A Pure Play Business Concept Cynthia Hopkins, Chau Nguyen, Benjamin Ratner, Meredith Sager
Problem People have trouble finding their favorite movies and TV shows legally on the Internet. In the past decade, we have gone from watching media at theaters and on television to consuming content anywhere at any time. The smart companies have made their content available on demand - but there are many variables to legally finding the show you want to watch. Is it on one of the popular sites like Hulu, Amazon, HBO or Netflix? Is it on a network site like CBS.com or ABC.com? Is the show only available if you have a cable subscription? Are the episodes only available for a certain period of time? Basically, there is no central location for ALL media on the web. There are sites like TV.com - but they are not nearly complete enough or customizable enough for what the modern media consumer deserves.
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solution
A web aggregator that provides the user options of places to go for legal streaming. FoundIt is a highly customizable site that has all legal sources for movies and television shows. It will let you know what shows are available, on which platforms, and for how long they are available. It will provide the user with links to purchase the content on both digital and physical platforms, or where the content is streaming free on the internet. By creating strategic partnerships with existing sites like Hulu, Amazon, HBO, Netflix, and the cable and network sites, we will be able to provide a complete index of all shows. Even if shows are not available on any platform, we will at least be able to provide the user with that information so they don’t have to keep searching. The user will go to www.FoundIt.com where they will reach a homepage that provides a prompt to log in. For users that choose to create an account and log in, they will then be face to face with a highly customized site, featuring their favorite TV shows and movies, shows they’ve watched recently, and shows that FoundIt (or advertisers) suggest they will enjoy. For those who don’t want to create an account, the homepage will still have the same content, but it will be less customized to the individual user’s pre selected preferences. Cookies will enable guest users, however, to still have a customized experience through advertisements. Next to each show, there will be a list of places that it is available online. Popular sources will be at the top of the list, and in a second column there will be a list of paid sources. There will also be a strong search function (similar to that of Hulu.com) where you get search suggestions as you type in a term - and with our vast index of shows, the user will likely never have to finish typing out the terms before they find their result.
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Business Model FoundIt’s business model is a combination of both the advertising model and the infomediary model.
Advertising Model As part of FoundIt’s core business approach, we will encourage online streaming sites and network sites to boost their placement through a paid advertising model. For example, the show Grey’s Anatomy is offered in multiple locations, including Netflix, Hulu, ABC.com, and iTunes. If Hulu wants to attract more visitors to their site, they will have the opportunity to pay a fee to get a “sponsored” listing on the top of the list for Grey’s Anatomy. Similarly, if a network is trying to drive traffic to a specific show or movie, they will be able to pay for premier placement for the show to be placed higher on the site than other shows. This part of our advertising model will be almost seamless for our consumers, as they will not feel as though they have been bombarded with ads, as the shows and media outlets will merely say “sponsored” underneath them. FoundIt will also offer more traditional ad placements on the website and mobile app for advertising looking to reach our target. These ads will be mainly banner ads and integrated ads rather than pop-ups or forced-watch ads that our target is adamantly against. Using cookies, advertisers will be able to capture data on consumers to tailor the ad experience to each individual consumer based on their specific browsing history and interests.
Infomediary Model Since FoundIt functions as the middleman between users who are looking to watch TV shows online and sources that provide legal streaming services, FoundIt’s falls into a metamediary model. Consumers will come to FoundIt to find their favorite show’s online locations. They will not be watching the shows from our site, but will be provided with the options where they will be able to do so.
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Target market FoundIt.com will target males and females ages 18-34. These adults are frequent consumers of online media, and especially of online video content. Our target of millennials is always on the go, and doesn’t have the time to sit down each week to watch their favorite shows when they air on television.
Meet Julia When Julia isn’t in class or busy studying, you’ll be able to find her on the campus quad playing Frisbee with her floor-mates. She loves to watch TV, but doesn’t want to sacrifice her social life to watch it live on cable. Even if she did want to watch it live, she opted out of getting the dorm’s cable TV package because it was too expensive. She does spend a lot of time on Netflix and Hulu, though, as her parents have subscriptions that she’s able to access. She’s a big binge watcher of Grey’s Anatomy and New Girl, and watches many episodes at one time. When Julia finally gets around to watching TV after her countless hours of socializing, she can’t stand when it takes her forever to find her shows online. More times than not, she just gives up and watches them on an illegal streaming site.
Meet eric Eric is a 25-year-old college graduate, currently living and working in New York City. If balancing his work life and his girlfriend wasn’t enough, he’s an avid city runner who runs at least 8 miles every day. The last thing that Eric has time to do is watch his TV shows when they air live. Plus, paying rent and having a social life are too expensive in the city to even consider having a good enough cable package that has all of his shows. He’s consistently 4 episodes behind on Walking Dead, and routinely scrounges the Internet to find the easiest place to watch it.
