Now that cable TV is dead and buried, there has been a mad scramble for its successor — streaming services. From the well-known Netflix and Hulu to Apple+ and YouTube, the OTT space is awash in familiar brands presenting a less familiar product: content on demand. For the last two years, corporate titans have been locked in negotiations to take up the mantle of television. So far it looks like Disney is the clear winner. At the end of 2017, they emerged triumphant in purchasing 21st Century Fox, edging out a counterbid from Comcast. And this week, AT&T sold its stake in Hulu (presumably to focus on its recently completed purchase of Time Warner), leaving Disney essentially in charge of the streaming service that brought you the critically acclaimed Handmaid’s Tale.
It’s a huge change to be sure. Disney now effectively controls three media empires: Hulu, Fox, and the soon to be Disney+, a direct competitor with Apple TV+, which is scheduled to launch this fall. Some would-be consumers are less than enthused about all these changes: some complained that the actors advertising their shows at the Steve Jobs auditorium were not giving sufficient information about the streaming service itself. But these grumblings are likely to fade into the background as these much less expensive services are available for mere pennies on the dollar that cable subscriptions were.
The competition has given rise to a lot of questions related to execution: ad-supported content or no ads? What sorts of content will be available on what streaming platforms? Any company can say they deliver the best content, but ultimately, it is not up to them to decide what the best content is. It’s up to the consumer.
For the first time perhaps in corporate history, the brands are not in charge. They are angling like scheming courtiers to gain favor from the most powerful entity of all — customers. In the battle for superiority, the one company who holds the attention of the most viewers for the longest wins. It’s a significant challenge, and one that will likely drag on as different content becomes available on different platforms. The same way the hit show Brooklyn Nine-Nine was cancelled only to reappear on NBC, Disney may revive shows cancelled by Netflix to secure their audience.
This concept of customer obsession certainly isn’t new at all. We’ve covered it pretty extensively here at DMN for example, in both individual articles and eBooks. It’s nice to be right, but more importantly, the stakes are much higher for marketers. One possible conclusion to draw from this is that marketers can be left out of the process and miss valuable opportunities to secure revenue if they don’t adjust their approach to a customer-first model. If corporations with billions to spare are bending over backwards to learn what consumers want and deliver it, then so must marketers. The time of telling consumers what to buy has long passed. Now brands are asking what consumers want — and are exceeding those expectations. Consumers don’t want “mom” brands, who wag their fingers and remind them to floss. They want “friend” brands — brands that get to know your likes and dislikes, and makes personalized recommendation based on a preexisting relationship. Marketers should decide what kind of consumers they want: halfhearted participants in occasional transactions, or loyal friends who use your product or service again and again?
