The Rise of Authentic Entertainment

How Do You Entertain a Goldfish? That is the question facing marketers, content creators and the entertainment industry today.

Our attention span is now officially 1 second shorter than that of a goldfish, down from 12 seconds 15 years ago to a record 8 seconds today [download report]. Keeping our interest peaked with content and advertising has therefore become a major challenge.

On August 1, 1981, Video Killed the Radio Star became the first song to be played on MTV in a seminal moment in music history.

Fast forward a few decades and years of brash, rapid-fire imagery and fast editing cuts have taken their toll on our attention span to the point where music TV channels have become irrelevant. Thankfully the days of sitting through endless ads in the hope of watching a music video you might like have been replaced with a quick YouTube search to satisfy our pursuit for instant gratification. Recent stats reveal that “music” was the most searched topic on YouTube. And now that the Internet has all but killed the TV-video star, MTV now concentrates on edgy and controversial reality shows that appeal to its younger audience.

However, this is not entirely true because the medium has simply evolved and given birth to an entirely new breed of content celebrities with the rise of vloggers.

Sophisticated audiences are turning their back on the world of traditional celebrity and subscribing to chatty, down to earth and relatable people with a strong personal brand. They are not airbrushed and their imperfections are their biggest strengths as they are essentially just like you and me. 

With so many distractions at our disposal, we now struggle to invest our time on a whole album, film or even TV series. Streaming sites such as YouTube are providing an antidote to the time stealers from the past and point out that 90 percent of mobile sessions last for only 10 minutes or less with the average length of the most-viewed YouTube videos being just 31-120 seconds. If your washing machine or cooker stops working, a growing number of savvy consumers will also search for a guide or tutorial on how to fix the problem as video content continues to explode at a phenomenal rate.

Smartphone screens are becoming larger driven by increasing demand from online video viewers. With every release our apparent thirst for bite-sized chunks of user-generated video content naturally increases. Do remember that for most of the world, the smartphone is the only internet connected computer and source of video entertainment, and most users tend to use an app to watch video content.

The spotlight is moving away from the glamorous world of magazine covers and red carpet premieres towards video bloggers who simply broadcast their observations, thoughts or snapshots from the daily routine. It's this brutal honesty and ordinariness that oozes authenticity that is attracting massive audiences of people sick and tired of the fakery broadcast by traditional media.

To put things into perspective, gaming vlogger Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie who uploads videos of himself playing video games on YouTube, has nearly 40 million subscribers to his channel with 10 billion views to date which is considerably larger than many of the famous TV shows that are household names. And not unlike a famous TV star, Felix earned $7.4 Million in 2014 and raised $1 Million+ for charity. Channels like PewDiePie work on a rev share basis where YouTube keeps 45% of the ad revenues that can vary on a CPM basis from $0.30 to $10 per thousand video views. Felix is not the only vlogger on YouTube of course. vlogging at the top end is big business and the top 1000 vloggers with 900k+ monthly views can average $20k+ per month of net revenue.

Among the 18 to 24 year olds, Nielsen’s recent research reveals that almost 30% of these consumers’ traditional TV viewing time has migrated to streaming in the last 4 years. That’s 8 hours a week of less TV and more internet video than 4 years ago! In fact since just last year, this group of consumers are now watching about two and a half hours of less TV each week implying that the show they were watching on TV last year, they are probably now streaming on Netflix or some other internet service. In line with this migration to internet video, eMarketer predicts online video ad revenue to hit ~ $13 billion by 2016.

The introduction of multiple screens has ensured that we no longer enjoy passively watching TV any more. Our appetite for constant stimulation means we surround our favorite armchair with an array of devices such as smartphones, tablets and even the aging laptop for company. There is even an increasing number of second screen apps that promise to enhance the viewing pleasure of our favorite TV Show.

The genie is most definitely out the bottle. While over-regulated companies struggle with constraints, everyday people merely armed with an authentic voice and a camera are leading the way for a new generation in entertainment.

The biggest shift in our entertainment habits is that our desires now yearn for personalized content that we can relate and engage with rather than just passive viewing. Whether your choice of video content is a Hollywood blockbuster or a blogger in their bedroom, they all have one thing in common and that’s to engage with their viewers who have a bewildering amount of choice at their fingertips on a variety of screens. 

Viewers often dissect every scene of their favorite TV show and are well educated in writing techniques and the building of a narrative. We have essentially become too smart for our own good after learning the secrets to the magic sauce and this has just left everyone yearning for something real, authentic and engaging.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you. I write a daily blog on leadership, innovation, careers, tech & self improvement. Here are some other articles I have written. If you like what you read, please feel free to follow me here on LinkedIn or via twitter @anuragharsh.