From the resurgence of strong male characters to the need to see heroes on television, 2017 seems to have a few trends to watch out from.
“Having conducted research for companies ranging from E! to the Science Channel, HotShot drinks for athletes to Hearst content for cooks, we’ve spoken to thousands of people in the past year about their attitudes, content and brand preferences,” said Robin Hafitz, President of Open Mind Strategy. “That work has provided a vantage point on how consumer culture is changing, and on emerging trends.”
Open Mind Strategy shares their top 5 trends: (To read the trends in detail, click here)
The Past as Antidote to the Present
The TV and movie landscape has been bombarded with “what’s old is new again” content for years and this is not likely to slow down in 2017. However, there is a deeper way that “nostalgia” is grabbing the interests of TV viewers that will likely grow significantly in the near future: Using the past as an antidote to the present.
Stranger Things, This Is Us, The Americans, Red Oaks, Westworld — the past is showing its face in increasingly intriguing ways. Shows like these allow a momentary escape from 2016/17 to a different, in some cases familiar, time. Sometimes people want out of today, and the past allows us to take a new look at what’s happening around us.
The Resurgence of Strong Male Characters
Millennials were the “Alpha Girl Generation.” Society held girls up as leaders and as a result they out-guyed the guys in confidence, drive and academic achievement. Millennial female heroes like Juno, Hannah Montana, Rachel Berry and Katniss Everdeen told girls to take charge. Meanwhile, male heroes, like the Jackass crew, told guys it was cooler not to try too hard — getting rich riding your skateboard into stuff, and hopefully getting famous pulling pranks, was the better route.
As Gen Z males begin to redefine masculinity they want characters that demonstrate that it’s not only okay for girls to be strong and smart. They too want to look up to intelligent role models who have it together and have their man card.
Guided Search and the Death of Surfing
As life becomes steadily more dependent on the internet, the methods by which viewers discover new content on TV have also changed. Simple “channel surfing” is becoming outdated, while efficient category-driven guided search gains popularity, particularly among younger adults. Guided search and custom “for you” content guarantees that viewers will find something enjoyable to watch and offers a more reliable return on the time spend searching. In 2017, there are several strategies that networks can implement to guide viewers to their air and compete with guided search platforms, like Netflix and Hulu.
Guaranteed Enjoyment
With the plethora of entertainment options available today, one may assume that for the media consumer this means hours upon hours of new discoveries on TV. Instead, we’re seeing a gravitation back to old favorites. Busy lives mean that consumers have to make the most of their TV time, and they often want guaranteed enjoyment rather than taking a risk for a new show. The ease of rewatching something old may mean trouble for unscripted “background” shows in the coming year.
Heroes Needed —anti-heroes on the way out
We need a hero – anti-heroes are on the way out. We are looking for role models, and looking for a ray of hope in troubling times. Where anyone sees a crisis, which almost everyone does today, they will look for a new hero to emerge. Not all of the heroes we find are perfect, but they feel real and diverse and inspiring. They give us hope.
Allison O’Keefe Wright, EVP, Managing Director Research & Strategy at Open Mind Strategy, LLC delves a little bit deeper in to these trends:
What role do you think diversity will play in these trends?
llison O’Keefe Wright, Senior Vice President, Open Mind Strategy
Diversity is something that today’s viewers, particularly younger viewers, expect in their content. It will continue to play a critical role. The manner in which diversity is represented will vary based on the setting and time-period of the show — viewers obviously want representations to feel authentic to the period depicted — but younger viewers demand diverse characters across gender, skin color, sexual preference and viewpoints.
Why is the audience looking towards the past for an escape?
Viewers are looking back to the past for numerous reasons. For one, to escape an often stressful, even unsavory present. We often get enough of today, and yesterday can be a reprieve. The past offers insight into the origin of certain ideas and issues and makes us think differently about the present when when seeing things from a nostalgic lens. But the past can also just be a fun backdrop to even serious or edgy content — the songs and clothes of the 80s give levity even to intense content. While the setting most often complements and informs the story, it can also be a whole separate reason to watch — a window into one’s parent’s youth or a reflection back to one’s own.
Can you explain the “heroes needed” trend?
We are coming off of a time in television where the anti-hero was huge. Viewers were sick of overly optimistic or sunny content that felt counter to the reality around them. They wanted the underdog, even if he/she was in many ways “the bad guy” to win the day. Breaking Bad’s Walter White was at the center of this trend, though scores of other shows fell within this concept as well: House of Cards, Dexter, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones to name only a few. After countless very successful anti-hero plays, the pendulum is beginning to swing again. We are living in a world that is still going through particularly hard times, but there are too many anti-heros showing up in reality. Too many “bad guys” winning the day. As such, there is a growing need for content that highlights the possibility of good actually managing to overcome. Stories of inspiration and hope that help us believe that there are still people in the world who care and who are looking out for others are increasingly needed.
What are your thoughts on revivals and the roles they will play?
Revivals are an interesting part of the trend of nostalgia. While the content is in many ways more relevant than ever, the bar is also higher than ever to get these right. Netflix and streaming at large has led a charge toward rewatching old standards (see “Guaranteed Enjoyment” below) and so even younger consumers are increasingly familiar with the original version of “old content”. Often the stuff deemed worthy of a remake, is the stuff “everyone” has already seen. As such, viewers can be increasingly harsh at holding a remake up to the bar of the original. This doesn’t mean success is impossible with a remake, but it means it needs to have more of a reason for being — it needs to honor the original while being entertaining in its own right. The 2016 remake of Ghostbusters is a good example of honoring the past while having enough of a unique POV to make it “worth making”.
