Lifestyle Binge: Netflix’s Engagement Effect on Branding & Creativity

Netflix has made the journey into storytelling more addictive than ever, and my morning commute much more inspiring and enjoyable. Binge watching is a real thing (guilty as charged), serving as the perfect antidote to our stressed out, trigger-ready anxiety fueled by the noise of today. Netflix has become a proxy for the collective longing for escapism, and by doing so it will change how current and future generations consume and shape culture. Lifestyle and fashion brands are already feeling the effects, and by replicating it are enjoying more cultural depth. 

We are living in the golden age of culture and television, and we have venture capitalism, creative entrepreneurship and Netflix’s sexy-smart algorithms largely to thank. And of course, a talented creative class that has come beautifully unhinged at the collapse of the old entertainment complex.

This golden age of content is making us more culturally savvy and open to deeper, more engaging forms of storytelling and dialogue. This is cool and very necessary, especially as a response to the swift, spontaneous and mostly brief nature of social media and its preference for quick formats such as memes. Content binging is also a powerful response to the world of Reality TV, at a time when reality is not too rosy for many. The Netflix effect goes in the other direction and delves into our need for discovery, with layers of depth unavailable in other spaces.

What Netflix has done by making a wide array of fiction available to many around the world is to rewire us to think more creatively and passionately. HBO, the precursor to Netflix, should be given a lot of credit in this space with shows like The Sopranos and The Wire, taking character building and plot development to another level. But HBO missed the personalization formula that runs with the algorithm-induced spark around knowing what you’re into and then serving you streaming content for life. 

The most important effect stemming from the “mainstreaming” of culture on demand, à la Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, will be fueling the next base of creative talent, including our future rock star designers, editors and hyphenated lifestyle entrepreneurs. These young kids now binging on indie comedies and cult-level Scandinavian thrillers will have their future aesthetic and storytelling chops greatly amplified by the Netflix experience. Brands are also taking copious notes.

Lifestyle and fashion houses and brands are thinking more like lifestyle entertainment companies and the better brands are expressing their unique vision of the world and their craftsmanship in multiple video formats, including the more evocative and flexible longer formats of video. Think of what Louis Vuitton has done with theatrical, video-friendly runway shows or culturally immersive experiences such as its “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez,” exhibit. Gucci’s Alessandro Michele has turned the brand into a mini art-house film publisher, with offbeat pieces with characters full of colorful charm and idiosyncrasies.   

What modern, character-driven entertainment today is showing us is the importance of nurturing a unique personality. The following are some lessons Netflix can teach us about how to become a culture disruptor.

1.    Think like an entertainment company.Dial up your understanding of the cultural conversation around you and identify stories and experiences where your brand can make a cultural statement. Go beyond your comfort zone to identify new collaborators, writers, producers and directors whose sensitivities and stories marry well with your vision and vibe.

2.    Go bold with creativity.Take chances in terms of your creative statements. Deliver around the powerful edges of your brand. Think of elements that will spark conversation and will set you aside from the rest. Today is an awful day to be in the middle, so find and amplify the uniqueness of your story. Tap into your purpose and vision for creative content. Think of what Patagonia did, for instance, to take on the POTUS and his administration’s weakening of environmental policies. 

3.    Give campaigns more depth.A greater consumer appreciation for creative depth and cadence bodes well for impactful campaigns. Explore creative ways of taking your story and message in different ways to different media. Find ways of dialing up interactivity, including ways to make the consumer more involved. Think of how Nike encourages its followers to unlock campaigns through specific actions. Finally, explore all the great, creative grit content around the behind-the-scenes. Tap into the popularity of documentaries to give the creatively hungry generation a preview of your brand’s creative ethos.

4.    Deliver personalization.Netflix has perfected the art of mass curation. Think of ways in which you can deliver personalization at scale. Explore more targeted content, niche product offerings, and whenever possible, a high-touch and emotive customer service and sales approach. 

5.    Foster a people-first culture.Netflix broke new ground with its “Freedom & Responsibility” HR manifesto, giving more power to employees. Find ways to encourage your employees to take more creative risks, be more entrepreneurial, and ultimately, be stronger, authentically cool brand ambassadors. For all its reputation around creativity, the fashion industry must do a better job at creating a people-centric approach that allows creativity to thrive; that will be the foundation for creating a truly magical retail experience.

