Must Reads Drop 0724
This wee I brought back my must reads newsletter from a seven month sabbatical. I now call the newsletter a drop, it will likely be monthly, a little more like a mixtape was than a weekly newsletter.
Why The Sabbatical? We are in the biggest content tsunami we have ever been, constantly bombarded by content, whether thats video, audio, web or app based content and to be honest it is hard to cut through, especially in an email newsletter.
The Backstory: For nearly ten years every week without fail I sent out Must Reads, firstly as an internal newsletter and then once a handful of people asked me I opened it up and broaden it out further.
Why Bring Back Now: I have been writing daily on this blog, I wanted to get back into the flow of content creation and curation and then see how it felt to write it. I actually have 3 drafts that I never sent as it didn’t quite feel right or land well enough when I sent to myself.
So rather than copying and pasting it, here are the 5 most popular stories and my Netflix deepdive:
Most popular top down
BNPL to attempt to replace credit cards (what could go wrong)
Netflix 80 games release (to leverage IP and become gaming relevant)
Charli XCX summer of brat taking over (if you’re in Marketing or Growth dive deep into this music and cultural push)
Netflix Deeper Dive
Netflix Expansion Issue: Gaming is Netflix’s newest approach to capturing and owning your time and attention, the issue for Netflix it’s costing the consumer more money (away from ad tiers) and their bet isn’t paying off for now. Research is showing it’s only one game that is remotely popular. The same happened with other brands, but will this large investment be worth the added pain and expense for the consumer I highly doubt it in the short to mid-term.
Netflix's Game Portfolio is Dominated by a Single Game
Netflix is using the classic dominant media company playbook, leverage your own IP and create more media and games around it, even suggesting 80 games based on their IP. They attempted this already with podcasts but maybe this is the way to win in gaming and owning more of your time on multiple devices. LinkedIn (yes LinkedIn), YouTube and Netflix are all competing to be your canonical media company whether that’s through native content, entertainment series or games.
Below is a quote from Netflix’s shareholder letter about the importance of advertising to Netflix moving forward, with the pricing packages going up to be more profitable; the quality of its programming and cultural relevance of programmes are going to be critical for their success and continuing to open our wallets each month.
“Ads fulfil two important strategic priorities for Netflix: first they enable us to offer lower prices to consumers; and second, they create an additional revenue and profit stream for the business.”
