There’s no denying that the TV landscape has changed drastically in the last several years, especially during the shift from cable to streaming—and companies are continuously finding ways to navigate and tap into audiences despite those changes.
During ADWEEK’s Brandweek event in Phoenix, Ariz., on Monday, experts from across the TV industry tackled the shifting landscape, explaining various methodologies for thriving in a changing space.
Fans don’t only stick to TV schedules
Stephanie Fried, chief marketing officer at Fandom, noted that the TV space has become more complicated in the last 20 years.
Among the difficulties, it’s unclear which streamers have certain programming, show release schedules are constantly changing, and consumers are fragmented across hundreds of different channels and streaming options.
“Everything’s just much more complicated,” Fried said. “It’s great in many ways because we have a lot more shows, but it’s harder to find them, and it’s harder to interact.”
According to Fried, companies such as Fandom can be a solution for navigating the space.
Fandom, the wiki hosting service that features wikis focused on entertainment, has more than 250,000 communities and 50 million pages of content. More than 350 million global users visit the platform’s pages of popular series like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and more.
By tapping into Fandom and similar resources, marketers can better understand what consumers gravitate towards and why, according to Fried.
Streamers are leaning into a pipeline of content
From the perspective of a streaming service, Nicole Parlapiano, Tubi chief marketing officer, said the Fox-owned free, ad-supported streamer is creating opportunities for brands to engage with target fandoms and audiences.
According to the executive, Tubi’s ad-supported audiences at scale set it apart. The streamer offers everything from “Italian Westerns” to “comfort horror,” creating spaces within a massive library to reach broad swaths of fans or niche groups.
“We like to celebrate viewers’ taste and what they like and be able to build a streaming product that’s very custom to viewers to watch,” Parlapiano said.
Ultimately, Parlapiano said Tubi is focused on creating an effective ad-supported experience and knowing “when to serve an ad, how many ads to serve,” and “exactly, elegantly at what breaks.”