There is something primordially evocative about stories. It takes us back to when we were little, and the world of make believe and reality blended around possibility. It made us feel very big. We’ve lost that over the years and are now craving it. The clamoring for experiences is a needed opportunity for fashion and retail, spaces traditionally seen as shallow, to make a full connection. So go ahead and set creative securities aside and start exploring ways to make your brand a story to remember.

Breaking Through: Branding In the Conversational Era.

As Charles Dickens posited, we seem to be living in the best and worst of times. Technology is revolutionizing how we do things, empowering consumers and enterprises with turnkey efficiencies and innovations, with dynamic platforms for discovery and self-expression. Technology, however, is also bringing us anxiety in the form of media saturation, digital addictions, security fears and overall skepticism around what is real and fake. Add to this a fervent anti-establishment sentiment and political divisiveness, and we are left feeling a bit overwhelmed and stranded. 

We are looking for a pragmatic and uplifting way out of this craziness. Instead, time poor and experience hungry, we want our lives back. To do this we are looking for ways to pare down whenever possible and we are going back to the core. We are seeing this shift towards the center across the board: from the smaller number of apps we engage with, to the rise of more private social networks and cleaner UX designs. This shift towards the core is also inspiring brands to be more nimbly human. This higher, more personalized form of engagement begins by fostering a relationship, which in turn begins with a better conversation. 

A Conversational Shift

Despite all the digital noise, I see a strong hunger and shift towards a simpler conversational approach as a means for centeredness and focus. I see it in the growing popularity of audio formats such as the podcasts and in voice assistants like Alexa and Siri. I also see this hunger for conversation in the disruptive play of Netflix and its focus on quality, immersive, character and plot-heavy fiction. It’s part of a collective want to be lost in a deeper, more meaningful story. There is something magical about a conversational narrative that taps into our childhood memories of stories and lullabies, a perfect antidote for modern living. This shift towards personal connection will have a deep technology and data input, allowing both consumers and brands to calibrate a relationship that feels right. 

Focus on The Human Factor

A good conversation is powerfully simple in its design, involving listening, empathy, sharing stories, connectivity and suggestions. Brands should take this simple design approach to map out relationships with consumers, inspiring a brand experience that provides ample room for discovery, feedback, customization and community sharing. The novelty of this approach today is the ability to carry a human lens but have it increasingly powered by technology and AI. Think of all the powerful inputs we have from consumers today, from product reviews to shopping history, and new inputs like voice and visual search. Near is the day when your car will adjust to your mood, with highly sensitive privacy options, of course. 

Purpose Play

One of the most powerful ways of sparking a conversation and a relationship is by letting your consumers know what you stand for. Think of what e-retailer Everlane has done around radical transparency as a response to fashion’s infamous human and environmental problem. Purpose can be the icebreaker and the conversation starter while you open up the brand experience for engagement. Purpose should also be your core foundation for a content strategy. Think of what IBM has done around the idea of building a “Smarter Planet,” and how that lens informs the entire brand experience, resulting in innovative ideas, fun infographics and inquisitive copy enticing the disruptor in all of us. 

Storydoing

Today’s consumers want to be the part of the conversation and the creative process. They want to inspire your products and campaigns. Explore ways of letting them into your creative thinking, involve them in ways both formal and informal. Allow your most ardent followers, for instance, to beta test a product or service and build on that feedback. And then have the actual campaigns be as interactive as possible. Think of what Nike has done with its apps by having its sneaker heads unlock exclusive content and product drops. 

A New AI Era

New tools and processes are helping brands pinpoint the sociocultural conversations taking place and the role they play in them. Push new consumer queries: how are they consuming media, what are they discussing now, why are they dropping off in your journey? You can find ways of reaching them through a people-centered approach that prizes their behavior over the medium they consume. This new AI era will help address one for the biggest issues impacting consumer-facing brands, and that is mediocre customer service. Smarter bots and other emotional AI solutions with natural language processing will do a better job at tapping into consumer journey prompts such as search entries, questions, visual search history, etc. They will arm e-commerce capabilities and traditional customer service with functional and emotional intelligence. 

