Hanna Kahlert

Hanna is one of our expert analysts, helping drive MIDiA’s research into the future of digital entertainment. Her key areas of interest are cross-entertainment audience behaviour, the creator economy, and social platforms.

"The meme made me do it": Why consumption often has nothing to do with what is being consumed

Hanna Kahlert

7 Sep 2022

meme

morbius

gentleminions

The powerhouse cast and director of Don’t Worry Darling gathered for the film’s premier this week in Venice, enjoying a five-minute standing ovation and critically acclaimed reviews. In the words of lead actor Harry Styles himself , “like, it feels like a movie.

min read

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Lean-through consumption
Communities are key

Hanna Kahlert

August 2022

Spotify

YouTube

Netflix

Entertainment consumption is increasingly shaped by context, as consumers are driven by attention saturation to overlap behaviours as well as choose between them. Different forms of entertainment are better suited to different contexts, with some lending themselves to more social behaviours than others.

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TikTok
A fandom community powerhouse

Case Study

Hanna Kahlert

August 2022

Media and Marketing

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The cost-of-living crisis is here; it just has not hit entertainment yet

Hanna Kahlert

31 Aug 2022

recession

cost-of-living

Entertainment

The attention crunch in the wake of ended lockdowns and resumption of ‘in real life’ (IRL) activities has not been as pronounced as feared. Hints of it have been visible in the drop in Netflix subscriptions in Q1 of this year, which was also attributed to the war in Ukraine and banning of Russian accounts.

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Hate-watching: The rise of contextual consumption

Hanna Kahlert

24 Aug 2022

binge -viewing

hate watching

Netflix

In the over-saturated entertainment ecosystem , attention is the name of the game. All propositions are competing for the most focused attention, striving for more dynamic engagement , and trying to find and monetise superfans for all that they are worth.

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If the cultural ‘in’ cycle is speeding up, what will sustain entertainment?

Hanna Kahlert

19 Aug 2022

Entertainment

Cultural trends

attention recession

When the first season of Stranger Things entered the zeitgeist in 2016, its set, soundtrack, and all-around vibes fit perfectly with the 80’s cultural revival of the time. Americana ‘hipster’ was out, and retro was in; neon clothes took over the streets and House beats dominated the airwaves.

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Re-creating the creator economy

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar, Ashleigh Millar, Tatiana Cirisano, Annie Langston and Richard Broadhurst

August 2022

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Streaming first democratised the means of consumption, then distribution, and now production. Though the promise of the long tail may not have materialised quite as expected, long-tail and mid-tail creators are now a central component of the digital-entertainment economy.

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Has the NFT and crypto hype met its match in an IRL cost-of-living crisis?

Hanna Kahlert

10 Aug 2022

crypto

etherium

NFT

Where have all the NFTs gone? Nine months ago, you could not go twenty minutes in the industry without hearing the term. The concept was intriguing, nebulous – a potential answer to the disquiet of a digital-entertainment industry seeking new clarity on the concepts of ownership and value in a streaming-first market, with audiences prioritising access over ownership.

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If the future of entertainment is niche, how does the Meta approach fit in?

Hanna Kahlert

3 Aug 2022

Instagram

Kim Kardashian

Reels

The last week has undoubtedly been a hectic one for the developers of Instagram, which recently began trialling a TikTok-esque, video-first focus on its app to some users. The update was not well received, with Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian themselves coming out and sharing the plea to “make Instagram Instagram again”.

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The rise of the lean-through superfan
Post-Covid trends of UGC creation and entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

July 2022

Twitch

Instagram

TikTok

The Covid-driven entertainment boom is over, with ‘in real life’ activities taking back ground from the 12% of additional time freed by lockdown measures. The attention crunch is compounded by a cost-of-living crisis, driving consumers to make savvy choices about how much they spend, and on what.

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The Morbius fandom misread

Case Study

Hanna Kahlert

July 2022

Audience Insight

Media and Marketing

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The video attention reboot
How video is being impacted by the attention recession

Tim Mulligan and Hanna Kahlert

July 2022

Creators

Netflix

roku

With the attention recession in full swing following the lockdown boom, video isalready feeling the pinch as evidenced by Netflix’s declining subscriber count.The mainstreaming of subscription video on demand (SVOD) pulled TV into the digital entertainment sphere, placing it at risk of further disruption from the attentionrecession.

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Stranger Things, Queen’s Gambit, and Bridgerton
Finding the balance of creation and consumption

Case Study

Tim Mulligan and Hanna Kahlert

July 2022

Netflix

Content strategy

Stranger Things

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Winter is coming, and Amazon is ready: why the multi-service major is raising its prices

Hanna Kahlert

27 Jul 2022

cost-of-living crisis

oil

Attention

Subscription fatigue is already threatening the Covid-driven entertainment boom as post-pandemic behaviours compete for time, money, and attention with the digital subscriptions that thrived under lockdown measures.

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Are we headed towards subscription fatigue?

Hanna Kahlert

21 Jul 2022

Subscriptions

fatigue

NFT

When streaming first made headway in the entertainment world, it shifted the very dynamic of consumption. Ownership became a status symbol of yester-year; access to everything, at all times , was the new value driver.

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Twitter versus Musk will decide the future of social

Hanna Kahlert

14 Jul 2022

elon musk

Twitter

Social media

In a turn of events, Elon Musk has backed out of his dramatic, very public proposal to buy Twitter. It is a broken courtship characterised by bad-faith public exchanges , on-platform polls, and plot twists.

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Advertising
Marketing in the era of lean through

Hanna Kahlert

June 2022

Xbox

Twitter

Twitch

Audiences have shifted, first towards the on-demand content delivery model, and now increasingly towards lean-in and lean-through engagement behaviours as a native part of consumption. Advertising strategy and marketing tactics have also had to adapt accordingly.

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Taco Bell’s TikTok Musical with Doja Cat and Dolly Parton

Case Study

Hanna Kahlert

June 2022

Media and Marketing

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Music streaming is failing to foster cultural moments – but it does not have to

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jun 2022

Streaming

heat waves

glastonbury

Listening to music is, and has always been, an intrinsically emotional experience. Music does not appeal to rational dialogue or scientific evidence; it directly evokes the feelings beneath. It can be sought after by the listener to evoke an expected response – to be uplifted, calmed, or comforted.

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Meta leans in to the creator economy

Hanna Kahlert

21 Jun 2022

Meta

Creator economy

NFT

MIDiA has written much on the premise of the emerging ‘creator economy’ ; a dual-sided concept that highlights both the increasing opportunity for creators who already exist, from music to video to social content, as well as the emerging trend of the consumer-as-creator.

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