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competition We’ve divided the competitive landscape of online streaming media into three categories: Legal Streaming Sites, Illegal Streaming Sites, and Network Sites. Our target market frequents these three kinds of competitors when looking for a place to watch TV and movies online. These competitors aren’t site agregators like FoundIt, but they are where people are currently going to find content streaming on the web.
Legal Streaming Legal streaming sites, such as Hulu and Netflix, provide users with a wide selection of content either for free or at a low cost. These sites are where users usually go to find streaming content. Hulu operates on a both a freemium model and an advertising model, where users can access more content through paying a monthly fee. Netflix requires users to subscribe to their service each month, and doesn’t offer a free tier. Users in our target market usually check these sites first when looking for a place to find media content online. These sites are supported on several devices, making them easy to access from any location. The interfaces are user-friendly and the auto-queue is customized to suit the viewing preferences of the user. People find these sites affordable, especially in comparison to buying DVDs or paying for cable to watch their shows live. Some of these sites offer customizable advertising, where users’ profiles and choices dictate the kinds of ads they will see. These streaming sites are a competitor for FoundIt because they are often where users go first to look for streaming media content. Though FoundIt will be working to push users to these sites, they still remain a competitor as we are hoping to get users to come to FoundIt first.
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competition Illegal Streaming The segment of our target market that chooses to watch pirated content does so because it is free and essentially unlimited in selection. Often many consumers can’t find the content they are looking for legally, so they turn to illegal streaming because it is easy and convenient to find. Illegal streaming sites are free for users. These websites offer users a portal to open content. They rely on user generated open source content and paid advertising. Users do not have to subscribe or enter any information in order to watch content, which is attractive to the millennial on the go. The lack of moderation of open sources has raised a red flag as far as ethics and copyright are concerned. Even though many users in our target market know that these sites are illegal and raise ethical questions, they don’t see the legal repercussions as a viable threat, and would rather get their content than step back and search harder for legal content. Illegal streaming sites are certainly a competitor to FoundIt, because consumers would rather go straight to a source where they are certain to find their shows rather than look for them legally.
Network Sites Television networks have adopted a more flexible business model by offering their content online. Users go directly to network sites to find specific shows that they’ve missed live, but they are not always readily available. These sites work similarly to the other legal streaming sites, but don’t require users to pay for content. Usually, networks display the last 3 or 4 shows that have aired live, letting users watch the shows they’ve missed. Network sites have commercials, but offer a draw to users over the commercials seen when watching live. Some network sites allow users to stream content only if they log in with their cable subscriber information. For many users in our target, this model is a source of frustration because they may not have cable accounts, and leads them to an internet searching spree for other places to watch. Network sites serve as a competitor to FoundIt because some users may go straight to these sites to find their shows, rather than come to FoundIt first.
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Website development plan Strategy The site and app will help average television consumers find the shows they want to watch from multiple legal sources. With traditional online advertising along with sponsored shows and episodes, FoundIt should be a financial success. It also aims to cut down on illegal streaming by making television shows easy to access.
Scope FoundIt will be the easiest way (and a one-stop shop) to find television shows on the internet. The user will get to choose their favorite shows and movies, which will be displayed on their customized home page. They will get the option of looking at a show’s page or looking at a specific season or episode. They will have a profile that lets them choose “favorites” and their preferred streaming sources. We will also be able to provide recommended shows and movies, based on an algorithm that calculates what they are likely to watch based on their favorites. FoundIt will be linking out to external sites – we will not be hosting any video content. This is imperative to maintaining a good relationship with the existing streaming services.
Structure
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Web Mock-ups Homepage
User Profile
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Mobile The Foundit will have both a mobile application and a mobile optimized site of www.foundit. com. This app will make finding your favorite television show or movie easy when you are on the go, wherever you might be. The Foundit app is accessible from tablets and mobile devices. The app synchronizes with your customized profile whether you choose to access it via the app or the website. Users of the Foundit app can opt in for push notifications to alert them when their favorite shows are newly available. Foundit users can also opt-in for SMS alerts to become aware of the most current shows and movies they are sure to love. Using portable device web browsers to find anything can be a time-staking chore. FoundIt’s interface is easy to use and never tests your eyesight or patience. Foundit mobile app is free and easy to download. The app will also run on an advertising model, having banner ads on the bottom of the app.
Mobile App
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social media strategy Social media is an essential part of FoundIt.com’s marketing strategy, especially during the introduction phase when we want to raise awareness about the site and drive traffic to it.
