The Future of Entertainment

Recently we worked with the Future Foundation (and some other consortium members including Sony, Orange, EMI, Channel 4, The Guardian) on a research project called “Entertainment Futures” which attempted to explore and define the role of leisure, entertainment and all forms of escape in the modern world and what this might mean for people over the next five years. It was a fascinating project, not least because of how fluid the parameters of this whole subject are. There’s a wealth of data and insight that came out of it but I thought I might share some of the key findings here:

Entertainment is highly valued, but is becoming more fluid and flexible, interactive and active, individually defined, networked, varied in time, location and place…

Putting the ME into entertainment.

• Entertainment is an important arena for both developing and reclaiming the ‘self’
• Growing affluence underpins higher expectations. Everyone has the right to have a good time, children have increasingly sophisticated demands. They are not confined by traditional constructs of consumption
• The act of constructing your own entertainment portfolio is seen as an essential and enjoyable part of life. Experienced consumers put these together in unique ways with a clear idea of preferences, ability to ‘mix and match’ from growing choices. Individual narratives are powerful.
• Some areas of entertainment (particularly factual) are seen as self-entertainment with reaffirming side effects – giving the opportunity to learn, expand and enhance skills married to a desire to reconnect with or explore aspects of self not fulfilled in the every day
• Self-creation proliferates content and forms Interactive, networked tools are allowing growing proportion to express their creativity in new environments and in new ways reflecting a wide variety of forms, motivations & deliverables

Networks transform culture, and magnify the fun

• Social dimensions are paramount to most people, and most forms of entertainment
• This lies a the heart of the human experience (and entertainment is no exception) -what ever people do, it is more fun if it is shared.
• There is a powerful role for the shared collective experience (seen currently in the growth in live music, and strong demand for sports viewing)
• Planning for entertainment offers should therefore consider how to create a social ‘good’ from the experience. This doesn’t have to be ‘real time’ – content enjoyed solo can become valuable social currency
• Networks of communication are already ubiquitous but our understanding of their full potential and operation is still in the early stages. But huge potential exists beyond the blogging phenomenon and current popular networking sites for evolving forms of creativity and expression
• So far, the most successful commercial propositions have been generated by net entrepreneurs – the challenge for established entertainment brands is to find ways to create worthwhile propositions that work alongside and reinforce other channels

Seamless blends created through multi-tasking

• A growing proportion of the population is and will be consistently multitasking. According to this research, they are currently fitting in more than 7.2 hours of additional activities into the average day
• The nature of attention is changing in the multi-tasking environment which fundamentally changes the ‘measures’ of engagement available. So it is vital for us to understand how content translates across media and into networking environments
• Mobility matters – not as a separate realm, but as part of the seamless delivery of content and interaction

Technology will become invisible

• Like electricity and telephony in the past, the technologies delivering constant, high quality, interactive entertainment platforms will literally disappear as an issue. The ‘digital divide’ will continue to diminish – many of those currently excluded will be using technologies as an integrated part of their lives
• The emphasis must be on the quality of the interface and the value of the content, not the technological platforms
• Convergence will not be an issue, as the pressure will be on built-in inter-operability

Everyone needs downtime

• Strongest evidence emerging for a ‘counter trend’ to prevailing developments
• Contrary to what many think, there is an even higher value placed by people on the most relaxing forms of entertainment
• This chimes with the ‘new meaning of luxury’ being about time oases and getting away from it all. And reinforces the long term demand for the ‘bring it on’ realm of media-delivered entertainment on TV and magazines, as well as creating interesting links to the ‘cult of the home’ with home as primary site for downtime, in our busy, choice-overloaded daily lives

Brands must offer the real deal

• There will be greater overlap between the entertainment and advertising industries as regulatory pressure on many categories extends, and consumer attention for display advertising is squeezed
• The demand for brand involvement in the creation, packaging and distribution of entertainment content will grow creating many new funding opportunities
• Many of the latest entertainment environments (e.g. PS3 games) will create more opportunities for advertisers – but the consumer sophistication requires that the planning of branded properties creates genuine added value and benefits – otherwise cynicism and regulation will catch up
• Quality content will be valued but getting it wrong could create an environment in which there needs to be ‘permission to entertain’