Media and entertainment brands have been growing at an astonishing rate over the past five years—but what happens when the boom times end?

To help answer this question and provide actionable guidance for brands in the media and entertainment industry, Accenture Song, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Braze have partnered to create an exclusive look at the challenges facing companies in the vertical and to share best practices on how to make the most of today’s opportunities.

The rise of the internet. The mobile revolution. The digital content consumption boom driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. For years, growth has been the name of the game for media and entertainment (M&E) brands and it sometimes seemed like this sort of escalating engagement with digital content might well go on forever. But now, M&E companies find their industry in a state of flux. Engagement is peaking. Subscription fatigue is setting in for many consumers. And we’re seeing the rise of new technologies beginning to disrupt this vertical once again.

“Engagement is peaking. Subscription fatigue is setting in for many consumers. And we’re seeing the rise of new technologies beginning to disrupt this vertical once again.”

To succeed in this landscape, M&E brands need a shift in strategy and focus. Instead of trying to reach ever-greater numbers of users, the time has come to put individual consumer needs at the center of your life-centric customer engagement strategy, supporting retention and customer-led growth.

The Power of a Cohesive, Personalized Brand Experience

Marketers at M&E brands are facing increasing challenges around data at the same time that it has become the foundation of healthy customer relationships in the space. Privacy regulations are growing more stringent. Third-party cookies are on their last legs. To respond, M&E brands need to embrace first-party data to power their customer engagement strategies.

By thoughtfully collecting data directly from viewers and customers with their consent, marketers can build a deeper connection with their audience while also driving more value over the long haul. Here’s what that can look like:

Responsive Messaging

First-party data on user behaviors can open up new opportunities for engagement and

monetization within their customer journeys. By automating the process of sending messages based on the content that viewers browse and consume, M&E brands can show that they’re listening to their customers and providing them with what they need, when they need it.

What does that look like in practice? Showmax, a leading South African online video subscription service, used first-party viewer data to create a complex and effective segmentation system across channels. That approach used viewing and behavioral data to send automated, personalized messages based on each user’s engagement history, effectively boosting subscriptions, retention, and win-backs.

Relevant Content Recommendations

M&E brands can’t afford to send campaigns based on outdated data. Consumers are often quick to complete episodes, read articles, and keep up with ongoing releases—which is great for engagement, but potentially challenging for marketers. For brands that aren’t able to send content recommendations based on real-time engagement data, users’ swift consumption of content means that marketers are running the risk of telling their audience to check out something they’ve already seen, read, or listened to. By embracing customer engagement technologies built on streaming data and focusing on ongoing data collection, M&E brands can keep their suggestions cutting edge and drive meaningful value for customers and their bottom line alike.

What does that look like in practice? Global streaming service Max used in-app surveys to gather zero-party customer data on user content preferences, then leveraged that information to deliver curated content recommendations to each individual. That responsive, data-driven campaign resulted in higher engagement and increased conversions, including higher viewership for recommended content.

Continuous Optimization

Today’s challenging landscape means that even successful M&E brands can’t afford to rest on their laurels. Consumer preferences and behavior is ever-changing and that means these strategies can only achieve their full potential through thoughtful, ongoing testing, experimentation, and optimization across the entire customer journey. By assessing every aspect of each experience—from copy and creative to the different paths that users are sent down based on their actions—brands can keep their finger on the pulse of what resonates with their customers, supporting a nuanced understanding of what they want and need.

What does that look like in practice? Peacock, a leading streaming service, carried out a testing regimen to ensure that their personalized year-in-review campaign was rendering effectively and used a control group to assess the impact of the campaign. This approach allowed them to make adjustments as needed to support the impact of the campaign, which reduced churn and boosted free-to-paid upgrade rates.

How Accenture Song, AWS, and Braze can help

The M&E brands that succeed going forward are the ones that are building out strategies and systems to consistently deliver exceptional, individually-focused experiences and content that feels unique to each individual user. But making that happen is easier said than done.

To get there, brands need to ensure that they’re positioned to leverage the data and automation at their disposal efficiently and at scale—and one of the most impactful ways to make that happen is to leverage the transformative partnership between Accenture, AWS, and Braze, which brings together cloud-based technologies, generative AI, cross-channel customer engagement, and exceptional services in one cohesive unit.

Leveraging Accenture, AWS, and Braze in concert makes it possible to:

1. Maximize Data Value: Brands can extract even more value from existing customer data and systems.

2. Surface Key Findings Enterprise-Wide: Customer data and insights can be leveraged throughout an organization.

3. Access Data-Driven Learnings: Brands gain better access to insights into customer behaviors and engagement, supporting effective action via messaging and personalized experiences.

4. Scale Customer Engagement Insights: These insights can scale beyond initial initiatives and integrate into operational workflows.

This partnership between Accenture, AWS, and Braze supports:

• Seamless user identity resolution

• Nuanced segmentation and analytics

• Ongoing customer data ingestion and exports

• Action-based and API-triggered messaging

• Alignment of owned and paid experiences across platforms

• AI-driven recommendations

• AI content creation, testing and intelligent optimization

• Advanced industry insights, services, and custom-built solutions

• And more…

Are you ready to learn more about how Accenture, AWS, and Braze can support in-the-moment, life-centric engagement for M&E Brands? Check out our exclusive guide, “Activating Loyalty: How Media and Entertainment Brands Can Drive Lasting Growth in Fast-Moving Times.”