'Screen Life: TV in demand' - TV viewing needstates in 10 slides, by Thinkbox and Flamingo research
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Thinkbox’s ‘Screen Life: TV in demand’ research revealed how and why viewers choose between watching TV live or on demand (VOD) and why they watch different types of online video. In revealing the attractions of VOD, the study provided valuable insights into why live TV remains so dominant.
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'Screen Life: TV in demand' - TV viewing needstates in 10 slides, by Thinkbox and Flamingo research
- 1. The six needstates of TV viewing COMFORT CONNECT ESCAPE EXPERIENCE INDULGE UNWIND (Live TV, planner & on-demand)
- 2. UNWIND THE NEED TO UNWIND IS ABOUT DEFERRING THE PRESSURES OR DE-STRESSING FROM THE PRESSURES OF THE DAY “ Usually I’ll come home after work and just put TV on and slowly fall asleep. It doesn’t matter what’s on, it could be something I’ve seen 20 times Young Family, Man”chester
- 3. COMFORT THE NEED FOR COMFORT IS THE NEED FOR SHARED FAMILY TIME. WE SEEK TOGETHERNESS, RITUALS, FAMILIARITY AND ROUTINE “ After dinner, we’ll all sit down round the sofa and watch The Simpsons or something like that. It’s not about the programme though, it’s about having that time together before doing our own thing later on ” Older Family, Manchester
- 4. CONNECT THE NEED FOR CONNECTION IS THE NEED FOR A SENSE OF ‘ANCHORING’ – TO FEEL A SENSE OF CONNECTION TO PEOPLE, TO TIME OR TO PLACE “ NO TV for four days? But I’ll miss Geordie shore. It’s not fair, all my friends will be talking about it, I’ll have to avoid Facebook for the next four days! ” Male teen, Manchester
- 5. EXPERIENCE THE NEED FOR AN EXPERIENCE IS THE NEED FOR FUN, ENERGY AND A SENSE OF OCCASION. EXPERIENCES CREATE THE GLUE THAT CAN BIND FAMILIES, FRIENDSHIPS TOGETHER “ We love Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. Every Saturday we watch that, get into our PJs. and get a takeaway ” Young Family, London
- 6. ESCAPE THE NEED TO LEAVE THE ‘EVERYDAY’ BEHIND. HERE, TV ACTS AS A PORTAL TO ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE ENTIRELY “ Me and my husband love watching Game of Thrones after the kids have gone to bed. We record it because it can be quite explicit. We love it, it’s basically total fantasy ” Older Family, Bristol
- 7. INDULGENCE INDULGENCE IS ABOUT YOUR TRULY PERSONAL FAVOURITES, NOT GENERALLY SHARED BY THOSE YOU LIVE WITH. IT’S ABOUT SATISFYING YOUR (TYPICALLY GUILTY) PLEASURES “ I get in around 9:30 a.m. after dropping the kids off. I put on Real Housewives, or some other show my husband can’t stand and get out some biscuits, it’s pure indulgence ” Young Family, London
- 8. VOD excels at meeting the escape needstate 23% 21% 18% 19% 8% 11% CONNECT COMFORT ESCAPE EXPERIENCE INDULGE UNWIND 41% 18% 8% 3% ESCAPE 15% 14% COMFORT CONNECT EXPERIENCE INDULGE UNWIND LIVE TV VOD
- 9. Advertising works differently according to needstates INDULGE CONNECT ESCAPE EXPERIENCE UNWIND COMFORT Acceptance Ads are more readily welcomed in some needstates more than others. Congruence Certain product categories, narrative structures and tones are better suited to some needstates more than others.
- 10. Different platforms meet different needs INDULGE CONNECT ESCAPE PLANNER EXPERIENCE UNWIND COMFORT LIVE TV VOD SOCIAL VIDEO
Editor's Notes
- Our research found 6 needstates which drive us towards watching TV programmes. In broad terms, the three needstates on the right – Unwind, Comfort and Connect – are driven by context. They aren’t passive in terms of the impact of advertising – which is highly effective when it is congruent with viewers in these needstates - but they are less about the specific content and more about the social environment and personal situation of the audience. The ones on the left – Experience, Escape and Indulge – are more about the content. It involves a more active selection of a programme. TV schedulers are skilled at placing the programmes at the most advantageous time slot, so audiences often find that the live programme is in tune with their needstate. But if it isn’t, then they have the option of watching something on demand.
- Unwinding is about relaxing after the stresses and pressures of the day and involves the least taxing, most un-demanding content. It is a positive excuse to do nothing, TV as a soother. It also fits the morning before work, when we are gearing up for the day and going through our routines – we want TV that we can tune in to as and when, without needing to focus on it. Who: Skews Couples How: Live TV, Main TV screen When: Typically Saturday morning, but also after work, or before work What: Saturday Morning Kitchen, Daybreak, Dickenson, Friends, repeats play a strong role here too – the familiar can be soothing. It’s why kids watch the same movie 500 times.
