“Web Series:The Natural Born Killers OR

Transformers?”- A Perspective-

Authors:

Neha Nandurkar – Saregama India

Pravin Nair – Hansa Research Group

For:

Qual360Asia

PLAN?

Saregama, a leading music label of India & Hansa Research Group, a reputed research organization got

together

Idea being - validate company plans to foray into the new-age entertainment

avenue : ‘YouTube’

INTENTION?

Seek insights & validation;

CAN ‘Web series/Web movies’ be the new wave in entertainment

‘value’ system

QUESTION?

The dichotomized path in front of Saregama India was whether…

…to go with the flow?

To join the bandwagon of ‘User Generated Content ( UGC)’, the key

motif that runs through most content on YouTube –The path of least

resistance

…to further its conviction of ‘value’ in the proposition

To choose the path less travelled – the path in which the company had its conviction in and come-up with a

production and cost heavy proposition?

Thus, a Qualitative research study was embarked upon with a Falcon’s eye on deciphering :

Viewer affinity levels for ‘YouTube’, and thereby, arriving at the optimal content architecture for YouTube….

What therefore, is the road ahead for ‘Content as we view it’ on YouTube?

Foundation of the research and hence the paper

For remarkable product connect, it is imperative to understand which emotions are congruent, offer sustainable liaison and create effective boundaries for consumer from lapsing out

Through such an understanding, the apt ‘hot buttons’ can be leveraged for establishing a positive relationship-connect with the consumer which turns fruitful in the long run too

In our presumption, presence or absence of consumer loyalty can be rooted to or be traced to the mental chord of ‘I find value in it, emotionally this brand feels close to me…I feel ‘mine’ in it”, etc.

In other words, every offering has an emotion and/or a set of emotions that are expected to go with it – sometimes it helps to play safe and go along with the traditional but sometimes Not!

Therefore, the moot question that stands out for the marketer is – ‘What if I rebel?’ ‘Will the distinctive value in my content create more waves or will it rock my boat?!’

…contd.

Thus, towards this presumption, we conducted a Qualitative research study for, ‘decoding consumer affinity with YouTube; what brings-in the affinity, what is/or may take away this affinity in the times to come and what can ensure it to sustain

BASE PREMISE

‘Web movies/Web series will be the new destination as far as

‘value-seeking’ on YouTube goes’

TWO FOCI

Central focus: YouTube – What stops it from being a wholesome entertainment destination – is it the current

content of Web movies/Web series??’

Peripheral focus: YouTube – the connects & disconnects

Sample Coverage

We restricted our purview to 3 metro cities of India, since the idea was to visit the opinion-leaders

Males and Females in the population were covered in the modal age group of 14-35 yrs., belonging to SEC A households

’Digital experts’

(The objective here was to gain a diverse spectrum of perceptions and therefore the respective profile criteria)

Detailing the approach

PR

EMIS

E The premise of our approach was the concept of ‘HIGH EMOTIVE AROUSAL’ CONTENT

• Since the idea was to focus on whether the content being consumed was EVOCATIVE (and therefore, engaging enough) in the context of entertainment

CO

NST

RU

CT The route adopted to

achieve the above was -use of Emo wheel from Robert Plutchik’s classic ‘Wheel of Emotions’

• A tool containing a range of defined emotions, which we used with a fair judgement of the ‘degree’ that was aligned with each emotion – be it connect or repel

DEV

ICES The tactics employed in

doing so were Hansaresearch's in-house methods; Social’ise and Vox-Pops***

• Whats app interactions, Facebook /Twitter chats, One to one interviews and Peer interactions (done through VOX POPs) – none were spared!

***each of the above stated in brief in the subsequent slides

Detailing our basic premise

EMOTIONAL AROUSAL & EMOTIONAL DISTANCE The former tells us how heightened the experience is for the viewer, while…

The latter tells us how close or far he feels the particular content is

Emotions and AFFECTIVE evocations are integral to the sentiment of…‘I feel/wish to view’ to build engagement pathways

In other words, the content should connect at any of the touch-points – be it of – slice-of-life, emotion-evoking, aspiration, identification etc.

