Engagement Entanglement

20 years ago, entertainment lived in what we watched on TV, and our TV was our compass that navigated our entertainment in the real world. Now, phones have widened the available channels of entertainment, which in turn has shattered the Golden Gate Bridge between TV to real world entertainment. Gaming, to cable, to physical media, and even live entertainment are among the plethora of once widely adopted entertainment avenues that have been roadblocked by smartphones. The obvious resolution to phone's reign of terror is what we've coined as 'Engagement Entanglement': a new normality in the space, in which entertainment brands respond to the industry's growing vertical integration through convergence and horizontal integration with adjacent players.

Look no further than the sports betting and prediction markets rise to prominence, which largely has been propelled by their Engagement Entanglement with sports leagues. Sports leagues depended on sports betting to increase audience engagement, stimulate ticket sales, and sustain relevance. Meanwhile sports betting companies depended on sports leagues to have a steady downstream pipeline into sports fans. Moreover, the volume of high-fidelity TV and film adaptations of video games has surged by over 30% annually since 2019. Which has allowed for gaming companies to outmaneuver the troubles the mobile gaming industry has caused their engagement levels as well as allowed for Hollywood to maintain relevance through under-cinematized but hyper-popular IP universes (i.e. Super Mario, The Last of Us, Minecraft etc.). You can even point to traditionally digital real estate first brands like Netflix adopting physical spaces ‘Netflix House’ for omni channel Engagement Entanglement or F1’s expansion into arcades and live entertainment spaces. While Engagement Entanglement can net dual upside for both entertainment brands, it can also pose collateral damage for both parties as well.

The absence of big data solutions that help legacy brands identify the lifestyle choices & cultural trends of their audience outside of their channel(s) has catalyzed a myriad of audience misaligned Engagement Entanglement schemes. Frankly, how is Sony Pictures supposed to discern which one of their IP universes possesses the strongest affinity for video games? How is UMG going to know which of their artists have the most high affinity fanbases for movies and TV shows in deciding who to have star in their upcoming films?

In an era of Post Peak TV and decision fatigue, juxtaposed with revenge spending, the question is how can risk be averted and upside be maximized with Engagement Entanglement? Especially while there's no central layer that combats the fragmentation plaguing the entertainment space and helps ensure possible high intent users get routed to hyper targeted entertainment options. And there's no dashboard interfacing live cultural trends across all their desired demographics modeled to help identify trends & overlaps amongst their desired target users. At the time, UNI described a two-app model: PopWatch for streaming entertainment and The UNI app for live entertainment. The video below shows that product concept.

Moreover, thanks to Social DNA we're able to supply advertisers, studios, and brands with bespoke dashboards & reporting tools to predict trends before they happen, see where the greatest affinity overlaps are amongst their desired cohorts, and make even better decisions on which channels are most aligned for Engagement Entanglement. Check out the video below for a demo of the dashboard.