Amplifying the High-Touch

Outsourcing what humans don’t do well will only leave room for those things we are good at where we can inspire customers. I’m confident this new conversational era will prize a better brand experience that includes lifestyle experts, personal selling and customization. Think of what Apple has done with its “Today at Apple,” and “Genius Bar” concepts, making a resolutely high-tech, design-driven brand a very human, conversation-centered experience centered around creativity. This human factor should be one of the ways you spark engagement. 

Listen & Keep Your Finger on The Pulse

A good conversationalist is one who listens. Keep your brand grounded in shifts impacting the consumer and your brand and business. For instance, find ways of addressing America’s current societal division by exploring brand-right unifiers. What can you do around common values and other unifiers including music, sports, the power of local, etc. Think of emerging trends such as the rise of play to make your brand voice more visionary, playful and interactive. Explore how you tap into the shift towards agility and customization to speak to an entrepreneurial base through language that is to the point and through engagements that tickle their builder mindset. 

Alternatively, a sharp ear will also set a framework for diligent brand protection. Put in place security systems to protect your brand, including social media policies, strong data protection systems, processes to constantly canvass your traffic and infrastructure to determine weak spots. From a conversational perspective, use social listening tools to gauge emergent voices hostile to your brand to find ways of neutralizing or addressing these exposure areas. 

We are witnessing unprecedented developments fueled by technology and a plethora of brand and individual voices. Behind it all is the design for great business and creative opportunities. All it takes is a curious mind and a knack for listening and a corporate and brand culture that champions this. Welcome to the conversational era: what’s your story? 

Co-Everything: Incentivizing Talent In The EntrepreWork Era

Companies like Facebook, Google and Warby Parker have revolutionized how we work. The first thing they did was to get rid of the inflexibilities of the traditional corporation and put the human experience at the forefront. They built business models fueled by employee freedom and its ability to trigger innovation and creativity. And while these newer organizational models struggle with certain aspects of their work culture (see Uber), their freedom-granting approach will grow in importance as we continue at a full-speed-ahead shift towards creativity and innovation. 

It is this innovation-centric open model that over the past twenty years has fueled the vast waves of digital innovations and capitalized on a shift towards software and services.This shift has fueled a demand for a new breed of talent that can both design a product and creatively get it to market. This new tech/touch employee, increasingly coming from the younger work generations, is turned off by clunky red tape and thus thinks creatively and entrepreneurially at all times.

Their love for the freedom of entrepreneurship is fueled by the meteoric rise of new titans of industry such as Reed Hastings and Marc Zuckerberg as well as by their skepticism towards corporate America. They’ve seen the challenges their parents faced during the recession and grew not to trust big. They also shun a lot of corporate excesses and instead want to focus on bridging the gap between their work and their values. They are willing to have their work and personal lives blend more; and that is a highly entrepreneurial trait. Organizations must open up and adapt to engage this new employe/consumer.

This resolution around work and entrepreneurship calls for a different philosophy and approach towards recruitment, mentorship and partnering with next-gen employees. The guiding framework is around a jobs market where the good employees command the conversation, just like they do in many other industries and roles (think consumers in the on-demand economy.)

This new employee-centric dynamic demands that recruiting companies be more attuned with employees’ changing needs, more flexible in the types of environments they provide and the offers they make, and overall be much more involved in reassessing and perfecting what constitutes an incentive system.

The following are some ways to better incentivize a new generation of employees and brand advocates:

Talent/HR Compact. The first step is the creation of a talent-based plan crafted between your HR/talent departments and your actual staff. Work with your employees to identify the issues that matter to them and the most powerful ways of addressing them. Come up with fun ways of getting feedback and ideas; think brainstorm sessions, online anonymous suggestions boxes, as well as more formal elements such as benchmarking of best practices from other companies and industries. Netflix’s HR game-changing plan and vision around “Freedom & Responsibility,” speaks to this way of building a partnership around talent that nurtures thriving and loyalty.

The Art of The Search, and Match.  Traditional, self-selection-influenced models will not work going forward. Explore new ways of recruiting (video interviews, recommendations, creative exercises, earlier pipeline development) and make it fun. Think of different profiles than before, i.e. recruit at different schools, explore more creative majors in school, identify dropouts that are doing extraordinary things as well as other unexpected profiles, etc. Open up the process to be more egalitarian and preferential to the employee: have them set the schedules, identify who they want to interview at the company, etc. In essence, set the tone from the onset that you are a company that values them and their input.

