By: Kent Steffen

The number of avenues a digital consumer has to catch the latest episode of "The Blacklist" or see why everyone is talking about the film "Whiplash" is staggering.  As a digital service provider (DSP), you are likely among the sources that a consumer considers for this content – but not the only consideration. Today’s digital consumption landscape includes less traditional providers like Redbox, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Apple TV and a host of others.  Competitive differentiation not only becomes a difficult line to walk, but also is paramount to success when the content you offer can be found in so many other places.

For purposes of this discussion, let’s forget the content for a minute. It's all the same anyway, right?  Let’s also assume that as a DSP, you have the foundation in place to engage with your digital consumer and allow them to browse and buy content easily and across devices or, at least, the wheels are in motion to create that direct-to-consumer digital relationship.  What’s next?  How do you differentiate your service to keep consumers engaging with your digital brand and, more importantly, coming back to your content storefront for more?

Build Your Merchandising Strategy

Make no mistake. Compelling content is the bedrock any digital experience; but when each provider offers the same content, it becomes a commodity.  What is not a commodity is consumer engagement. That activation of the consumer is a mix of art and science of providing consumer ease and creative merchandising offers that go beyond the one-time transactions with models like Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) and Authenticated Video On Demand (AVOD) - turning one-time consumers into subscribers. 

The digital consumer is savvy, and gone are the days when just having content available for the consumer would suffice. A robust merchandising strategy has evolved from a "cool experience" to a "must-have" for providers to create (and in the case of digital service providers, extend) brand loyalty and open untapped revenue streams.  In fact, it may well be among the best value propositions out there to convert one-time shoppers into repeat customers.  Differing flavors of how consumers interact with content – one-time; on a monthly all-you-can-eat plan; or on the go with a single login and multiple devices– are here to stay, making intelligent and dynamic merchandising critical to reach the occasional couch movie buyer through the power user who takes their favorite TV series on flights.  Spanning the gamut of consumers as they evolve their video-watching habits not only drives loyalty, but also empowers those consumers within your digital experience as well as letting them know that this merchandising is tailored specifically to their needs and wants.

Merchandising nirvana is offering consumers the choice of content purchase and consumption that suits them. This could be the simple Transitional VOD (TVOD) model that supports one-time transactions. But the real power comes by creating on-going relationships with these digital consumers.  Including SVOD and AVOD merchandising models (coupled with those TVOD models) increases the potential to draw in audiences to repeat their interactions with their DSP across devices.