A hard habit to break into

The medium is the message, declared Marshall McLuhan back in 1964 – the same year James Bond 003, aka Goldfinger, broke box office records at movie theatres around the world. 

Skip forward half a century and the medium has seen revolutions come and go, but the message remains very much the same: No Time To Die – Bond 025 – was the most streamed film of 2021 according to new figures released by the Entertainment Retailers Association.

Brands need to find ways to break into the streaming culture conversation, not least because much of it takes place on ad-free platforms.

Indeed, with a cursory look at the ERA’s annual report on in-home entertainment one clear takeaway is that while the pandemic switched-up consumption habits, tastes remains stuck in the past. Beyond Bond, the most listened to album was by Adele and the most popular video game was FIFA. So much for exploring new leisure pursuits during life under lockdown. 

Above: How we watch may have changed, but what we watched has remained very much the same. No Time to Die the 25th official Bond film, was the most streamed film of 2021 according to the Entertainment Retailers Association.

And yet, however cosy the echo chamber, brands need to find ways to break into the streaming culture conversation, not least because much of it takes place on ad-free platforms. After all, the biggest headline of the ERA’s report was the near £10 billion Britons spent on home entertainment in 2021. This was the ninth successive year of growth and a result that surprised even the most bullish analysts who thought record-breaking growth of 18.7% in 2020 would prove hard to top.

That a pandemic-panicked-nation should choose to order-in both convenience and comfort food in record numbers should not come as any great surprise. After all, McDonalds accounted for fully 60% of Uber Eats orders in 2019 (the last year they had exclusive access to the Golden Arches). But while digital adoption has enjoyed a giant and seemingly permanent leap forward (back in late 2020, McKinsey & Co estimated that life in lockdown had compressed about a decade of digital adoption into mere months) the ERA’s top performers would suggest digital culture has some catching up to do.

The mainstream has always been a powerful, slow-moving current, unmoved by the eddies of pop culture.

Tastemakers should not hold their breath. The tech adoption life cycle may come with a long tail of 'laggards' but the point of the curve is; everyone catches up eventually. Not so culture. Sad to say, but fans of Mrs Browns Boys may never discover I May Destroy You.  

The truth is, the mainstream has always been a powerful, slow-moving current, unmoved by the eddies of pop culture. Epic Twitterstorms rate barely a ripple in the real world. Stir in the syrupy tyranny of the algorithm – the soft-serve recommendation engines of streaming platforms that pander to what academics like to call our tendency of 'selective exposure' – and it’s little wonder most Netflix consumers are perfectly chill bobbing along in their filter bubble buoyancy aids.

Above: While streaming services and digital adoption have proliferated, digital culture still has some catching up to do.

The ERA’s all-too predictable 2021 charts only confirm what we already know; that marketeers rarely get rich by swimming against mass market norms. Channels flip frequently but a good ad still delivers either a dopamine high or a serotonin sigh. A great 30-second ad may even manage both.

Betting the house on a fad format is how Quibi went bust in six months. TikTok, on the other hand, has begun its long bleed into mainstream culture.

So, does this mean McLuhan’s maxim can finally be put out to pasture? Not quite. The mainstream will always sludge along slowly, but a consumption revolution will still presage a culture evolution – eventually. Never mind Goldfinger, even a cursory comparison of Goldeneye - Bond 017 - and No Time To Die, is enough to appreciate how far representation has come in a generation. 

The trick for marketeers, as ever, is timing. After all, betting the house on a fad format is how Quibi went bust in six months. TikTok, on the other hand, has begun its long bleed into mainstream culture. It is hard to listen to the skittery, fidgety, hook-heavy beats of PinkPantheress – BBC’s newly crowned Sound of 2022 – and not hear the influence of the platform she calls home, not least because the songs all come in at an attention-deficit-defying 90 seconds or so. 

Above: TikTokers such as PinkPantheress have bled into mainstream culture.