The impact of Insights on entertainment

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We have another great interview with Natasha Hritzuk , VP of Consumer Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery . She's the winner of the international Insight 250 Award, where Crispin Beale digs into the impact of Insights on entertainment and to better see how she delivers consumer understanding in order to drive the strategy and creativity of storylines and characters.

Crispin: With the dynamic nature of the entertainment industry, can you talk about the importance of understanding audience trends, behaviours, and preferences?

A critical facet of our work is shedding light on the needs, motivations, and values that trigger behaviours and shape trends. These psychological drivers tend to be more stable, predictable, and enduring than outwardly expressed behaviours and preferences, which can shift and change at a bewildering pace. We’ve seen, for example, a rise in nostalgia viewing across generations and couldn’t figure out why kids born in the 2000s were so interested in shows from the 90s. When we started to investigate what was underlying this trend, we found that social needs were a key driver: first, bonding between Gen X parents sharing their favourite old shows with their kids; second, kids wanting to be part of broader cultural conversations around shows that were shaping the zeitgeist.” Natasha Hritzuk

What role do insights play in driving media strategies and decisions, and how far out are these strategies generally being developed?

Insights – particularly when they deliver a depth of consumer understanding – are essential to shaping cross-business strategy. Drawing on the example of nostalgia viewing, once we uncovered the critical social role it plays across generations, we’ve been able to draw on that insight to shape content strategy. If we are interested in creating content that drives co-viewing and brings families together to watch a show, then we need to understand the narrative components of shows that drive bonding. We have a focal point for development and testing if we know what outcome we are trying to achieve.”

Where do your greatest insights come from?

Insights come from so many sources! In my experience, the most powerful insights come from seeing a pattern emerging from discrete and multiple sources. Seeing an insight crop up across different studies, from research conducted at different points in time or using different methodologies with different samples – this type of validation is potent. It reinforces that insight has staying power and is capturing something critical. There is also a bit of art to insight generation. Seeing patterns in the data definitely triggers your insights radar, but there is also this sense of “knowing in your gut” that this insight is real.”

Do you feel it is more important to understand consumers or competitors fully? Why?

We always start with the consumer. I believe that the more you have a deep consumer understanding, the more adept you become at anticipating their needs and delivering what they expect. That gives you a competitive edge, particularly if you have clarity around what your company does well and where there is white space (unaddressed needs not being served by any company in the competitive set). If you are only gathering competitive intelligence, it takes a lot of extrapolating to see where you can win or differentiate from a consumer perspective.”

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