Hannah Cersell

Crazy that I updated my iPhone in September but never took a glance at any of the new updates.
Your mentioning of the Focus feature is certainly something that I need in my life. As of this fall I have been immensely busy with my job that I started to develop “workaholic” habits. During my personal time, I would constantly check my slack and email messages on weekdays and weekends. There’s never a line of separation for me, especially since I work from home. I took it upon myself as of 2 weeks ago to remove my “mail” app from my home screen and keep my phone on do not disturb as much as possible to refrain myself from getting into work mode while I’m enjoying LIFE. It was driving me crazy and it was absolutely unhealthy.
This Focus feature is definitely something I’m going to look into now and make it part of my routine. Thanks for sharing this Hannah!

I haven’t updated my phone yet, but I’m really intrigued to test out the Focus mode because I get distracted very easily too. I tend to keep my phone on do no disturb most of the day so I’m not tempted to go on my phone. It’s crazy to think that Apple still finds ways to enhance their technology to make it better for it’s users. After each update its like woah this is awesome there’s no way there’s anything else they can do to top it off, but they do!

Wow I had no idea that this was even a new feature they were considering. I logged into my app and couldn’t find the games so maybe it hasn’t made its way to iOS. Personally I don’t think this is a good move for Netflix, though I understand why they introduced this new feature. I just don’t see many people including myself to log into the Netflix app to play a game when I could be rewatching Criminal Minds for the 5th time. I feel like these games will distract from the real purpose of the Netflix app. Though I’m curious to see if there will be a decrease in time of people watching content on the app once the games roll out!

Interesting direction for Netflix. I’d imagine that this is an attempt by Netflix to attract a segment of the market that isn’t consuming their other content, as in gamers perhaps…? And to get as much data about them as they can?

I just posted about Twitch on our other class blog, and admittedly, I don’t know much about that at all, but I uncovered this tidbit in “A Marketers Guide to Twitch:” In 2020, the Twitch community watched over 1 trillion minutes of content in 2020. And every day, Twitch affiliates and their partners create more content than is available in Netflix’s entire catalog. I would imagine that Netflix is paying a lot of attention to those stats.

Seems that some in the business world are not convinced, here’s an interesting piece from Harvard Business Review about that: https://hbr.org/2021/11/gaming-isnt-netflixs-best-opportunity-for-growth

This is interesting… I wish Netflix was less secretive with its data, and we could better understand their reasons for this. Per Kathryn’s comment, perhaps it’s trying to reach gamers, or maybe it’s a tactic to further engage non-gaming viewers in their content. I think there are a lot of directions this concept could go… like what if you’re watching a cooking show and could order a meal kit from a famous chef based on your interactions? Or design a house in one of those fixer upper shows?
The first interactive movie to get on my radar was Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which I didn’t love but mostly because I didn’t find the characters or plot compelling. I think with the right storyline and call to action, interactive shows/movies could be headed in a cool direction.

I understand their tactic (like mentioned above) to engage with different or inactive users in a new way, but I also agree that they should stick with what they know. Aren’t they big enough to just stick to movies/tv?

I found it interesting that Apple tried to hold up the iOS release because their App Store policies state that third-party apps cannot act as storefronts for other apps. In release emails backs in May it seems that Apple wanted Netflix to continue selling subscriptions within its app so they could earn a cut of the money – apparently Google had given Netflix a break on their standard commission. (https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/9/22772480/netflix-games-apple-iphone-ipad-ios-subscription-app-store)

Great Post Hannah! This is super interesting, especially because I feel like there was not a lot of buzz or marketing around it. As soon as I read this, I went straight to the app and could not find it. While I was on the app, I did some thinking. Where would they even put the “games” tab. It kind of feels like an elephant in the room, where it just doesn’t belong. When consumers think of Netflix it’s all about shows, movies and a personalized experience. They want quality entertainment. I understand with the whole metaverse, AR, VR, technology maybe this was an attempt to make users play games to feel like they’re a part of the shows. According to the article though, Netflix did this as an “attempt to keep subscribers and gain new ones”. This surprised me because there target market is “18-39 year olds who have an average household income of $102,000 per year.” That market is probably working individuals, not people who sit around and play games.

This kind of reminds me of when Netflix came out with their “Choose Your Own Adventure” film called Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. I wonder if they are concerned because of the plateau of subscribers and the rise of third party hosting sites. I like the idea of the games, but I am not sure that I would subscribe to Netflix just to play them

Wow! I had no idea this happened, but what a great feature addition on Netflix’s part. Considering the vast profitability that lying in gamification and the gaming industry I think this will be a success. Baking the new gaming features into the subscription model is an interesting decision on Netlfixs part, great for the viewer but I wonder if this decision will be more profitable for Netflix. I am continuously reminded of Netflix’s business plan after reading their case study months ago. I wonder if the gaming addition will change to add on pricing eventually to make up for lost profits elsewhere, this might be a good opportunity for Netflix to break ahead.

