Wednesday, November 4, 2015

This Micro Moment

We are averaging 250,000 video views per day on our wildlife network MaxAnimal, and this month will pass the 100 million view mark since we launched last year.  As expected, roughly 75% of the views are happening on smart phones.  Our intention from the start was to keep the clips short (1 minute on average) and thrilling, so to connect with an audience that has a limited attention span and will readily share.

Some recent data shows how well we are positioned, but also how nimble we need to be to keep growing at this pace and expand to longer form content.

Google issued a study last month titled "Win Every Micro Moment With A Better Mobile Strategy" that reports people now check their phones 150 times per day and spend 177 minutes on the device, resulting in dozens and dozens of mobile sessions averaging a little more than a minute each.

And a much circulated presentation from the recent WSJD conference included this fascinating slide:


Short Attention Span Theatre.  The Attention Apocalypse.  Micro Moment Warfare.  Everyone has a name for this moment in time when GIFS are the most popular new media form, some brands are posting 50 times per day on Facebook and Vine Stars are the new YouTube Stars.

Our goal (as well as the goal of some of the media companies in the slide above, particularly Vice) is and always has been to use the short stuff as a gateway to longer, richer content experiences (and building an engaged community.)  Because, on the other side of the spectrum, there clearly is a craving for long-form journalism, podcasts, documentaries, high quality TV dramas and other more immersive content experiences. 

How much attention we have for both is the question, and can the publishers most effective at the bits, bytes and bursts engage their viewers for longer sessions.