Overall Objectives • To increase top-of-mind awareness, by joining the social media conversation about TV shows with the target audience • To promote FoundIt.com as the convenient one-stop shop for the target audience to watch their favorite TV shows through social listening • To increase positive brand perception, by holding contests & sweepstakes, which will incentivize the target audience to use FoundIt.com
Buzzfeed and Reddit With the increasing popularity of Buzzfeed and Reddit as news and entertainment outlets among our target audience, building a presence on these websites will contribute towards promoting FoundIt.com. Since our budget doesn’t allow for sponsored posts, we will create community posts, as if written by users, about topics such as how to find legal streaming of TV shows, how to find websites to watch TV shows in time, etc. At the end of each article, we will present FoundIt.com as the convenient one-stop shop to watch TV shows online without any hassles.
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social media strategy Facebook With Facebook, we will engage users with mostly visual elements, in order to break through the extreme information clutter. The tone will be fun and light-hearted, with posts generating discussions before and after grand openings/finales of popular TV shows. Here fans will be able to join and share their excitements and opinions in a community-like forum. From time to time, we will also share interesting stories behind a show or about a character/actor from the show. All posts will have a direct link to FoundIt.com to increase traffic to the site.
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social media strategy Twitter We will be sending out live tweets before and after episodes of specific shows, in order to engage with the target audience at the right time, and remind them about using FoundIt.com.
We will also be conducting social listening intensely on Twitter to make sure we don’t miss any tweets expressing problems finding sites to watch shows in time or negative streaming experiences. By replying to those tweets suggesting viewers to use FoundIt.com as a solution, we will be able to drive a lot of traffic to the site.
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social media strategy Instagram Instagram is a popular social media outlet for the younger segment of our target audience. As a photo-centric platform, Instagram is a perfect place to run teasers about grand openings and finales of popular TV shows such as Scandal, Game of Thrones, etc. It is also an ideal place to run contests and sweepstakes where users can express their artistic ability and creativity. Contests and sweepstakes will be run regularly on Instagram, conditioning participants to follow other FoundIt.com’s social media outlets in order to increase the follower base. An example of a contest would be “Create Your Own Ending” Instagram video where viewers can create a video showing how they want the indicated show to end, which would work greatly for controversial finale ending such as in How I Met Your Mother, Scandal, etc. This will also help create a community for fans and generate a lot of buzz marketing for FoundIt.com. To incentivize people to participate, we will give out practical prizes such as Netflix/Hulu subscriptions and show-specific goodies (T-shirts, hats, mugs, DVD sets, etc.)
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organic search Domain Name
The domain name chosen, FoundIt.com, is short and easy for users remember. We will index our Domain name on many different search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, ensuring that our site will have the ability of coming up when users search.
Title Tags
Each page will have a unique title tag that is specific to the page’s function. The URL for each page will align with the title tags to ensure ease of use and give descriptive information of the page. Search engines will have descriptive information to pull from with these title tags and unique URLs.
Headlines
All headlines will be designated with a <h> in the html, ensuring that search engines will read them as such.
Media & Graphics
All pages will have appropriate videos and images. As search engines pick up sites with graphics, this will allow our pages to be identified.
Meta Tags
We will include meta tags in our html to ensure greater SEO. These meta tags will be in the form of a description and keywords and phrases.
Description FoundIt is a site that aggregates all legal sources for movies and television shows. It will let you know what shows are available, on which platforms, and for how long they are available.
Keywords and Phrases watch online, free tv, where to watch, see online, online video, watch movies online, foundit, legal streaming, best place to watch, stream abc, watch abc, stream nbc, watch nbc, watch online free
Affiliates
Since FoundIt will have partner sites such as Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming sites, we will ask them to link to our site as a way to find shows to watch. Having these popular sites link to our site will enhance our SEO.
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Paid search We will promote FoundIt.com through a paid search plan. The following keywords will be purchased with a total budget of $100 per day. When a user searches these keywords, our sponsored ad will have a high likelihood of showing up as an ad on Google. This plan will be a cross-platform campaign.
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Promotional Strategies Advertising
Digital Display: Digital display advertising will be placed on sites our target frequents, such as Entertainment Weekly, IMDb, CNN.com, and the Huffington Post. These sites contain information relevant to television shows and movies, so placing ads on these sites will reach our target when they are already thinking about entertainment. We will also use Google AdSense to have our ads on a wide range of sites. This will help spread awareness as we launch FoundIt.com.
Pandora Ads: We will use Pandora as an advertising platform because our target uses it as their main platform for online radio. Pandora users are likely to be listening to music in a laid back atmosphere, which is the perfect chance to suggest they watch their favorite shows and movies. We also know the listeners are nearby to a media viewing device whether it be their phone or computer where they can check us out online or through the app.