Meh! Feels true to Netflix to be experimental and transcend certain verticals. Will I partake in it? No. I’m not a gamer necessarily, but am excited for folx who are.

Do we also know that TV is a HUGELY social space, which makes games on TV/Movies fun… yep! Makes a lot of sense.

I think it’s just fun and even sticky; not sure it adds any additional value than that.

I may have the unpopular opinion here but I liked Netflix’s previous attempts at interactive film and the concept of “choosing your own adventure”. I think that when the games are live and the catalogue grows, interactive content will become increasingly intertwined with video-on-demand offering and Netflix is once again in the lead.

Thank you for sharing Hannah. I seem to be on the same boat as the rest of the people since I had no idea this was a thing. This either means Netflix is rolling this out super slowly so had not launched a full campaign for it or they need to fire their marketing team for lacking awareness campaigns. Either way, I do not see how this will fit into their overall strategy. Netflix has been doing well with several successful original content that I do not see people turning to it when they think to play games. From the article it seems they are selfishly using it as a way to gain market research to influence future decsions.

The Sims, and also for those who are old enough this gives me The Palace chat vibes from the early 2000s. I do feel like the idea of “the metaverse” and the use of VR/AR avatars has been around for awhile, but this also concerns me. Everyone, especially the younger generations are already so immersed in their phones – for everything. If we then create even more digital spaces for us to “live in” – where is the line between virtual and in-person connections? Is there a separation anymore?

Not sure how I feel about this name change, especially since it is so different than the original name. I understand the new name and why it is, but from a study I saw about Facebook users, it should that most users where of the age 25-34, and the second group of most distributed users are from 35-44. A lot of my family that are “older” use facebook, and I guarantee that they have no idea about AR, VR or any virtual reality. Seems like this is not geared towards their target audience, but mostly trying to gain a younger audience, or the audience from other social media channels.

Does this mean I have to sit down with my parents and explain to them the new App on their cellphone is the same thing? The answer thankfully is no. I take this how Comcast is to Xfinity, Though a lot of us still call it “Comcast cable” , they rebranded it Xfinity because Comcast has now expanded itself deeper into the entertainment industry. More or less Facebook, or Meta, will now expand itself into a virtual reality/augmented environment for the future. I can’t blame them for expansion; more jobs and more content creation.

I just don’t know about you, Zuckerberg. Considering all of the assaults on him and Facebook regarding the misuse of data, the assistance with radicalization and spreading of disinformation, one would hope that the rebrand would be part of an overall effort to be more transparent, more beneficial. Instead, this seems to me to be a “doubling down” on just how much he wants to be this sort of overload of human existence. I don’t want my experiences to be curated and created by the people (and AI) of Meta. For those of you who love Community as I do, I couldn’t help but think of Abed and Troy’s “Imaginarium” — which is their own creation. Not someone else’s. It’s like Evil Abed and Mark Zuckerberg are in cahoots. Ugh.

Wow this is crazy! This is how I imagined the metaverse to be like! I wonder how long til we could be at something similar to what they Facebook (Meta) is projecting in this video.

I’m not going to lie when I first heard this I thought it was a joke and a part of me still thinks that it is. I get why they are doing this, as it will attract a lot of young users but how will they cater for the older generation like my parents who very much still use Facebook. I feel like this will be a hard pill to swallow for them as they don’t use AR/VR technology currently and probably won’t be using the features when it’s introduced. I also don’t like the full push to a digital/virtual world, I feel like young kids who will grow up with technology will have a hard time differentiating the different between reality and virtual.

Thank you for sharing Hannah! When I first heard about this I was so confused. I understand where Facebook is coming from in the sense the platform had been the same for awhile making younger users such as myself switch to more trendy social media platform such as snapchat and tiktok. However I feel as though making this drastic change will intimidate the current Facebook user, I am thinking people like my parents and grandparents. It will be interesting to see how this will all phase out and resonate with the intended user

Some of these app ideas are great! I consider myself to be an avid app user and if there is a mobile app available for a site or destination that I use, I will likely download it (hence the minimal storage space on my phone). In my experience, apps are still more convenient than most mobile sites so I love reading articles like the one you chose. An idea that comes to mind is an app that will automatically apply any relevant discounts available to your online purchases, Currently I have to scour the internet for discount codes so this will save lots of time and money. Some one make this happen! Thanks for sharing, Hannah!

Hannah – Shark Tank rocks. Some of these ideas are brilliant. I think the food scanning app would be a real game changer. One of the biggest hangups for people to lost weight is logging their food, because its very annoying to do so. If I could simply scan my meal with my phone and have the nutrition info auto added to MFP of Apple Health or whatever, that would be amazing. Post Capstone project anyone?

