Media brand value seekers

As an agency, we don't currently have any media brands in our portfolio, so I can't say I know the ins and outs of it. I look at it from a distance. Spared from research findings and internal cuisine, I do think I read in these recent changes the illustration and confirmation of some meaningful brand trends.

Google tells me that since 1960 we could zap between the public television channels TV1 and TV2 and old school scroll between their radio channels Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3. If you lived in Brussels, you got the regional station Studio Brussels on top of that. And if your antenna wanted to cooperate a bit, then some exotic and noisy Dutch stations were added. The then BRT (the Belgian Radio and Television Broadcasting Company) had a quasi-monopoly and organized and organized its offer functionally and clearly: 1, 2, 3. Nèh.

Disruption. I doubt the word was in our Van Dale back in 1989, but what a market disruption it must have been when Mike and Guido launched their commercial television station VTM. A new viewership- and advertising-oriented wind blew through the industry. It set in motion a switch from functional supply brands to attractive target group brands.

VRT did not stand still: it is the period when market researchers, such as Jan Callebaut (then Censydiam), defined audience segments such as "value-added seekers" and "active discoverers" for them. In the lap of public broadcasting, we see strong brands such as Radio Donna, Klara and Ketnet emerging. VTM is also expanding with a second channel under numerous names: Ka2, KANAALTWEE, 2BE, Q2, ... in just a few years. In 1995, this game gets another new dimension with a third player: VT4 from the European player SBS Broadcasting Group.

We are in the midst of a new disruption: the media houses are scaling up and centralizing, innovating in their platforms ánd facing increased pressure from new streamers such as Netflix, Spotify and Disney+. As a result, today we see a synchronous movement among the commercials: they are sacrificing their attractive target group brands and rebranding them to functional (say: dry) supply brands. Our television guide catapults us back to the clear logic of the 1960s: with one family you read VTM, VTM2, VTM3 and VTM4 and in that other pond it becomes Play Four, Play Five, Play Six and Play Seven. Simple comme bonjour.

A few carefully curated and well-established brands are being phased out. Outrage ensues: "A weakening of the brand portfolio?!", "A loss for target segments?!", "An inside-out strategy?!"

Or is this simply the market evolving? Perhaps even a step toward "weniger, aber besser"—less, but better—as legendary designer Dieter Rams once preached. One thing is certain: cutting back on brands allows for resource optimization. That’s always a factor. But I believe something more fundamental is at play here.

The DPG and Telenet channels are close to their advertisers—uh, I mean, viewers. And it makes sense that changing audience behavior guides the way they operate. The like-minded-people containers of the past are now more like a sieve full of holes, with viewers and target groups flowing in and out. In the vast supply of content, we pick and choose to piece together our own offering and identity.

Seamlessly zapping between Stranger Things, Alleen Elvis blijft bestaan, and Vanity Plates (awesome!). Just because we can. Sociologists write entire books about this. But on the other side, too, the walls between channels seem to be getting thinner and thinner. Where light electronic beats once seemed blacklisted on StuBru, and louder guitar music was rarely, if ever, heard on MNM, genres—and therefore programming—are moving closer together.

With that in mind, I understand why the two commercial media groups are organizing themselves as content brands: clear and centralized. Just like VRT in its early days. But fully adapted to 2020: ready for algorithms, platforms, and the new ways of watching. And perhaps also the new ways of reading and listening?

Brands are under construction, and clear structures have been put in place. Like a blank page, ready for a new story. I hope they evolve into new powerhouse brands. Brands that can connect individuals with an idea, add color to their days, and guarantee quality in this vast world.

The fast-paced media professionals saw this coming, of course, and innovated with their own fragmented streaming experiments. But it’s the global players like Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube that have provided the decisive nudge in our behavior.

Now, with local players joining forces in a shared platform, the revolution seems to be fully underway, with the launch of Disney+ in our country as the cherry on top. Tomorrow, the audience will simply subscribe (or maybe several subscriptions?) to a streaming platform and curate their own programming. International content and local shows. Completely tailored. Exactly when and where you want.