Reports: Social

Social platforms constitute their own market within entertainment, contributing to and competing with more traditional forms. Get unique entertainment insights on attention saturation, creator economics, the “death of the (digital) town square”, and more

Cover image for Lean-through consumption

Lean-through consumption
Communities are key

Hanna Kahlert

31 Aug 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.

Cover image for The rise of the lean-through superfan

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

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jul 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.

Cover image for Advertising

Advertising
Marketing in the era of lean through

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jun 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.

Cover image for Social media user snapshot

Social media user snapshot
Q1 2022

Hanna Kahlert

30 May 2022

YouTube Facebook Twitter

This report presents country-level snapshots into the social media usage, engagement habits, and ad tolerances of different social app users. It covers Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok and Discord across MIDiA’s nine surveyed markets of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea and Brazil.

Cover image for Profiling the social media footprint of niche entertainment audiences for Web 3

Profiling the social media footprint of niche entertainment audiences for Web 3

Hanna Kahlert

24 Mar 2022

Social media social media following Audience Insight

Entertainment audiences are evolving, with digital-first habits – driven by both lockdowns and technology innovations – changing their relationship to the content they consume. Big hits are now just as likely to result from going viral on social media as through traditional paid mass-marketing campaigns.

Cover image for From social media to creator tools

From social media to creator tools
The evolution of UGC

Hanna Kahlert

30 Sep 2021

Apple Spotify YouTube

Entertainment is suffering intense competition as audience attention time, already saturated before the pandemic, is hit by the gradual return of ‘in real life’ activities. A flurry of new propositions over the last year and a half, namely in streaming and social media, are competing on largely similar grounds – making differentiation ever mo...

Cover image for The changing context of consumption

The changing context of consumption
Emerging consumer trends in a re-saturated attention economy

Hanna Kahlert

22 Jul 2021

Spotify Amazon Netflix

Rampant attention competition has driven changes in entertainment consumption itself, exacerbated by the last year’s attention boom. Quality of attention and quantity of attention are increasingly differentiated, making adjacent behaviours more valuable than ever to track sentiment and consumer expression.

Cover image for Ad strategy in a digital-first environment

Ad strategy in a digital-first environment
Rethinking acceptance, tolerance and effectiveness

Hanna Kahlert

3 Jun 2021

Spotify YouTube SoundCloud

Digital-first behaviours and the proliferation of choice have caused underlying changes to how consumers perceive and respond to brands. Brand loyalty has been replaced by content fandom. Frictionless service-switching and overlapping subscription now clashes with high-value content moving between platforms in short time frames and across differing...

Cover image for Social media reboot

Social media reboot
The rise of social 2.0 and the emancipation of the digital native

Hanna Kahlert

19 Apr 2021

Innovation YouTube YouTube

Social media is entering a new phase of innovation. Facebook’s trio of applications, alongside Snapchat, Twitter and other incumbents, still have market dominance. However, the rapid growth of TikTok, Discord and Clubhouse since the coronavirus-prompted lockdowns, alongside a migration to digital-first life, are early indicators of demand for –...

Cover image for Digital consumption habits

Digital consumption habits
How tomorrow’s audiences will reshape entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

24 Mar 2021

Streaming Discovery Discovery

Digital-first access has shaped mainstream consumption, but for digital natives, it has also shaped their core behaviours. Music consumption is now fragmented across artists, becoming a personalised, anytime anywhere activity – making the value exchange more niche and personal.

Cover image for 2020 in review

2020 in review
Lockdown legacy impacts on entertainment

Hanna Kahlert

24 Feb 2021

Streaming Netflix Netflix

Digital connections have filled the void left by real-world activities, globalising culture and experience. Yet this comes at the cost of deepening divides in trust and perspective. Changing economic circumstances have brought about a demographic dichotomy of age and income.

