15% Gen Z, 20% Gen Y, 11% Gen X
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THE TRENDERA FILES Trendera THE NEW MEDIA ISSUE Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2018 NBCUniversal THE TRENDERA FILES: THE NEW MEDIA ISSUE CONTENTS INTRO 4 CONTENT OVERLOAD 39 40 Short Form Content 41 Long Form Content 42 Gaming MACRO TRENDS 43 Music 7 44 Internet Culture 8 Hype Machine 45 New Media: Who’s Doing It Right 12 Gaming the System 16 Why So Serious? NOW TRENDING 48 BY THE NUMBERS 49 Entertainment 20 51 Lifestyle 21 Methodology 54 Fashion / Retail / Shopping 22 Streaming & Mobile Reign TrenderaSupreme 57 Digital / Technology 26 TV Personalities & Shows 28 Entertainment Behaviors 30 Online Videos 32 Movies STANDOUT MARKETING 60 33 Gaming 35 Social Media 37 Putting It All Together NBCUniversal2 TABLE OF CONTENTS WHAT’S HOT 65 66 Gen Z Kids 68 Gen Z 13+ 70 Millennials 72 Who’s Hot 76 Digital Download KNOW THE SLANG 78 STATISTICS: GEN X, YTrendera & Z 81 NBCUniversal3 THE TRENDERA FILES: THE NEW MEDIA ISSUE You heard it here first: the golden age of entertainment is officially over. However, before the alarm bells start ringing, let us clarify: we are no longer in the golden age of entertainment because today, entertainment is everything. We live in an attention economy where viewership, clicks, and likes control influence, relevance, and the bottom line. Consequently, every experience, product, and piece of content is being created with the entertainment factor in mind—from news stories and video tutorials to influencer personas and bathrooms (yes, bathrooms). All of this sounds good in theory—after all, who doesn’t love to be entertained?! But for marketers and content creators, it means that creating compelling media has gotten that much harder. Should you be live streaming content on YouTube, IGTV, Facebook Live, or Twitch? Working with mega influencers or micro influencers? Taking a stand on today’s political issues or keeping quiet? While the answer to theseTrendera questions will of course vary from brand to brand, at the end of the day, everyone— whether you’re a person, brand, or both—is on the hunt to capture all those coveted eyeballs. From the trends to the statistics to the pop culture updates, we hope this report gives you exactly what you need to do just that. Enjoy! TRENDERA NBCUniversal4 INTRO Trendera NBCUniversal5 THE TRENDERA FILES: THE NEW MEDIA ISSUE Trendera NBCUniversal6 Trendera MACRO TRENDS NBCUniversal7 THE TRENDERA FILES: THE NEW MEDIA ISSUE HYPE MACHINE It’s an amazing time in entertainment, Thanks to the hype machine, content where there is far too much content itself is but a ticket to entry, an invite to choose from and far too little time to the proverbial water cooler where to get through the few things we love. seemingly everyone is discussing, While viewers wish they could check analyzing, and posting. What viewers out every new HBO epic, buzz-worthy are really after is the joy that comes Netflix binge, meme account, web with understanding the Game of series, and “woke” network comedy, Thrones reference in their favorite there simply aren’t enough hours in fashion blogger’s Instagram caption the day. Therefore, viewers are forced or the feeling of pride knowing their to make some tough choices about repeat viewings of Black Panther where to invest their most valuable (2018) contributed to its record- commodity—their time—when it breaking success. comes to entertainment. More and more, viewers are not only choosing While this sporadic collective to invest in content that increases obsession is indeed short-lived, if there their social currency and relevance, is enough anticipation and excitement they are relying on the media hype around something, the hype drives it machine to tell them what that is. to the forefront of the conversation— What’s more, it no longer matters and when nothing bigger and better whether something “lives up to the is going on, it can stay. Take Drake’s hype” so long as consumers can be a latest album, Scorpion: earning a part of it. paltry 6.9/10 from Pitchfork, “the most trusted voice in music,” the album was Indeed, at any given moment, media good, but not great. However, the hype outlets seem to converge around a machine had already gone to work few select pieces of entertainment and generated a cultural firestorm deemed new, exciting, and/or surrounding the album, it became a relevant: in TV, it’s often content on record-smashing success. Meanwhile, Game of Thrones,Trendera Black Mirror, and Netflix has further strengthened its The Handmaid’s Tale making the cultural cred with a slew of micro hits, rounds. However, pop culture moves most recently (and surprisingly) with so quickly that even in the golden Set It Up (2018). During a relatively age of entertainment there are not slow entertainment weekend in enough quality offerings like these June, Netflix dropped the original to satisfy viewers before they are on romantic comedy, which was far to the “next big thing.” As a result, from groundbreaking but managed successful