creativity by escaping into worlds (e.g. Alice & Wonderland, Star Wars). Netflix is following suit by creating a comedy festival, Netflix is a Joke, a centralized place to coordinate around humor and laughter. However, the past few weeks have highlighted the limitations of a physical experience – canceled or closed due to COVID-19. Also, physical experiences have limitations on the number of users (capacity), a defined period to enjoy, and fans are not a part of the content creation process.
Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has stated that Netflix’s most significant competition for all consumers’ leisure hours is Fortnite. The virtual video game (world) is a place where each user is given content creation tools to explore their imagination. Still, users sacrifice their individual creative needs to coordinate and collaborate with the community to create new experiences. The video game can support an unlimited capacity: both in
users and time. Unlike, a 30-minute TV show, 2-hour movie, or 5-hour theme park experience, Fortnite provides a space where users always feel a part of a tribe around the clock (24 hours).
Hence, the final socialization frontier for video streaming services is to move their content (or product) into a virtual collectivism, or an alternate universe. Many users secretly wished that they could be “beamed up” into the Star Trek ship, or placed at the center of The Avengers battle scene, to leverage their gifts to coordinate and collaborate with other virtual members of a tribe, so they can feel together even while separated.
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