What Can Netflix Teach Us About Content?

IN OUR MEDIA STATE CONTENT IS THE PRESIDENT

So who’s re-enlivened their previously cancelled Netflix account because the new series of House of Cards has started? I did, and I wonder how many people didn't actually have to do this because they forgot to cancel it when they finished watching it at the end of last season?

10 minutes in front of the TV quickly drives home how important original programming and good content has become in recent years, with marketing’s much vaunted and much sought after competitive advantage being a television programme that no one else has got. House of Cards is a prime example of this.

And the interesting thing for me is that the companies with the exclusive content are not just TV channels or entertainment providers. Neither do they all seem to be fighting for a greater share of the same market.

Netflix is a great example. It started off as a disruptive influence in the 90s when it took on video shops and won. And many of you, like me, will have taken a month’s free subscription four or five years ago and found it to be a graveyard of “straight to video” movies and Channel 5 favourites.

Jump forward, and following the success of Breaking Bad and the risk it took to fund House of Cards, Netflix has catapulted to the front of the on-demand subscription service queue, while also breaking new ground on harnessing the huge amounts of data their subscribers unwittingly produce. On the face of it, it’s a virtuous circle of good programmes = more subscribers = more good programmes, as demonstrated by Netflix’s latest collaboration with Marvel.

Then you throw Amazon Prime in to the mix. Like Netflix, Amazon disrupted what seemed to be a pretty safe bet when they provided an alternative to book shops. And like Netflix they did OK.

Again, I've tried it out. I came for the free one day delivery (in December) and left for the ￡79 annual subscription (in January). Amazon’s play, as well as its pricing model is different to Netflix. It’s got the remnants of LoveFilm to deal with (although this no longer involves posting DVDs) so they've got the back catalogue, but is that the end game? Or is it the fact that if they can lock people in for one day delivery for a standard annual price then they’re more likely to buy everything from them? Reports suggest that Amazon Prime members buy three times more than other Amazon users.

But how many people are being put off by the one off fee even though it’s less than Netflix in total? Not that many actually; Amazon claimed a couple of years ago that they had “tens of millions” of Prime members, with estimates on the revenue generated of $4 billion.

They too have now started to produce their own programming to give us all more of a reason to go for it. And I'm getting close because I feel like I'm missing out. And they've also found that members are more likely to renew their membership if they’re streaming video. So members buy more and renew more as a result of the content. It’s all starting to add up isn't it?

“It’s nothing new though Dean”, I hear you cry. And you’re right. Much of Sky’s dominance is because it had the foresight to invest massively in the Premier League early on which forced people to take a subscription.

Again, another pricing model and another play. But that landscape too has started to change. Despite Setanta trying, failing, and taking down a few football clubs with them, BT has come diving in, initially to pick up a bit of Premier League football before swooping in for the Champions League rights. For ￡897 million. But what’s their end game? Judging by the fact you get the football free if you take the broadband it’s clear BT’s after your pipe. And they’re not the only traditional telecommunications company looking at this – with Vodafone reportedly interested in the latest ￡multi-billion Premier League auction as well as Tesco's own under performing TV-on-demand platform Blinkbox.

So in B2C, it seems that if you've got content no one else has, you've got a good chance of increasing market share and driving business. But what about B2B? If you’re reading this, then you probably spend a decent amount of time on LinkedIn and you know that there is more than enough content to go around and everyone is producing it.

It’s been reported that if you counted every grain of rice in the world it would still be less than the amount of content produced by B2B companies each year. I just made that up by the way – but it’s perhaps believable for a second. Increasingly there are more marketing companies that will help you make your content better and proliferate it more successfully. But the killer point in all this is - are you creating B2B content that people want?

Clearly when deciding what original programming to commission, anything with a charming anti-hero who we can root for while at the same time loathing is the way to go. That or the most watched professional sport in the world. There doesn't seem to be the same for business though.

I'm not going to stop trying though – and I hope you don’t too. I've read great articles, and downloaded great whitepapers and guides. And the thing they all had in common was that they dropped in front of me at the right time and were interesting. And most of the time I was pleased that I’d read them.

So I started to look at more useful B2B content for Alternative to drive and we’re in the middle of producing it. When we publish it would be great if you downloaded it, brilliant if you shared it with people you thought would find it useful and even better if you fed back to us afterwards.

In the meantime, a fitting quote from our House of Cards hero, Frank Underwood, which I think resonates with everyone, followers of the show or not – “Pay attention to the fine print, it’s far more important than the selling price.”