entertainment—and the to capture the internet’s attention hype needed to make it so—now boils and garnered tons of praise and buzz down to whatever is most exciting online. and newsworthy in the moment, quality or not. NBCUniversal8 MACROINTRO TRENDS In today’s fast-paced entertainment landscape, there is space for anything to thrive with enough hype and the right timing. While some of the best entertainment ever is being created right now, quality is no longer the most important thing captivating audiences. Trendera BOTTOM LINE: Part of the fun of entertainment today is being a part of the hype. Rather than being “the best” in the entire entertainment landscape, content only needs to be the best thing available at the moment and the allure of the hype machine will do the rest, if only for a weekend. NBCUniversal9 THE TRENDERA FILES: THE NEW MEDIA ISSUE Trendera NBCUniversal10 MACRO TRENDS SCORPION: Despite tepid reviews from industry staples such as Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, Drake’s Scorpion drummed up enough hype to become an inescapable staple of summer 2018. It’s clear that audiences were drawn to Scorpion for reasons other than the album itself. For instance, Drake’s one-liners are an Instagram favorite and fans were no doubt listening for their next caption. In addition, Scorpion’s release came hot on the tails of the artist’s very public “beef” with rapper Pusha T, adding to the buzz. Finally, shortly after the album’s release, influencer Shiggy’s dance to “In My Feelings,” a track off of Scorpion, went viral inspiring the #InMyFeelingsChallenge on social media. Between all the record-breaking success, drama, and virality, Scorpion turned out to be a bonafide hit: Fans turned out in droves, catapulting the album to a record breaking billion streams in less than one week, 27 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, and—perhaps most impressive—7 simultaneous Billboard Top 10 hits, shattering the previous record of 5 held by The Beatles since 1964. NETFLIX’S MICRO-HITS: Content continues to be king and Netflix holds the crown (pun intended) when it comes to sheer volume. While many of these properties fly under the radar, every now and then one captures the attention of the cultural zeitgeist: star-studded rom-com Ibiza (2018), Emmy-nominated Queer Eye, Gen Z favorite The End of the F***ing World, and now, viral filmSet It Up (2018). In the film, Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell star as two assistants who, after a meet-cute (of course), conspire to set up their respective bosses played by Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs. As expected, what starts as scheming between strangers quickly evolves into something more. The result is a charming, if formulaic,Trendera feel-good love story that harkens back to the golden age of rom-coms. However, the appeal of Set It Up isn’t solely in its content, but its context. Debuting June 15th, the same weekend as The Incredibles and Tag, the film had little direct competition at the box office as well as two other major advantages: viewers didn’t need to leave their homes to watch and have lower expectations of movies viewed from their couch than in the theater seat. As word spread online, more people tuned into the film, and the buzz aroundSet It Up snowballed inspiring countless listicles, tweets, and chatter online touting its greatness. NBCUniversal11 THE TRENDERA FILES: THE NEW MEDIA ISSUE GAMING the system By now, we all know that influencers Buying followers and using Instagram are important, ubiquitous, and bots, for instance, are commonplace valuable—for anyone still questioning (and not recommended), but methods their staying power, consider that, of exploiting algorithms are according to Adweek, influencer changing by the second, including marketing was estimated to be worth hacking Instagram’s “Public Figure” $2 billion in 2017 and is predicted verification and strategic commenting. to reach $10 billion by 2020. At Additionally, getting attention at any the same time, brands, in an effort cost has become a popular technique, to capitalize on this new cult of especially useful for a growing class celebrity, are pulling out all the of influencers who earn attention stops to cater to them, from Revolve and money through shockingly bad sending its ambassadors on lavish behavior and generally just being the vacations wearing cute clothes to worst. Steakhouse Boston Chops spending over $10,000 on an “Instagram table” But what may be most indicative for influencers to take pictures of of the future influencer landscape their food. are influencers who aren’t even human, but CGI personalities. With both people and brands With entire identities and lives recognizing that social media constructed from the ground up, following and engagement are worth these figures demonstrate that social serious cash, the influencer landscape media influence is influence period, has quickly become cutthroat as regardless of whether the personality everyone wants brands’ special is real or virtual.