An App that can help you share phone battery power is a GAME CHANGER for sure!!!!!! If this existed my phone would never die!!! What about an app that you can put in ideas about apps to see if that app exist already???? Love the ideas of these apps, but hate that fact that you may spend time researching an idea only to find out that it already exist.

Side Story – A few of years ago my dad (who was in his 60’s and not privy to technology and still used a landline phone) said he though of a cool idea – what if you can call someone and see their face on your phone, and they can see your face on their phone!!! He was so EXCITED about this idea. We had to unfortunately tell him that there was a feature called face time that could do this haha! His was bummed. My dad passed a way not too long ago, however every-time I face time someone I laugh to myself, that my dad thought he invented face time and it was already invented…

Excellent points.

So much of a successful app comes down to visibility and tenacity. The idea only matters if people see the value of the experience and share it.

There’s so much out there, it’s easy for a solution to exist and also be completely invisible.

Vogue never loses sight of who they are while creating the most modern digital forms of content. Shareable Q & A’s is online micro-content boosting awareness and encouraging their audience to buy it. I love taking a risk (appropriately) with content to discover what makes the audience tick. Consumers seem invested in the brand.

Hannah! I could not agree more. Vogue gets it. Know. Like. Trust. This segment is one of my absolute favorites!
One in particular that is an all-time stand out fave for me is Donatella Versace’s clip as she attempts to get people to stop pronouncing Versace, Ver SAH Chee and her expressed commitment to women’s empowerment. If anyone want to give it a peek, here’s the link – https://www.vogue.com/video/watch/73-questions-with-donatella-versace

Hannah thanks for the post! Can’t help but to agree with you here– In one of our recent LinkedIn Learnings they said that the trendiest way to create content in 2021 would be a serial articles or content. Having a collective work that builds on itself allows you to create an audience that looks forward to the next piece in the series which can help up readership. Vogue’s serial interviews is a content builder because after watching the short video with one famous person, you can’t help but wonder who else they have interviewed. They are showing themselves to be an industry leader, not just in digital or print fashion, but pushing culture.

I loved watching these commercials Hannah. I never watched any of them until now, but that Man of the Moon was amazing. Old people have a special place in my heart. I can see why it’s a favorite among many. I agree commercials that attach to the emotion is what makes it successful. But, everyone’s emotions are different. So, I think companies need to make ads that are based on reaction. The more reaction, the more people will notice the brand.

It’s nice to see how a brand used a series of campaigns to include different age groups and advertise Christmas. I lost touch with the idea of Christmas until I watched these videos. To me, every day is Christmas, but these ads were nice to connect with emotionally. Commercials that leave an actionable message or highlighting an unmet need are most impactful, in my opinion.

Wheewwww Hannah, I did not expect to cry at 9am. That Man on the Moon commercial was so perfect, it’s the perfect example of why I began to love advertising and marketing. The power that a beautifully done commercial can have is amazing. I enjoyed watching the others too, especially Moz and the Monster – so cute! I’m definitely with you, if an advertisement can make me emotional, I think it’s successful.

This is the first time I’m seeing these John Lewis Christmas commercials. Thank you for sharing this. This commercial said so much without saying anything at all. The music, people and visuals just brought me on a journey and by the end I feel like I wanted to hug the entire world. I agree with you on the content archetypes of presence and community. Presence because it just draws a user in and is a digital distraction leaving them with so much emotion. Community because of the lasting feeling the users left with of wanting to help the world and spread love to those they don’t even know.

Hannah thank you for sharing! This is my first time experiencing a John Lewis commercial! I say experience because it truly is. To produce content that doesn’t attempt to sell a product but still is powerful enough to promote a brand is #goals.

Wow Hannah, thank you so much for sharing! Like April this my first time watching a John Lewis commercial and honestly I loved them! I think my favorite might have been the Bear and Hare. I love commercials that have music in them, especially recognizable ones! Plus Lilly Allen’s cover was so beautiful and helped to tell the story in the advertisement!

I’m amazed at their mindset to output a creative commercial that connects emotions of giving/receiving with love, life, childhood. I can see why they have been a forefront of commercials in UK for some time. It also reminds me of Apple, only in the sense that they can run a complete commercial without showing or mentioning the product and you know what it’s for. I see where you are coming from with associating this to “Content as Presence”. The content itself within the videos covers a range of characteristics, entertaining, highly
visual, easily digestible but most importantly attention-grabbing. I have always been a sucker for watching commercials. I think I look for the impact of the commercial, how well did they sell me on the product, are they creative, did they make an emotional tie, etc., and this brand does it well!

All the feels! Agree with your assessment that this is content as a presence. Another good example of the serialization approach, albeit at a slightly different pace. Great best practice sharing, Hannah!