Show Me What You Stand For: Transparency .The in-coming consumer and worker wants transparency on all fronts. They’re willing to give up their time and effort but want to make sure it’s rewarding and compatible with how they see the world. They want to understand corporate and brand purpose and their role in advancing them. Allow those most passionate to help you ensure sustainability is present in all aspects of your business; identify the issues you will invest in; come up with ways to empower and encourage volunteering or other forms of involvement.

Flexibility. This is one of the requisite traits to thrive in a new economy and it powerfully applies to engaging employees. They want flexibility in terms of professional exposure and training, schedule, telecommuting possibilities, paid sabbaticals, prosocial assignments. Explore the opportunities in letting them venture into entrepreneurial initiatives that can add value to your strategic plans. Look for new models that can allow them to stay connected: i.e. as more vested freelancers, working part time with non-competitive companies, independent sales agents or referral providers, etc. No one knows your business as well as your employee as well as ways to improve it and disrupt it. Don’t let all these insights go to a competitor.

Count What Matters: New Success Metrics. Metrics of old should not apply to new more innovative settings. Think of ways of measuring new forms of skills. For instance, think of ways to encourage and track how your sales teams connect with key prospects. Count things beyond just sales number, explore ways to measure ways in which they’re gathering insights, length and substantive level of conversations, lifetime value vs. short term sales tracking, etc. Think of new metrics to apply to your company as well. For instance, is there a happiness index you can add to your performance dashboard. Reward supervisors for the success of their reports; encourage mentorship at all levels.

Fun and Play. This employee is experience-driven. In it they find their peace, groove and inspiration. If you’re in the business of ideas, you should explore to the fullest. Think of how you can introduce fun and play into your entire employee journey. From more human-centric, real and funny ways of sharing your corporate story and that of your employees, to ways in which gamification can make training more engaging, to deploying communication programs like Slack that make chatting and working seamlessly fun.

Amplify Their Upside. Again, this generation has an entrepreneurial hunger to make things happen and to make statements while realizing financial gains. Find ways to advance traditional financial incentives, giving them more skin in the game. Reward strategic and creative behavior. Also find non-financial ways of rewarding them. Invest in their education. Grant them access to your top leadership for unique projects. Simply think of all the ways they can feel like they’re part of the A-team magic.

Wellness As Strategic Imperative. A healthy body and mind go hand in hand. Play up to your mutual need for healthy, happy employees by bringing to life a wellness initiative. This begins with fostering better work/life balances to the introduction of wellness practices such as gym membership allowances, creation of calm-meditative spaces, and facilitating outside workshops on wellbeing. But above everything else, the best way of ensuring wellness is by making sure your culture is toxic-free. Show your employees that there is not tolerance for jerks and demonstrate the opposite, that a can- do innovative culture thrives on respect for the other. 

The creative ideas economy needs people that are inspired and can work in groups to make bigger things, unencumbered. Your job should be to bring talent that thrives in this environment and to nurture and protect that sense of space where everybody brings their best self to work, and your company and world benefit. Here’s to amplifying the human potential.

The Next Big Thing: Z’s Threadbare Effect On Innovation

We are a product of our times. Each generation has its markers, those shared moments that shape how we see the world and guide our actions. For instance, boomers ushered counter-culture as a response to social and political uncertainties while millenials, the first digitally native generation, today challenges all forms of clunky intermediaries. These societal milestones are the tipping points for change. And speaking of change, a big one is brewing.

Z is For Huge

While editors have fawned over millenials, it is Generation Z, the over 70 million Americans born mostly in the 90s and early aughts, which will rock many an industry and company.  Raised amidst the big recession while witnessing the increasingly isolating power of technology, Generation Z embodies a skeptical and pragmatic take on the world.  They’ve witnessed first hand what the power structures and shifts of the 90s did to their generation X parents (unemployment, debt levels, dissatisfaction) and have chosen a different route.

New business and engagement models such as Everlane deliver the smart transparency Gen Z wants.

The Pragmatic Economy

As generation Z bubbles up to be the biggest consumer segment, their sense of pragmatism will have powerful impact on creative, business and engagement models. I predict their need to make more with less, will further challenge the concept of ownership, fuel the sharing economy, and put greater pressures on brands to deliver relevant, multi-faceted experiences while serving up trust and loyalty to a greater degree.

