The Quest For A Universal Interface, Omnichannel Gets Quantified

1. The Quest For A Universal Interface

Bundles are very much in the news these days, and one of the biggest—a joint Max-Disney bundle launched this week.

It’s a great deal—you can get the ad-free bundle of Hulu, Disney+ and Max for just $30/month (a 38 percent savings over individual subscriptions)  or the ad-supported version for just $17/month (a 34 percent savings.) Plus it is a month-to-month deal, not an annual one, which is surprising for reasons I’ll get into later.

But the one thing you can’t get is a universal interface for all three apps, and that is something that continues to drive viewers absolutely bonkers.

Why It Matters

According to the Disney+ website, you get “access to select Hulu content in the Disney+ app” and “access to select HBO content in the Hulu app.”

But that is about it.

Meaning that you do not get the sort of “here is everything you have access to all in one place” interface that consumers crave given that they’ve had such a thing since the dawn of cable.

Now I get why all the various streaming services want to steer consumers to their own interfaces (Data! Control! Promoting new series!) but they don’t seem to get why consumers view this as a suboptimal experience and why “confusing” is a word so often used to describe streaming.

It is notable that there’s some level of Reese’s cup magic in the new plan, that Max is willing to at least use Hulu as a discovery device for its shows, but that’s a start, not where we need to end up.

That stubbornness on the part of all the players is what is slowing down the shift to streaming and, more important, pushing people to other media platforms (YouTube, Spotify, TikTok) where the experience is much smoother and there’s not the sense that you are being manipulated.

That’s the thing most of the streaming services seem to completely ignore, that while it’s great for them to collect all sorts of data and to keep consumers on the platform for as long as possible and to plot out their “user journey” through your site, it’s not a particularly good experience for the consumer.

And that more of them would sign up and watch more hours if it weren’t such a rotten experience

What You Need To Do About It

If you are one of the streaming services, you need to do more of what WBD and Disney are doing, namely working together. 

Only all of you need to do so and you need to bring the people who run the operating systems into the mix so you can create an interface that works for consumers while still giving you the sort of data and control you need to reduce churn.

If you are a consumer, sit tight—it seems they are starting to figure things out.

If you are interested in a fun take on bundles, keep your eyes on Marion Ranchet’s Streaming Made Easy Substack for a replay of the Battle of the Bundles debate.

2. Omnichannel Gets Quantified

Back in the days of big hair, big shoulder pads and John Hughes movies, there was not much need to do omnichannel measurement. People either read print ads in newspapers, magazines or outdoor billboards, heard them on the radio or watched them on TV.

Meaning that TV was the only place they saw video.

That’s changed of course, and now viewers see video ads on television, on random websites and on social media. 

Maybe not always the exact same ads, but close enough.

Which is why it seems a good idea to measure them and to understand the overlap between social audiences and TV audiences.

Why It Matters

Enter iSpot and Comscore.

iSpot just announced a deal with TikTok that will help brands understand the overlap in audience reach between TikTok and linear TV.  Lest you think this is an unimportant percentage, iSpot introduces their first stats from the program which showed that a whopping 58% of TikTok impressions were unique, e.g. the audience had never been exposed to the linear TV campaign. 

Stats like that help make it easier to plan across all platforms by providing insight into which viewers are being missed and which viewers are getting double-tapped. This leads to better media planning in general and the ability to switch up creative to avoid burn-out in particular. 

Or, to put it in simpler terms, it allows advertisers to use TikTok ads as yet another means of achieving incremental reach, while also giving TikTok-first advertisers a way to gain a similar understanding of how their audience watches TV.

So overall a broadening of the reach of their campaigns by realizing that people don’t consume media in a silo.

In a similar vein. Comscore is now going to begin measuring YouTube across all digital devices, CTV included.

This is very important as more and more YouTube is being watched on an actual TV screen. As per Nielsen’s The Gauge, YouTube-on-TV has beaten out Netflix for the past two years and running.

So understanding how and where viewers are seeing YouTube is important for the same incremental reach reasons as iSpot measuring TikTok and as a way to let YouTube advertisers know which of their YouTube ads are being watched on an actual television set versus an iPhone. That will impact everything from ad rates to what creative is used. 

And will likely only add fuel to the “Is YouTube really TV?” debate. 

What You Need To Do About It

If you are an advertiser, you need to thank iSpot and Comscore for adding to your understanding of how your video ads are performing and the audiences they are reaching.

If you are TikTok and YouTube, same advice, because the more you can integrate with TV, the more indispensable you become to advertisers.

If you are the media industry in general, remember that while it is true that people watch TikTok and YouTube for different reasons than they watch TV and the experience is markedly different, if you’re seeing the same ad 10 times in a single day, none of that is going to matter, especially if it is the same exact creative unit. 

If you are the TV industry in particular, pretending that social media video does not exist or is easily outgrown is a losing battle. Admit they exist, embrace them as second cousins once removed, and make them a part of the family. That way, everyone wins.