Evan Shapiro: bypass Netflix and find your own audience
IBERSERIES & PLATINO INDUSTRIA: If you are a producer, you should not base your strategy on selling shows to Netflix but start building your own audience, according to ‘media universe cartographer’ Evan Shapiro.
Emmy- and Peabody-winning producer and US analyst Evan Shapiro
With his disruptive and unconventional ideas for the traditional media industry, the Emmy- and Peabody-winning producer and US analyst Evan Shapiro captured the interest of a packed auditorium at the opening of the Iberseries & Platinum Industry conference in Madrid earlier this week.
“In 2019 when Disney went direct to consumer, in pursuit of Netflix and its flawed ad-free business model, we left behind the era where media was in control and moved into the user-centric era,” he told delegates. “All the horsemen of the streaming apocalypse followed without really analysing what would happen by pursuing the direct-to-consumer model.”
This era has different rules of the game. In it, content is still king, “but data is the lifeblood,” Shapiro added.
“If you’re an independent producer and you’re not exploring your direct-to-consumer operation based on building community; if you don’t have a social media manager and a community manager; if you’re not thinking about how to build your own audience and you’re just relying on selling to gatekeepers and corporations that commission content; the next decade won’t be very promising for you,” he warned.
“Selling a show to Netflix will become less and less profitable as the decade progresses. I assure you.”
Shapiro said there are opportunities to succeed in this creator economy, but that requires a shift in mindset that starts with paying attention to what young consumers want, because they set the pace for what comes next.
“If you’re not on TikTok, get on TikTok. If you don’t have people from the generation you want to reach at your team’s decision table; if you don’t have people under 35 and you don’t allow them to educate you on what you should be creating, you’re going to lose the market,” he said.
“It’s much more important to have a passionate community than a mass audience. When you build that passionate audience, gatekeepers will come looking for you. You’ll figure out the monetisation strategy later.”
Shapiro: ‘Planet Earth needs public service media to save democracy’
During his presentation, Shapiro also referred to how this impacts specifically on Latin America and Spain, which he acknowledged is difficult to treat as a single region.
“They are very different demographically and economically. Pay TV is much more dominant in Latin America, while public broadcasters are more important in Europe.”
For Shapiro, the best advice for these territories is to appreciate what makes each one unique and the innate advantages they have, rather than looking to the US as an example.
“There are advantages that you have here in Spain and there are advantages that you have in Latin America that will allow you to be better than we have been in the US market,” he said. “If you spend a day in Hollywood, you will see that everyone is running around with their hair on fire. Don’t take us as an example. We’re no longer the model to follow. Build your own model in your own market.”
Finally, the analyst called on the audience to contribute as an industry so that public broadcasters are strengthened and can expand, especially in Spain, since in Latin America “it is unfortunately too late, as it is in the US,” he said.
“If we don’t let the current wave of populism take over in Europe and America; if we can resist the temptation to dismantle public service media, they will only gain relevance as Netflix and Amazon will need coproducers,” he said.
“So do everything you can to preserve public media in Europe, and specifically in Spain. Also, as a society on planet Earth, we need public service media to save democracy. Period.”
