In the lost days between Christmas and New Years, Netflix went big and finally released the latest helping of popular show, Black Mirror. But this was like no other, instead a feature-length live interactive experience called 'Bandersnatch', which has been in the works for some 18 months or so.
Why is this relevant?
If you haven't seen it yet, this will probably make no sense to you, so I suggest you set aside a few hours, get comfortable, log into Netflix and press play. Keep your remote close though.
...and welcome back!
Now you know what I'm talking about, I'd like to draw your attention to three things that marketers can take away.
Give your audience options, but not too many! All too often in marketing, whether its a website page, an email or other, I see too many calls to action (CTAs), leaving me too overwhelmed to choose. Here we have a sequence of only two options to choose from at a time, leaving me less stressed and wanting to continue on. (If you've seen the show, which you should have if you're reading this, then I know some of those choices were a little err difficult/odd, but we're not talking about that right now). The lesson here is to reduce the amount of CTAs at any one time, balanced with frequency at which you offer them, depending on how long your customer journey is.
Give the audience what they asked for! Once a user has made a choice, make sure they get directed to exactly what they're expecting. The opposite happens more often than you may think, leaving the user left questioning whether they clicked on what they thought they had, going back a step, searching around or just getting bored and leaving. Make sure you create and repurpose your content accordingly, so that there is a seamless transition from multiple relevant paths.
Don't forget to drive towards your conversion! Okay, let's face it, you may have thought you were in control when watching the show, but you got played... all roads led to the same thing. I don't have the exact stats, but looking at the latest reports, the average viewing time meant that the majority of people saw all five endings in a combination of orders. Why? Because everyone wanted to see Stefan live happily ever after. The lesson here is that when you are making content to be engaging, interactive and customised, but ultimately lead to a business goal, ensure you take the time to think strategically about each and every touchpoint and the next step in the sequence. Don't waste your opportunities to progress someone forwards.