IR Lessons from White Collar Crime Shows

The Dropout, WeCrashed, Inventing Anna - in the last six months, we have seen streaming giants parade consistent releases of binge-worthy, fraud-related productions.

It’s almost as if Disney+, Netflix, HBO, & Apple TV+ MEANT to coordinate these big-budget releases within weeks of each other...you finish one, have another one ready to start.

In reality, what might seem like a well-received coincidence is actually years of in-depth trend research, data-informed decisions, and granular planning coming to fruition.

The Netflix movie that is turning into a viral meme or the HBO show that is taking over TikTok - executive producers bring these ideas to market with data-driven decisions on how to create virality. Our 2022 fascination with white-collar crime in media was planned by studios years ago.

Keywords, viewership patterns, trending cultural movements, and hundreds of other data points created these shows and orchestrated them to hold our attention.

Interest in true crime has been steadily growing for the past five years - in fact, if we had to wager a guess, the concentrated spike in interest at the beginning of 2020 likely kicked off the planning phase for this very phenomenon.

This process of reverse engineering is used by studios to determine what productions are worthy of investment and suitable for future market demand.

Believe it or not, these same tactics can be utilized in your investor relations strategy. Here are a few direct learnings:

1) It’s not a zero-sum game.

You can use others’ success as a catalyst for your own. Understanding how competitors and complementary businesses are currently positioning themselves can be hugely beneficial. Use that insight to develop your strategy for PR flow, acquisitions, special announcements, collaborations, and investor outreach.

The more touchpoints on a topic, the higher the chance of virality and receipt with positive sentiment. A company succeeding in your space can be good news, when used to inform your own success. It can indicate market appetite and be a key learning resource.

2) Act like a savvy, modern investor.

One of the most impactful modern investment strategies, social arbitrage, uses the same data points that producers and tech companies do to understand and anticipate the macro trends on the horizon.

Viral trends on social media, traffic growth for particular search terms, increased discourse on particular online forums/topics... all of these can be used to understand investor sentiment, anticipate what’s coming, and plan accordingly. Chatrooms and forums like Reddit & Discord are useful places to mine this type of data and analyze how general demand & investor perspective is changing over time.

3) If you’re trying to capitalize on today’s trend, you’re late. Plan for tomorrow.

Chances are, once the general public is experiencing a trend, it’s too late for it to be an effective strategy for your future. Instead, ask these questions: What will investors be saying in three months? What trends are gaining in popularity that relate to your business, and how can you position effectively for them when they hit the main stage?

Although there are a million variables and there’s always a risk of your positioning not paying off, you can build strategies that are future-proofed by refusing to chase yesterday’s trends. Stay abreast with user interests today and build a communication strategy that will keep them coming back for more tomorrow.