Native Advertising: Foundit will use native advertising on Facebook. Sponsored posts will be displayed on Facebook usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; news feeds. These ads will reach users where they already are, providing an engaging experience. Our message will reach viewers at a time when they are not too busy for social media and are probably not too busy to watch their favorite shows and movies either. Users will also be able to share these posts will their friends, creating buzz and new exposure. We will easily be able to track the ROI by comparing where the traffic to our website is coming from through analytics and our provided www.foundit.com link in the ad.
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Promotional Strategies
Mobile Ads: FoundIt will use mobile advertising through Apple’s iAd platform. We can target users that watch a lot of online television. The ads will display on many popular apps on the iPhone and the iPad. The ads will be in the form of banners at the bottom of the screen. There will be a call to action to click on the ad - for example, if the user is a fan of The Simpsons, they would see something that says “Like The Simpsons? Find all current episodes at FoundIt.com!”
Out of Home: A key segment of our target market is college students. One thing that all students have in common is purchasing or renting textbooks. We will partner with Chegg, a leading textbook rental and purchasing company, to advertise in the delivery boxes. A flyer containing a FoundIt advertisement will be placed in 500,000 Chegg boxes that will be delivered to students. This flyer will prompt students to check out our site and sign up.
Email Marketing Foundit users will opt in to email when they check a box for email alerts while they create their customized profile. These personal emails will notify users about the top Foundit shows, the user’s favorite shows and suggested shows. Users can choose the frequency they would like to receive these emails and the default is once per week. They can also sign up for email reminders about when to watch specific shows. Users can opt out of email alerts at any time. By analyzing the feedback of who is opening their email and watching the listed shows we can get an idea of ROI for shows that will pay to be promoted through our emails.
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Promotional Strategies Email Marketing
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Promotional Strategies PR & Earned Media Press Release:
We will release a press release explaining FoundIt’s entry into the marketplace. It will explain both the website and the mobile app, and detail the business model. This press release will help earn media placements in online and print publications, making both consumers and business partners aware of FoundIt.
Trade Shows: It’s important for FoundIt to become known to businesses in the television and movie industries. To get our name out there as a reputable source for linking to web streaming sites, we will have booths at four trade shows in the industry. One of these events will be The Cable Show, hosted in Los Angeles, CA. At The Cable Show trade show we will meet and greet our cable network correspondents. We will explain how Foundit can become a brand partner, bringing their network page hits and discouraging illegal streaming. We will offer various advertising packages that they can utilize to get their shows and movies to the top of the site. They can also pay to place higher in our “recommended for you” SMS, push notification, and customized profile advertising.
FoundIt Event: FoundIt will host its own high-class event in Los Angeles and invite guests from accross the industry. This will be our grand opening event where we can showcase our website to all of our prospective partners. This event will be cruicial to creating organic relationships and inviting people to be a part of the FoundIt project.
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Budget Pandora ads: $15 CPM x 300,000 imp = $4,500 FoundIt Event: $5,600 Trade Shows: $20,000 Display Advertising: $12 CPM x 600,000 imp = $7,200 Domain Name & Hosting: $120 Paid Search: $36,500 Mobile Ads: $3 CPM x 1,000,000 imp = $3,000 Native Facebook Ads: $5 CPM x 2,400,000 imp = $12,000 Chegg: $.20 x 50,000 flyers in boxes = $10,000 Total Budget: $98,920
0% 10%
Digital Advertising 27%
26%
Paid Search Events Out of Home
37%
Domain Name & Hosting
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Meet the team Meredith Sager is a senior Integrated Marketing Communications major with a minor in Deaf Studies. When sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not busy with her school life, you can find her watching New York Mets games, dreaming of new places to travel, or pretending to be good at baking.
Ben Ratner is a graduating senior studying Television / Radio with minors in Politics and Integrated Marketing Communications at the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. At any given moment, you can find him watching Conan or eating chocolate. Learn more about Ben at www.benneedsajob.com
Chau Nguyen is a senior Integrated Marketing Communications major and sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an international student from Vietnam. Travelling between places has become a big part of her life and sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always excited to add another stamp to her passport whenever she sets her foot in another country. In her free time she enjoys cooking good food, reading food-related Buzzfeed articles, or going to her favorite restaurants in town.
Cynthia Hopkins will graduate from Ithaca College this May with a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications. Cynthia plans to become a creative director at Radius Advertising Agency in Denver, Colorado and do non-for-profit environmental conservation campaigns. In her spare time she likes to visit galleries and do art projects. Her favorite mantra is inspiration is motivation.
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Sources http://2014.thecableshow.com/ http://www.mpe.net/category.asp?cat=440 Chegg Sampling Deck 2014. http://www.businessinsider.com/native-mobile-advertising-to-the-rescue-2013-10 http://www.hulu.com http://www.netflix.com
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