Ways in which we’re seeing Gen Z pragmatism rise:

-      More so than millennials, generation Z is keen on savings. This will put greater pressure for brands and companies to pack more value around the goods and services they provide. This also presents and opportunity for financial services companies to speak to this consumer earlier. Other opportunities include: next gen loyalty programs, innovations in payment models, as well as continued novelties in business models such as subscription services.

Players like Grailed are driven a barter/resell economy that puts novelty-seeking and entrepreneurship at the core of a new form of community commerce.

-      Around the premise of value, they will demand more depth of meaning and functionality from the products and brands they endorse. Think of multi-use products that incorporate elements such as sustainability, weather adaptive uses, genderless offerings, among other qualities that will allow reuse, sharing, barter, etc.

-      Afraid of uncertainty, generation z is more openly loyal to companies and brands they perceive as authentically caring and relevant. In return for this loyalty, they will demand transparency, flexibility and a total life form of experience.

This generation grew up with new form of influencers such as James Charles pushing boundaries in terms of teen self expression, identity, politics and more. Gen Z prizes this form of direct narrative and dialogue.

-      This is the generation that grew up with YouTube stars and other influencers. They do not subscribe to the traditional Hollywood model and as such they will further force companies to build a more authentic network of influencers to spread the word about their brands and services. This generation also takes its cue from micro-influencers to craft their own versions of DIY expressions, taking full advantage of a new spate of digital creative tools.

Business models around barter, upcyle along with requisite core values such as transparency, sustainability and personalization will continue to thrive.

-      Barter and cash-me will be a way of life. The search for authenticity, uniqueness and collaboration coupled with the need to save will continue to drive business models such as Poshmark, Grailed and its reselling of sneakers, and other direct to consumer exchanges, not to mention, informal peer-to-peer, community driven barter

-      Afraid of the uncertainties their parents faced, they will put a greater premium on smaller, more meaningful and trustworthy circles of friends and colleagues. Shared values, causes and collaborations will fuel this sense of agency and community. Opportunities: passion tribes and circles, next generation loyalty programs; dialing up security; transparency and engagement around block-chain.

Across the board generation Z presents a need realness test for brands. This will mean a scrappier, creatively intuitive approach that reflects the harder times they grew up. This could be a new boon for creativity, as the saying beckons, necessity is the mother of invention. 

Artisans as The New Innovators

People who make things are poised to benefit from the continued rise of big data. As algorithms and the data scientists that bring them to life become more abundant, we will crave and value more physical goods and experiences from new creative minds that can deliver them.

I expect a return of craftsmanship at all levels and a stronger pivot towards all things creative. Think of more storytelling, powerful visual narratives, artistry in design and craft. This creates new opportunities for brands to build a premium experience around how things get made.

Brunello Cucinelli's new form of luxury built around timeless craftsmanship.

Innovation's New Challenge : It Won't Work If You Can't Show By Hand 

A powerful example is Detroit’s home-grown luxury brand Shinola, which takes inspiration from the city’s storied manufacturing past and makes it new with its rustic, grown-up hipster friendly aesthetic.

Italian comfort luxury icon Brunello Cucinelli, fully cognizant of the premium power of craftsmanship, along with the limited supply of artisans, has opened a school of craftsmanship, to nurture and usher the next generation of makers for this lifestyle brand.

Shinola building a new iconic brand around all-American manufacturing.

Making things is the future. We see nutritional innovation and creative fodder in tickling the brain through the hands. Expect more activities at both the amateur (a la current coloring book fad, painting, pottery) and professional level around the arts, crafts and design.

Stemming from this craving of physicality, I also expect a smarter and happier deployment of a physical lens to address multiple types of challenges and opportunities, from product design to experiences that elevate key life spaces such as education, work, play, etc. Physically shaping prototypes for products and experiences will bring forth a higher level of empathy and connectivity, key ingredients to build ultimate product relevancy.

The rise of craftsmanship should also refresh our educational cannon, hopefully bringing a bit of old school crafts to the classroom as well as truly committed investment in the arts.

I'm convinced that our world would be a much better, inspiring and productive place if we all could do more with our hands than just text.

Here's to building things.