Exposing the Downside of Promoting Cr@ptastic Content in the Streaming Wars

We all endure this painful experience whether you work in streaming or not, you fire up your streaming service and spend more time sifting and sampling the top promoted and featured content than you do actually watching anything. 

The problem of flashy marketing promoting underwhelming products isn't unique to streaming services. Consider that time you were lured in by a fancy label at Trader Joe's, only to discover a bottle of wine named "Chateau de Crud" that didn't quite live up to the hype. Or,  you might have browsed light bulbs on Amazon, only to notice that the price dips alongside the number of positive reviews.  Leveraging my experience as a streaming industry veteran, I'll focus on this prevalent issue within the space.

That being - streaming companies have pressures to promote their content, whether compelling or not, the campaigns or product promotions will work, only to find the users have no interest yielding abysmal completion rates.  As certain as we have to pay taxes, so are these FIVE failures that result when streaming companies promote subpar content.

1. Lower Engagement -- Perhaps the first card to fall – as users find their way back to a streaming service from a faulty promotion, when they start content and don’t complete it, or click into a channel and spend little to no usage on that channel. Despite having a strong upper funnel conversion point, it’s fools gold. Over-hyping content will no doubt frustrate a user lowering their confidence enough to abandon their session.
2. Subscriber Churn -- Lower engagement typically leads to all-out churn. While a user can re-discover new content, they must just outright give up on the service, canceling their monthly fee or removing the app given there’s so many streaming options to choose from. As of March, 2023 average annual churn rate was holding at 47%, and anticipated to increase by 1 to 2% by the end of 2024. This is the largest cost to streaming services and a direct impact to profitability.
3. Brand Damage -- Promoting subpar content can be a brand suicide mission. Fickel audiences expect quality and value, and when bombarded with uninspired content, they associate that negativity with the platform itself. This erodes trust, leading to user migration, making it even harder to acquire new customers, leading to potential financial losses. Worse, the low-quality label can stick, making it difficult to recover brand reputation in the future
4. Lower Revenue -- Promoting ineffective content hurts the bottom line in multiple ways. Firstly, frustrated subscribers are less likely to renew, leading to churn and lost revenue. Secondly, negative word-of-mouth discourages potential subscribers from joining, hindering growth. Finally, the focus on quantity over quality can distract from investing in truly engaging content, which is crucial for attracting and retaining a loyal, paying audience.
5. Layoffs & Talent Exodus -- When a streaming service prioritizes quantity over quality, subscriber dissatisfaction and financial losses can follow. In such scenarios, cost-cutting measures like layoffs are often implemented, impacting not just entry-level positions, but also leading to an exodus of top talent. This loss of experienced individuals can further hinder the platform's ability to produce quality content, creating a vicious cycle that can be difficult to escape.

…and why would a billion dollar streaming service knowingly do this?

Sounds lame, right? But yes, streaming companies will promote ineffective content knowingly.  While there could actually be over a dozen reasons, here’s what I would consider four typical reasons, that I’ve seen first-hand.

Unsavvy partnership deals – Legacy, “cronyism” or self-serving deal

Some streaming services are locked into unfavorable content deals, due to either outdated contracts (legacy), coziness between decision-makers (cronyism), or a focus on short-term profits over quality (self-serving deals).

These deals can result in subpar content being offered to subscribers, raising questions about whether the streaming services are prioritizing their viewers.

Limited understanding of user preferences

Despite collecting vast amounts of user data, streaming services might struggle to truly grasp what kind of content their audiences crave.

While they track watch history, this data alone might not reveal the nuanced preferences that drive viewers to pick one show over another.

Inability to objectively evaluate content – Over-indexing on hype and trends

This headline warns of getting swept up in fads and excitement, leading to a poor ability to judge content on its own merits.

Instead of critical thinking, decisions are based solely on popularity, potentially overlooking valuable content that doesn't have the initial buzz.

Lack of analytics in place to measure impact

It's surprisingly common for even large companies to have data science or BI teams struggling to function effectively. This lack of data-driven insights can lead stakeholders to make content decisions that miss the mark.

What’s your responsibility in all of this?

Let's be real about something --  data science teams in even the biggest companies can be more "Frankenstein's Monster" than a finely tuned machine. But be very realistic about your options; a total data overhaul might be wishful thinking, but for now, here's what a product or marketing manager like yourself can actually do.

If you worked at Amazon, you would have to adhere to these two leadership principles. "Have a Backbone; Disagree and Commit" and "Insist on the Highest Standards." Basically, when content decisions don't feel right and even if it's just a gut instinct, politely push back. Don't just say ‘yes’.  Instead, morph into a data-wielding superhero. Gather intel, conduct user research, run some A/B tests – anything to back up your argument with cold, hard facts.  Even if you can't single-handedly fix the entire data situation, you can be the guardian of good content strategy, one data point at a time. After all, wouldn't you rather steer the content ship based on a map, not just wishful thinking?

In the comments of this post, please tell me about an experience you had either working for a content company or as a user where you were being pushed into some less than stellar content.

POLL: HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED THIS FIRST HAND?

#streaming #StreamingFatigue #OverhypedStreaming #StreamSmarterNotHarder #CuratedStreaming #marketing #contentmarketing