Netflix is famous for keeping its viewership statistics secret. But a recent HighSpeedInternet.com report revealed that the shows Sherlock, Narcos, Friends, House of Cards and New Girl are the service’s five most popular worldwide.
It’s not surprising to see each of those shows on the list, as they hold broad appeal and cross-cultural relevance. That’s good for Netflix, but raw popularity isn’t particularly interesting for entrepreneurs at large. Business leaders who can extrapolate from that data, though, will be able to create more targeted advertisements of their own and be more likely get a leg up on their competition.
Learning from viewership data
To truly get a sense of what motivates consumers, business leaders need to dive into more specific details of that popularity. One way to do that is to understand the demographics of a show’s audience. Comparing the behavior of Narcos viewers to that of New Girl fans can reveal to interested observers what motivates various consumer segments.
Entrepreneurs who take the time to learn about the streaming habits of the more than 100 million Netflix users and other streaming platforms — plus subscribers’ listening habits on services like Spotify, and their shopping habits on ecommerce sites — can develop a more complete idea of what motivates their own target audiences.
They can then translate those insights into better ad development and ad placement decisions.
There’s a reason for this: Netflix, for instance, is a primary source of programming that influences viewer preferences and online behaviors; and marketers who follow viewers from Netflix to those viewers’ next choice of platform or device are perfectly positioned to own their attention.
A McKinsey & Co. study proved this when it found that a majority of the 27,000 consumers surveyed, who were shopping across 14 industries, considered the overall customer journey to be more important than individual interactions. The study also found hat consumers felt 20 percent more satisfied (than they normally felt during transactions) when that journey remained consistent across multiple channels and events.
Following the consumer’s lead
It’s easy to make assumptions about audience members when it comes down to specific Netflix shows and those audiences’ broader behavior online; but relying on assumptions is the opposite of taking a targeted approach. Engaging with the right consumers at the…