- The need for comfort is all about cosiness, warmth, familiarity and routine. It is broad appeal, recognisable programme formats, watched with your family and friends – TV as the modern hearth. But it’s not all about the programme though, it’s about having that time together. What: The Simpsons, kids shows like Gumball, Modern Family, You’ve Been Framed and other early evening programmes at weekends Who: Skews young families How: Live TV, Main TV screen When: Typically early morning or late afternoons, before dinner time when you want to gather people together, get kids down from the bedroom, if not prised away from their smartphones
- The need to connect is not all about connecting to each other, it is more about plugging into the country. It roots you in a time and place. TV brings the public world into your private space. There is a person on the other end. Things are OK, life is ticking over, but you just need to check that the world is still turning…It is less about the content and more about making you feel as if you aren’t the only person on the planet What: It varies – it depends on what sort of things are important to you. The News for most, TOWIE for some. Right now, Dynamo on Watch is a programme that people are talking about – if you miss it, you can’t join in the conversation. Who: Skews younger and females How: Live TV, main TV screen, but also social video plays a role here. Social Video is a more niche activity but one that delivers well against the connect needstate When: Typically mornings during the week and afternoons and evenings at the weekend
- The experience needstate is all about being at the party. It’s the stuff that is highly social and creates the glue that binds friendships and even the nation together – the unmissable is really still missable …so you need to be there in front of the screen to enjoy it with everybody else. The TV as an entertainer It is all about the content and how we come together through a mutual love of that content. It is all about being there, experiencing the event together, sure you can watch it on catch up, but the adrenaline is lower. The key difference with connect is that it is less about being connected to the nation and more about being connected to those who share our love of this content. The social element is more focused What: BGT, STRICTLY, IACGMOOH, sporting events too. Many of these programmes work far better when they are live. Who: Skews families How: Live TV, Main TV screen, planner and VOD plays a pretty big role too – the content is so good, you just need to watch it there and then, even if you’re only ten minutes behind the broadcast. When: Weekends mainly - afternoons and evenings.
- Then we have the need to escape…The need to leave the monotony of everyday behind us. So TV can transport you to another time and place. This is often high quality, highly compelling drama. These are the shows that you would like the outside world to know you watch. You are particularly proud of these ones. When you ask people about their favourite shows these are the shows they talk about – often highly aspirational. Often these are very popular programmes, but they also include dramas that appeal to people with particular tastes. Since these are the programmes that come to mind when we think about our favourite programmes, they may dominate when we think about TV, even though most of our viewing is satisfying other need states. These programmes are less time-sensitive for the viewer – there may be an added thrill from seeing them live – in part so you don’t risk missing them, and from the sense of anticipation. But you are happy to watch when you can concentrate. You might watch one episode on demand, and return to the live broadcast the next week – VOD provides that option. What: Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Broadchurch Who: Skews male and couples How: Live TV, Main TV screen, planner and VOD plays a pretty big role too When: Late evening
- And finally Indulgence is about getting what you want, when you want; satisfying your often guilty pleasures, often on your own, watching something of purely personal interest. Private ‘me’ time. Whatever floats your boat really. This is the real private you. Indulgence is all about personal favourites, this is the stuff that planners are stuffed full with. Who: There is no real demographic skew to this, we all have our guilty pleasures it seems. How: As with all of our needstates it is primarily TV but it does over index on Planner / Tablet – devices that let you be alone and indulge basically When: Any moment of ‘me’ time really – typically for mum this could be 10 am when kids at school, late at night. What: Content wise - It is your Peter Andre, Real Housewives, depending on the individual. It could just as easily be something like Moto GP practice session.
- Let’s look now at different platforms. When we logged viewing occasions to need states, we found that Live TV was balanced across the need states. Comfort was less because it requires a family setting, so is not an option in all households. The others are. If we compare VOD to live TV then we see some important differences. VOD is about delivering great content when you want it, therefore the Content-based needs – and Escape in particular – are much more likely to be met by this platform; at the expense of context-based needs like Unwind, Comfort and Connect. This may explain why VOD punches above its weight when we talk about TV we watch - the programmes that satisfy our need to Escape come to mind quickly when we think about what we like to watch, but these are only a minority of our viewing. Because VOD doesn’t meet the full spectrum of needs in the way live TV does, it’s not a replacement for live TV but a ‘boost’ when you need it.
- Most importantly is that advertising will work differently and better or worse according to which needstate a person is in. You are simply going to be more accepting of advertising at certain times in your day and when you are in a certain frame of mind. We already know a great deal about how the brain processes messages and makes decisions and that congruency plays a vital role. Advertisers need to match need states with categories, tones and narratives. Doing so should deliver much better results for your brand.
- To summarise this section – different platforms are meeting different needs. Live TV is the best equipped to meet all of the needs. That’s why live TV will endure, no matter what other platforms emerge. As one expert said “NOTHING CAN BE MORE UP TO DATE THAN LIVE TV”. VOD and Planner are very closely aligned in terms of needs and excel at serving our need to Escape – as well as Indulge in the case of Planner. Social video is different again, and although it’s able to meet the Escape need state, it revolves more around Connect than VOD. This short set of slides is designed to provide a flavour of the research. It cannot hope to cover this important topic in detail. And our full presentation has video which helps to bring the needstates and their relationship to advertising, to life. If you are interested in our methodology, there is more information on our website, and we can talk about it with you in person.