In context of the paper

It was insightful to see how content on the same platform was reacted to with such variety

○ Despite distinctive age-nuances, social and demographic status, psychographic variables viewers across articulate the inherent need for ‘value’ in the content

A peek into Plutchik’s Emotion Wheel and how it was leveraged for the cause

Identifies a spectrum of 8 basic emotions from which branch out further dimensions:

○ joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger and disgust

○ Establishes relationships between these emotions

In context of the paper

It was imperative to understand what content evoked positive associations and what content repelled and what encouraged neutral appeal

○ Through such an incisive understanding, the hot buttons can then be leveraged to create stickier bonds with the viewer

This bond is nothing but what gets translated in what viewers call ‘value’ in the content

The Viewer and his (ec)centricities..

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A VIEWER

We sat with UGC & Web Series Loyalists, observed their viewing styles and patterns, noted their affinities, neutralities & revulsions w.r.t the content on YouTube

THE ‘EMOTION’ GAUGE

Post the assessment, we introduced the MOOD BOARDS we had designed, inspired by Plutchik’s Emo Wheel - which spelt out not only the core emotions of the EMO WHEEL but also its many facets

Respondents were asked to associate the affinities, neutralities, excitements & revulsions to particular moods, emotions in the mood board in conjunction with their viewed content

The ‘non-verbals’ and ‘verbals’ were both gauged to map the key evocations to the particular affinities or lack of them (as the case may be)

In brief the in-house methods and what they yielded

Affords anonymity and privacy

We had closed groups/communities moderated by the

researcher, thus responses not getting affected by any group

dynamics or physical settings

No specific timings during the day, respondent could log in and

respond at his convenience

‘Social’ise

An expedition customized to the needs of the study

Met TG at the point of interaction with the category

(YouTube)

Ended with a visit to respondents’ homes and/or usual

hangout joints

As this doesn’t depend on the memory of the respondent, the

information obtained helped in developing strong hypothesis

about WHO they are… what they consume etc.

@College canteen

@Cafe

Vox-Pops

All of the above led to decoding

of…..

YouTube - UGCYouTube – concept

of web-movies, web-series

What attractedWhat engagedWhat wowed

What repelledWhat disconnected

What bored

What alienatedWhat forged affinity

The ‘volume game’? The ‘value game’?

The YouTube terrain…

The Mirror ‘dominantly, as of today’ - excerpts from the consumer speak

Time-pass, Filler

Short videos on all topics

Latest & hot in music and

movies, but that’s it!

“YouTube has these light videos…they might not make sense but they are

time pass when you want to kill time!”“….it no doubt is my

information source for what is hot! but can’t keep watching

the same stuff again and again”

“it is a good time pass while waiting at the bus stand,

waiting for children outside their school…”

The Not So Obvious quotes that raised our antennae!

Just because they are the most viewed doesn’t make them for

me!...what’s in it for me?! I ask that question for

most videos on YouTube….

I think the new web series ‘Perfect

Roommates’ is so real and show the youth

in such a believable light They are not just made…someone took efforts to

know ‘us’ and what we like

Web series is to YouTube what FB was to

Orkut..Updated and a sexy

makeover

These quotes and many more, without any reservations, make a strong case for ‘evolving or transforming’ the content and add some ‘distinctiveness of its own’ to YouTube

Certain age-specific nuances – having an interplay with how YouTube was consumed

We tried to dig-deep into this ‘fascination’ for UGC and rather found some ‘operational’ reasons for the affinity

• Limitation of personal handsets and data connectivity

• Limited attention spans

• BUT – is what UGC gives irreplaceable?

• CAN that not be replicated by web-series/movies?

