FUSION FOR DISNEY
FROM CONVENIENCE TO EXPERIENCE
Entertainment isn't very entertaining right now. With the major streaming services playing the same me-too game of incrementally improving already flawed user experiences, customers are left in a world no better (and in many cases actually inferior) to walking into a Blockbusters store fifteen years ago. Of course streaming is far more convenient, but if this is at the cost of experience, how is it 'better'?
The future threat to these companies, specifically Disney in this case, isn’t competition, it's irrelevance – the risk is becoming just another VoD service.
So the question isn't how to become a better video store, it's what if you could transcend video store altogether? My belief was that instead of focussing on content oneupmanship, services should concentrate on developing the definitive future experience – one that brings people together.
In February 2019, a year before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic introduced social distancing and lock-downs, I led my team of user experience architects, programmers and designers in the creation of Disney Fusion – a prescient leap forward to a more compelling, emotionally connected, entertainment future.
“One effect (of choice), paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis, rather than liberation. With so many options to choose from, people find it very difficult to choose at all.”
BARRY SCHWARTZ
PSYCHOLOGIST & SOCIAL SCIENTIST
“The (Netflix) percent-match system is no better than the star system before it; if anything, it’s just as confusing as before.”
DAVE SMITH
TECHNOLOGY WRITER, BUSINESS INSIDER, 2017
It's not surprising that customers demand a better experience. With over a hundred streaming services now in existence, the landscape is fragmented and confusing. Adding to this, many high-value content titles are overlapped across multiple services, leading to nearly 1.5 years of our lives just looking for something to watch.
How we spend our free-time has also changed. 'Watching TV' is now the most popular leisure activity in Europe, with adults spending an average 6 hours a day viewing some form of entertainment video. But in 2019, we were more alone than ever; seeing a 42% rise in single person households, where 56% of people watched TV alone, and we had only 34 to 37 minutes a day on average to spend quality time with our loved ones. According to the findings, we were social distancing without realising.
And so, then as now, we snatch moments of time to ‘catch up’; whether on content or with friends and family, all fitting around work and commitments. The less time we have, the more quality time becomes a serious business.
Watching TV is as much about social connection as it is about escapism. Where Netflix, Hulu, Sky and Prime drive people to indulge and escape; YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitch push towards comfort, connection and experience. The future isn't one or the other, it is a blend – Entertainment + Togetherness. This is a unique merged-model, combining powerful AI and expression recognition capabilities, designed to unlock unmet consumer needs, and focussed on customer experience around discoverability, trust and relevance.
"James and his team have provided, in an incredibly compressed timeline, a truly remarkable vision for the future of entertainment."
HERNAN ESTRADA
SVP STRATEGY & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EMEA, DISNEY