Cover image for Consumer Engagement

Consumer Engagement
Building Sustainable Brands in 2020 and Beyond

Hanna Kahlert

20 Apr 2020

Marketing YouTube Netflix

Brands have an ongoing engagement problem. No matter how much data they use or how targeted they go, competition is fierce, consumer attention is saturated, and all usage comes at the expense of time spent elsewhere. With the ubiquity of advertising, brand choices are as much a personal statement by the consumer to their peers as a testament to tru...

Cover image for YouTube Music Curators

YouTube Music Curators
Media Assets or Next-Gen Labels?

Zach Fuller

13 Dec 2019

Spotify Music publishing YouTube

The rise of the YouTube channel curator was one of the defining stories in music throughout the 2010s, and yet in the era of global success stories such as Kondzilla and T-Series, their place in the music ecosystem is still being defined. YouTube points both towards the potential future of the label and essentially a new kind of visual media proper...

Cover image for Marketing to Streaming Subscribers

Marketing to Streaming Subscribers
Engaging with Social Stories and Smart Speakers

Georgia Meyer

10 Oct 2018

Spotify YouTube Amazon

The most valuable consumers to advertisers increasingly spend time with digital content that sits behind a paywall. Music and video subscribers are particularly valuable due to the influence they have amongst their peer groups and their propensity to be the first to try out new products and services.

Cover image for Snap Inc Q4 Quarterly Results

Snap Inc Q4 Quarterly Results
Much Improved Yet Still Fundamentally Challenged

Tim Mulligan

12 Feb 2018

Facebook Twitter Snapchat

Snap Inc’s Q4 results bookend the company’s dramatic first year of being a publicly listed company. 2017 was the year Snap has had to effectively admit that its rebranding as “a camera company” has, for the moment, failed to deliver—recall Q3’s $40 million write down of unsold Snap Spectacle inventory.

Cover image for Facebook’s Instagram Problem

Facebook’s Instagram Problem
Building Media Strategy In A Fragmented Audience World

Mark Mulligan

9 Feb 2018

YouTube Facebook Facebook

In December 2016 Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was embarking on a path to become a media company, but a media company unlike any other. More than one year on, Facebook’s metrics are revealing just how important this strategy is going to be for the company’s outlook.

Cover image for Snap Inc Q3 2017

Snap Inc Q3 2017
Increasing Costs Overshadow Progress

13 Dec 2017

reporting Snapchat Snap Inc

Snap’s public performance has been turbulent and its stock price has been on a downward trajectory during its debut year under the forensic scrutiny of Wall Street. Share prices fell from $17 during the March IPO, to $12.65 in Q3 2017. This has placed pressure on the management team to adopt a new strategy to, reassure the increasingly sceptical ...

Cover image for Apple Q4 (Calendar Q3) 2017

Apple Q4 (Calendar Q3) 2017
Quarterly Revenue Growth Underpins 2017 Revenue Revival

20 Nov 2017

Apple Apple ipad

Apple continued its sales momentum this quarter with the launch of hardware products such as iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models in September. Both smartphones have incorporated new features, such as augmented reality (AR) technology and wireless charging, to meet the demands of its pre-existing consumer base as well as to attract new users.

Cover image for Snap Inc Q2 2017

Snap Inc Q2 2017
Diminishing User Growth Dwarfs Revenue Increase

31 Aug 2017

Snap Inc earnings results

Snap Inc’s release of its second quarter earnings has been met with negative reception from the financial sector, as the company’s Q2 2017 financial results, which was below analyst revenue projections, led to a corresponding slump in its stock price.

Cover image for YouTube Q2 2017

YouTube Q2 2017
Quietly Bigger And Better Than Ever

Tim Mulligan

31 Jul 2017

YouTube YouTube Google

The announcement in June 2017 that YouTube had 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users was the first official user number since the 2013 tally of One billion unique monthly users. This metrics reticence stands in stark contrast to rivals in the attention economy, such as Facebook, which provides quarterly updates on its continued growth in active users.

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