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“How do you make sense of everything that’s going on right now?”
That’s the No. 1 question we get from our media clients, brands, portfolio company CEOs… and of course, the press. And who would blame them? Last week was one hell of a week of announcements. When we started listing all of the headlines, it felt like we were constructing a verse to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
VERSE 1:
Meerkat, Snapchat, Facebook lets you tap that (data).
DataSift, thank you, brands can properly target you.
HBO prices its OTT, Verizon partners with AwesomenessTV
Twitter TV Timelines, and an Apple Watch too…
“We didn’t start the fire…it was always burning since the world’s been turning.”
Only now… it’s turning a LOT faster… and execs not paying attention are definitely getting burnt.
So here are a few thought-starters on how to make sense of it all. Let’s keep it simple and think about how these stories impact the fundamental drivers of the entire industry: It’s by creating and delivering the right content, across the right platforms, to the right audiences… leading to greater monetization and ROI for all involved.
Right Content, Right Platform:
Meerkat & the #CreatedWith Approach to Storytelling
Almost as if in response to a King Cobra’s strike, Meerkat really catapulted into the limelight this week (well, at least the media/tech limelight).
Why should we care? Because the creation of content is increasingly becoming democratized and networks, brands, and storytellers are all shifting from a created FOR audience approach to the #CreatedWith approach (a trend about which BRaVe has written quite a bit).
Meerkat is the perfect platform to accelerate the #CreatedWith approach to storytelling—whether in the hands of show producers, talent, social influencers or simply the average fan. Here are a few examples from one of BRaVe’s experts in residence, Alan Wolk.
There is no doubt Meerkat (and likely Periscope, if Twitter figures out how that is getting sorted out) will accelerate the #CreatedWith approach to storytelling which should be a boon for brands, networks and talent/influencers. That said, there’s going to be a lot of REALLY bad “meerkat-ing” going on.
Right Content, Right Platform, Right Audience:
Facebook + Datasift Providing Greater Access to Insights
Finally! Facebook let’s us take a peek at all that data. Their deal with DataSift is a HUGE step forward in empowering marketers to leverage the power of the Facebook platform to better understand the audiences they are targeting which should accelerate the process of creating the right content, on the right platforms, to the right audiences.
Monetization:
Snapchat Stories are Being Sold for What?!
Despite already knowing this privately, we were cautiously excited by the public news that Snapchat and savvy networks like Turner are fetching BIG dollars for such a nascent platform like Snapchat. We say “cautiously” because boy does this sound familiar to the stories and discussions around Twitter Amplify when it first launched.
Advice to Snapchat: while this might be your first time co-selling, it’s definitely not for the networks—many of whom did not have a frictionless first ride with Amplify. Learn from the challenges Twitter and the networks faced.
But bottom line, bravo to Snapchat, nets like Turner and brands like Taco Bell for being BRaVe and figuring out a way to monetize the content being published on the platform.
Right Call to Action:
Nielsen + BRaVe “Total it Up”
And finally, as every exec in this business knows, a strong call to action is often critical to the success of a campaign. We at BRaVe couldn’t agree more (as you can read in our linked name above), and couldn’t help ourselves in responding to a recent call to action around measurement, a topic everyone is wrestling with. Specifically, Nielsen’s call to action to “Total it up.” Essentially, Nielsen asked the industry to help it solve the measurement across screens issue. We offered to help, starting with actually totaling up all the social activity around TV, not simply the Twitter activity—as #SocialTV is not measured solely by Twitter, something TV showrunners, network social teams, agencies and brands all know and companies like Listen First have clearly shown.
So take a quick look at our Jerry Maguire-esque call to action to “help me, help you.” We’re here to accelerate the success of the entire ecosystem.
New York City-based BRaVe Ventures —founded by David Beck, Jesse Redniss and Gary Vaynerchuck—works across the entertainment and technology ecosystems to advise, accelerate, invest and incubate business opportunities. Redniss is a member of the PromaxBDA Board of Directors. Follow BRaVe on Twitter @WeAreBRaVe.
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