HotMic

This DraftKings Inc. integration into Bleacher Report is so smart. Betting is so much more fun as a group, and I love how they let creators poll their fans to find the best bets. Thank you to Kasone Jones and Jonathan Palgon for letting HotMic deliver on this vision. https://lnkd.in/g3_eYFvS

Every few months, someone writes an article about the threat that YouTube or perhaps TikTok pose to traditional media. The argument goes something like this: social video (or short form, user generated content or creator content, take your pick) is growing really fast, it is encroaching on consumption of professionally produced content and Hollywood is in denial or asleep at the switch. It might seem like I just set up a straw man to knock it down with a theatrical flourish, but I didn’t. I agree with all of it. Still, there are a few unanswered questions: How big is social video viewing, really? Will it keep taking share? And what can the big media companies do about it? * Based on Nielsen’s The Gauge, YouTube is already >11% of viewing on TVs (not the 10% that is usually cited). This excludes YouTube viewing on mobile/PC, TikTok, Reels and all other social video. * It’s hard to get a holistic view of all video consumption, but triangulating data from Activate, eMarketer and a new dataset called Media IDentity Graph (MIDG), I calculate that social video is now ~25% of all video consumption and it grows every year. * There are many reasons to believe that this share will continue to grow unabated. * Among them: most younger consumers express a preference for social over professionally-produced content; for many viewers, their definition of quality is changing to include attributes that favor social video (authenticity, relatability, digestibility, etc.); social video triggers much more dopamine release per viewing minute, so this isn’t just a fad, it’s enduring brain chemistry; social is structurally more surprising and innovative; it’s muscling in on Hollywood’s turf with longer videos and episodic stories; and GenAI promises to make video storytelling much more accessible to the massive creator class. * For Hollywood, social video is a problem. It will never be as financially attractive. It is still regarded as “less than.” And most attempts to cross over social stars to traditional have failed. * But it is big and getting bigger, so traditional media companies need cohesive strategies. A more holistic approach might include not only tapping into social video for marketing, but more extensively for franchise development and perhaps even a bolder push into influencer marketing and social commerce. https://lnkd.in/efWx2dvv

Traditional media is really struggling. It will take brave leadership to break out of old models, find new ways to engage users, and build profitable revenue. Bleacher Report is that company right now. Bennett Spector needed a low cost way to 10x video production and his vision to launch a creator program for live streaming was brilliant. He recognized B/R "needed to be scrappier" and tapping into the massive pool of content creators was the only way they could get that kind of scale. I'm really grateful to Bennett, Tyler Price, Jamie Kiley, Shubham Tyagi, Quiana Wright, and Kasone Jones for tapping HotMic to execute on this bold vision. We are very proud to be a part of your success. https://lnkd.in/gnqPQvRG?