14-16 yrs.

affinity to UGC content highest

Seek content that is increasingly mature in lines of being ‘censored’ and slice of life

• Hence, may not have any ‘loyalty’ towards YouTube content per se today, but the list of favorites on TV certainly promise strong in-roads for the former

18-24 yrs.

ones with the ‘rebel’ streak

Seeking content that is fresh & relevant

Forms the largest viewing base and migration from TV to YouTube has already begun

27-35 yrs.

‘looking’ for content that feels ‘me’

Web Series – some un-webbed truths in the course of research

Constant satiation for the instant gratification generation

This content has shown the free-will to play with the ‘duration’; from 15 minutes to 50!

This makes them the crunchy snacks, as opposed to melodramatic sagas which are indigestible

Sporadic ingestion intervals add to the talking points or creates intrigue around this content

This makes one want to be a part of this ‘club’ – inducing high FOMO

○ “Nobody wants to show that they don’t know what web series is about.. It makes them appear either outdated or boring”

Zero censorship is ‘cool’

“Discussion on anything related to sex is still taboo, but here I can be myself”

…contd.

The tonality of this content adheres to relevant causes (without dramatizing them/sounding preachy) and uses humor as sub text

They are hence the new markers of the morphing times and identities

Brands can connect directly without the rif-raff of advertising breaks & distractions

“ TATA TIAGO makes a constant appearance in the show “Tripling” which is about a road trip that becomes the reason for three siblings to come to terms with their dysfunctional lives”

The Naked TRUTH from all our data mining and analysis

Highly saturated content = Dull

Jack imageSo it needs to

MOVE….

YouTubePlusYouTube2.0YouTubeNxt

YouTube has a change agent in the form of Web series – novel & innovative

Volume aggregator value differentiator to

…and what Emerged?

Interesting nuances of how different slices of content evoked different emotions

UGC content evoked a ‘non arousal emotive state’

○ Evocations that came to the fore - serenity, acceptance, interest, cosines, plain fun – a clear lack of any distinct emotional registers

While for WEB SERIES viewers, we realized that the emotional vocabulary was flush with “high excitement/arousal/intrigue”- evocations were thrill, awe, submission, ecstasy, grief, disgust

Hence, Web Series emerged as a more sustainable & engaging content platform (courtesy higher memorability or take back value) vs. UGC

EMOTIONAL PROXIMITY

HIGH LOW

EMOTIONAL AROUSAL

ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT

Therefore….

A case gets made to reinvent and evolve….

Content has to evoke and emote

Content has to involve and engage

Implications for MR industry, Marketing, Audience

The process was rooted and realistic – as it used the visual representation and list of qualifying adjectives w.r.t. emotions help in understanding and aligning emotions across content variety with more accuracy and clarity

The process and output revealed a relevant route to deriving cues for marketing communication

While FMCG advertising is still rooted, largely in the mainline/TV space, there is a huge potential for lifestyle brands to explore short movie/ web episode formats as the route to capture consumer attention

Captive audiences online merit a degree of engagement which is much more focused and pointed

The use of finite, consumable web formats with episodic hooks, low entry and exit barriers, is further bolstered by the direct availability of audiences which are both online savvy and lifestyle rich

This represents the proverbial ‘cheese’ for the nice/lifestyle marketers who do not have to go scouting for their target- he is just a click away, so they just need to spin their web!

With the proposed content – are we moving from momentary entertainment to a more evolved, lasting and sustained content?

To summate - a thought to be reckoned with

“Indian customer is as much a value seeker as any of her counterparts abroad. The only difference is that India is an extremely heterogeneous society, culturally and financially…and this means that the definition of value varies dramatically across social segments…And for marketing guys, to identify the rational logic that needs to be given to the customer, is the key to building the ‘value’ in the proposition..

…what else defines the behavior of a customer who pays TWO times more for DTH services than he has to pay for cable in spite of getting the same channels or pays THREE times the ticket price at a Multiplex than at a single screen

hall for the same movie...These categories have got their ‘value’ story right! get the value definition right, and customer will join you and pay!”

- Mr. Vikram Mehra, MD Saregama India