What Quality Can Look Like & How It Can Be Delivered

I don’t like Game of Thrones. I watched Season One, fell asleep a lot while doing so, and decided the show isn’t for me.

When I admit this to people they look at me like I have two dragon tails for arms. And then I get told something like, “You just need to get into Season Two. That’s when it all starts coming together and people die all the time.”

This passion — the sort that inspires an individual to defend a choice at all costs — doesn’t surprise me. Game of Thrones is an HBO show. And when HBO nails it and develops a hit people get passionate. I know this because I love Sopranos, True Detective, The Newsroom, Big Little Lies, and WestWorld.

You can argue that HBO changed TV by raising the bar when it came to what we could expect to see come out of the main box we have in our homes. Today, the game changer of TV operates in interesting times.

Like Netflix, HBO operates through a subscription model. But unlike Netflix, HBO doesn’t release all of its content at once so we can curl up on the couch with two sandwiches, a bag of chips, two bags of pretzels, and a bottle of cola since we’re going to be on the couch for awhile. HBO allows us to breath.

It’s within the act of taking our breaths that HBO’s value grows:

• People talk about the last episode at work, on transit, at bars, anywhere.
• They read reviews and predictions for the next episode, falling deeper down the rabbit hole through Reddit threads and Youtube Channels.
• Then they make predictions of their own, creating pieces themselves that spark new theories and communities.

These things happen because liking an HBO show is like participating in Oscar season: You watch a lot of inspired stories, you debate the merits of those stories, you make bets on which story will be picked as the best, and this all comes to an end with a single event after a few months that involves discussions afterward around what was said and who wore what.

People interact with HBO’s quality content like this:

Netflix shows don’t see the same interactions:

• People binge Netflix shows as fast as possible, leaving nothing to discuss with others except the entirety of the viewing experience — i.e. “did you like it?” “What do you think might happen next season?” “When is next season going to even happen?”
• We consume content about the Netflix show once we’re done but not for that long. Everything exists for a community to discuss and dissect. But making predictions and feeling great about being right about those predictions can’t happen for awhile. So why bother?

Liking a Netflix show is like watching fireworks on the Fourth of July: We “Oh” and “AH” and for a singular moment become entranced and enjoy the surprises that come out of the big bangs then we talk about it with whoever we experienced it with but then the celebration is over and we won’t revisit it for at least another year.

People interact with Netflix’s quality content like this:

You can liken HBO to Apple as Scott Galloway did the other week.

Or you could bow before its blockbuster disruption and view Netflix as the dominant force in television as Daniel D’Daddario did in Variety when the Emmy nominations came out.

Whichever you prefer, it’s impossible to deny that Netflix and HBO are successful. That’s because they’re able to generate quality and as a result sell their stories through one of two ways that Derek Thompson has outlined as:

• Selling something familiar by making it surprising. (Example: Westworld because going to a theme park is familiar but using that to discuss themes of consciousness tied to technology is surprising.)
• Selling something surprising by making it familiar. (Example: Stranger Things because kids battling monsters is surprising while nostalgia feels like the salt to familiarity’s pepper.)

Brands can earn interest like HBO or Netflix.

Brands can sell things by being familiar with a surprise.

Brands can sell things by being surprising yet familiar.

Brands just need to choose.

And making a choice and becoming dedicated to it has a name: Strategy.

Long term strategies can be like HBO: a drip, drip of quality that sparks discussion, debate, and snowballing interest.

Short term strategies can be like Netflix: a splash of quality that earns eyeballs and a flash of “must have.”

Quality is king, queen, empress, emperor, God, Goddess. It always has been. Always will be.

How we create and deliver quality helps to determine a brand’s effectiveness.

So why aren’t we using both approaches more often?