Media & Entertainment - (Transformation)

Challenge:

In 2019, one of the world’s 10 largest media companies by revenue was struggling to understand where it should start to build strategy around the viewing experience for different racial and ethnic groups at home (A System 5 challenge) . They needed to know… What does authenticity look like? How should strategy reflect the diverse audiences that the business has to cater to? And how might an increased focus on diverse content benefit relationships with advertising partners? The Head of Insights was primarily responsible for developing this strategy and was looking for help.

Action:

At the heart of the issue was a System 3 problem: identity & perception. The business simply didn’t understand what its role was in the marketplace with regard to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). But, it was baby steps first - constructing this identity was not something that would happen overnight - fundamentally the business needed to understand more about who, what, and how this space was being impacted before they made a heavy-handed intervention.

New systems were needed to meet the fluid nature of the DEI challenge. improving the business’ ability to perceive the space was critical: and a rolling diagnostic system that could accurately compare sentiment and attitudes across broadly divergent demographic groups was the solution.

Outcome:

The rolling diagnostic system enabled the client’s business to understand in real-time the impacts of programming, casting, and messaging on each specific audience and to understand which specific content was driving those results. This data has already begun to be used to reshape strategy and provide clear proof points for the impact of increased diversity of content for both programming and advertising.