Differentiating in Streaming with SaaS

Have your cake and eat it.

SaaS has its compromises, doesn't it?

What if it just didn’t.??What if SaaS provided all the established benefits - speed to market, shared and pay-as-you-use economics, a wealth of established and ever growing features and the stability of being common code that has been exercised by many other users before you got to use it - with none of the potential downsides – feature compromises of a shared environment and challenges in differentiating with everyone using the same service.

The challenge of differentiating isn’t really relevant if you’re using SaaS to run your accounts or internal processes but if you’re looking to run a streaming video or TV service, which you want to truly reflect your brand, niche content and perceptive audience, then it absolutely does matter.

So the assertion that one app, one codebase, can deliver rich product differentiation strongly smacks of an oxymoron.

One app; data-driven design?

Most streaming apps on the web, on mobile, in TV app stores and on TV streaming devices (such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV or smart TVs) are designed for purpose. They fit with the service’s design template and populate this with data-driven scheduled or requested content. But some streaming apps are different.?

In some apps the actual layout, the whole UI/UX, the design, is also data-driven, which effectively means they don’t exist until you tell them what to do, what the design should be.??In this case, if the design tools are powerful enough, the one app can produce an endless variation and combination of designs to completely differentiate and reinvent itself in the market. All branding and colour pallets, all menus, playlists and collections, their size their shape, indeed with a string of design attributes associated with all aspects of the service, the one, stable, tried and tested, common codebase app can provide all the differentiation you’ll ever want, whilst still delivering the time, stability and economic benefits SaaS brings.

One app; data-driven metadata

The more astute readers will be now wondering about the metadata associated, not just with the content, but also the service itself, the UI/UX. What if I don’t really have any mainstream TV like content? Rather I want a Netflix-like service for the obscure art of culinary fermentation, live cooking events with eco-warrior chefs helping us change our habits for the better, or I’m representing a football or cricket club with a wide range of interesting, if distinct ways, to define and label my content and menus, so that it can be discovered by people in ways that relate to my unique market.????

Indeed, as long as you can define and add as many of these labels as you want, you can also have rich data-driven customer journeys throughout your streaming service, e.g. moving on from the current chef masterclass video you are watching, to content offering similar fermentation styles, or by the same chef, or with similar ingredients, or in the same autumn season, or anything else that makes sense.

What’s more, being able define these categories and contributors yourself, you could now go to social media to ask your audience and customers how they would like to discover content, and then add it – what could be more differentiating than that!

One app; data-driven markets

This theme of differentiated services doesn't have to stop with differentiating from your competitors or other streaming services, it can also apply to your own service, your own audience and customer base. They too are different, by country, by age, by time, by device, by usage, by loyalty or likelihood to churn – so it makes sense to also be able to data-drive the whole service, including UI/UX, so you can further differentiate by market segment to offer each segment a relevant experience, by varying the UX, the content on offer, the pricing & promotions or even the brand.??

In summary

We’ve written, talked and, if you’ve seen a demo, shown the market a lot about what a ‘One App data-driven Streaming Service’ means and why it is so powerful. For those still asking, I hope this provides some good insight into just what that means.

Data-driven design, with data-driven metadata and data-driven markets provides unprecedented differentiation capability. The fact that this is executed through a ‘one app’ SaaS service really does mean you can have your cake and eat it.??For our own clients we believe this ability to differentiate on a SaaS platform, with all its associated benefits of stability, speed to market and underlying economic advantages, will secure their future and ability to experiment and grow.

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In an industry needing to swiftly adapt to a changing landscape forced on it by the streaming revolution, it makes sense to have an agile streaming facility to call on. An outsourced partner can offer a powerful combination of ease, speed, quality and economy that are needed in a rapidly changing, results-driven industry, allowing for the introduction of innovative revenue streams and the ability to gain market share.?

For more information on how Easel TV is streaming ahead and can help your business expand its revenue streams, please?get in touch by emailing [email protected]