Media & Entertainment

Industry Report Media & Entertainment Fun 2.0: re-inventing entertainment in a pandemic world Report Title | Sub-Slogan 11 Introduction 2020 was a year of contrasts for the media & entertainment industry. While half of its businesses laid dormant, with concert halls, movie theaters and theme parks deemed non-essential in the midst of the pandemic, the rest of the sector, from gaming companies to music producers, was busy figuring how to feed an exponential demand for information on the pandemic and online leisure while driving their business. Many brands now fear the unknown: how will the consumer emerge once the current restrictions are lifted worldwide? How will they be able to benefit from the reopening, to relaunch in a post-COVID society? In this report, we have analyzed millions of consumer conversations, from social media to blogs, forums and news sites, to track how behavior has changed over the past year and identify the most relevant conversational trends brands can leverage to retain customers, drive revenue, and reduce costs. We’ve broken down our analysis into five key sections: • Overarching conversations - Music, movies and TV shows become remedies for pandemic stresses • Sports - When events move online: the reign of esports, virtual events and streaming platforms • TV Shows & Movies - When OTT platforms redefine the entertainment industry • Music - What do artists do when there are no live concerts? • Media - The rise of audio (and Clubhouse) 2 Overarching industry conversations - Music, movies and TV shows become remedies for pandemic stresses In a year of global crisis, media & entertainment played a big role in helping people cope with sudden lifestyle changes and uncertainty, while also keeping them informed about the pandemic. In March 2020, COVID-19 conversations formed a large chunk of the media & entertainment discussions, with around 28% of the conversations related to the pandemic. Music, movies and TV shows were the outlets that people turned to in order to have a sense of normalcy in their lives, and they extensively discussed their favorites on social platforms of all kinds. Fast forward to 2021, and Conversation Clusters shows that people are less concerned about the pandemic. COVID-19 is still part of the discussions, albeit in the periphery - current developments like vaccinations and the continued need for masks are the themes. People have exhausted their cache of entertainment and are craving more content, eagerly anticipating new releases of their favorite TV shows and movies. More than a quarter of the conversations encompassed movies and TV shows, while music continues to soothe people as lockdowns persist. With the restarting of sports in mid-2020, the excitement at the culmination of annual sporting seasons, especially European soccer, has crept up in the conversations. 3 Music, movies and TV shows were trounced by COVID-19 conversations at the onset of the pandemic (period: Feb-Mar 2020, Talkwalker Conversation Clusters). At the beginning of 2021, COVID became less of a concern as music, movies & TV shows became the best medicine for the pandemic (period: Feb-Mar 2020, Talkwalker Conversation Clusters). 4 Sports - When events move online: the reign of esports, virtual events and streaming platforms As the world continues its transition back to in-person events, entertainment remains at a hybrid stage. Gaming and esports have become a (even more) major source of entertainment and community across all age ranges, while traditional sports leagues are still looking for the right balance between physical events and the safety of the attendees. The emergence of esports and the eSerie A With gaming gaining a place in many households throughout the last year, we decided to map the conversations around the industry. As shown below, many people today are discussing the benefits of gaming, watching videos of streamers playing a variety of games, and joining communities of gamers. We also saw the rise in popularity of indie games such as Among Us, Hades, and Fall Guys, as players around the world craved new ideas from the gaming world. Main conversations around the realm of gaming and esports between January and April 2021 were captured through Conversation Clusters. 5 An interesting cluster was that of esports, as it attracted the usual gaming crowd but also viewers of live sports, given the many complications of watching and attending these events in the last few months. In Italy, the professional football league, the Serie A, launched their esports initiative to get closer to their audience during a time when they could not visit the stadium, with each Serie A team creating its own esports equivalent to represent them in this new digital competition. The PES account, where the eSerie A games are being played, retweeted the season tournament’s draw and got over 5K engagements on Twitter, as Serie A teams also joined in to spread the word. Conversations in the last few months have grown with the beginning of the season. There was an initial spike in Febru- ary, when the official account of the Serie A league tweeted about the online tournament draw, with fans clamoring for this new event. Partners such as Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), the football simulation video game where this tournament takes place, as well as Serie A teams like AC Milan, joined in spreading the buzz. In the first quarter of the year, we saw how the teams were a big part of conversations around the eSerie A, and Atalanta and Sampdoria were the most mentioned. 6 Seeing the conversations around the eSerie A, we found the 10 most popular teams, with Atalanta at the top as people viewed and commented on the highlights of a game in mid-March between this team and Inter for the bracket playoffs. As the eSerie A continues to grow its audience, partnering with video game platforms as well as local teams and sponsors will help bring bigger audiences to watch the matches on the league’s Twitch and YouTube channels. Streamers are the new influencers With users having more time on their hands due to lockdown or other restrictions, and platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube, and Twitch at their disposal, there was a significant uptick in the production ofuser-generated content across the web. Large numbers of influencers took on the hobby of making videos and posting remixes, yet the most popular format seemed to be live-streaming, especially on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. A good example of this trend is Ludwig Ahgren, an American streamer who decided to launch a “subathon” on Twitch, a sort of telethon in which he would stay on air for 20 additional seconds with each new subscription he received. Twitch tweeted a goodnight message to Ludwig Ahgren only two days into his livestream and got over 62K engagements, as seen on the virality map above. Ludwig Ahgren completed 31 straight days of streaming, a feat that has raised his rank from the 11th most popular English-language channel to the top most subscribed streamer on Twitch. Only two days into his subathon, the official Twitch account tweeted a goodnight message to him, which got over 62K engagements. 7 Talkwalker’s image and video recognition feature allowed us to find what brands are being shown in the most engaging posts on Ahgren’s subathon, and Twitch is clearly dominating this conversation. The subathon itself has not only raised Ludwig’s popularity, but it has also made more people talk about the platform. As shown on the most engaging posts around his subathon, the Twitch logo has popped-up in many conversations. With people more and more interested in video, and in live-streaming, brands will have to monitor how their logos are being presented on-screen when thousands of viewers are watching, or find ways to become part of these conversations. Safety as a key aspect of live events As the sports industry looks for ways to bring people back into stadiums, we have seen events like the Super Bowl and the Australian Open limiting the number of attendees at their events to reduce risk of contamination. Even though vaccination efforts at a global level are underway, sports authorities are still taking precautions to promote a safe environment for attendees. In the United States, Major League Baseball’s return was highly anticipated, given the previous cancellation of the MLB spring training, as well as the delay of the start of the season due to the pandemic. In April, players and fans alike were able to return to the stadium in some capacity, thanks to an array of safety measures. 8 Masks were the prevalent topic of consumer conversations around the restart of MLB games, followed closely by the limited audience accepted in stadiums. Of the variety of safety measures and protocols that were implemented for the MLB games, masks covered one third of conversations, as people had to use them throughout the game, unless they were consuming food or a drink. Many stadiums decided to open stadiums to fans at a 25% capacity, to maintain social distancing measures. Another important measure has been to keep all areas as clean and sanitized as possible, with hand sanitizer dispensers widely available and multiple sweeps of restrooms and other facilities throughout the game. New York launched a vaccine passport application, generating over 45K engagements, as it explores the best way to show negative COVID-19 results and vaccination records for events. One of the least discussed measures so far, is showing a negative PCR test or proof of vaccination to enter the establishments. As more people receive vaccines around the world, many countries are trying to find the best way for people to carry around this proof of immunity, or show results of recent tests.

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