leadership dot #1987: binge

Tonight is the 300^th episode of the television drama Grey’s Anatomy. If the average episode is 42 minutes, that means I have already spent almost 210 hours as a couch potato because of this show.

OMG.
I could have written a book in that amount of time.

While some have spread their 12,558 minutes over the course of 14 seasons, I came late to the Grey’s party, but thanks to the marvel of Netflix, I was able to catch up. In a few months. Watching far more than 42 minutes at a stretch.

Binge watching has changed the landscape of how television is consumed. It is becoming increasingly rare to watch just one show and to watch it as it originally airs. Even people who could do that often save up a few past episodes so that they can watch them as a set – somehow making it more of an experience than an individual event.

Binge watching has implications far beyond television though. People are getting accustomed to (or should we say “being trained”) to consume things on an on-demand basis and to receive an on-going feed of content they desire. Membership sites with monthly fees are available for delivery of almost every product imaginable. Sites like Netflix and Hulu have vast repositories of content that extend lives of television shows and movies. Now if a show gets a good buzz as the series builds, they can still capture an audience. People want to be able to go back and “catch up” rather than being told they missed their opportunity.

Has your website and content delivery been repackaged to allow for “binge-access” for your clients? It’s no longer enough to just have information about the event: now you need to record it, share it and archive it forever. Have you preserved your newsletters, magazines and other content for someone to retrieve at any point so they are able to meet their need at the moment? Do you provide an easy way for someone to dive deep into your organization and learn about your services, such as when preparing for a job interview or to hire you as a client? Do you have educational resources available for customers to learn all they can about a topic when a specific problem arises?

Binge watching is the new norm for entertainment, but I predict it is going to spread over to consumption of educational content as well. Think about how you package your content so you don’t need a crash cart to resuscitate your brand.