Much has been written about the so-called "Streaming Wars." The market for streaming video content is crowded with players, each with unique strengths - from Netflix's digital native, early adopter status, the platform power of Apple and Amazon, to the highly specific and valuable content of niche players like Crunchy Roll or the History Channel, whom we recently profiled on this show. Anyone interested in subscription models can learn a lot from understanding the diverging strategies of streaming players, many of whom number among the most powerful companies in the world.
Today's guest, Molly O'Connor leads Business Planning Strategy for WarnerMedia Sales Distribution, HBO Max, Cinemax and Turner Networks, all US distribution partners. That means she's responsible for managing the (sometimes competing) demands of the consumers, cable and satellite partners, and the app stores, weaving these disparate products and partners into a single cohesive strategy.
In our conversation, we discuss how to think about balancing direct and indirect channels, how a subscription offering can achieve strategic and/or financial objectives and the nerdy world of subscription math.
“Everybody gets the free. But if you want the really good stuff, you cross the velvet rope and subscribe.” Adam Taggart, President and Co-Founder of Peak Prosperity, joins Robbie to talk about his tips for building a community of subscribers that will grow into superusers who generate content of their own. They discuss how to handle a spike in acquisition, building a lifestyle subscription business with no outside capital, and how to create a “tribe” of highly engaged members. Adam's Bio: Adam Taggart is the President and Co-Founder of Peak Prosperity, a website that helps millions of people prudently prepare for the future. In his partnership with Chris Martenson, Adam handles the business and subscription side of the company. Adam began his career as an investment banking analyst for Merrill Lynch. He then went on to work in startups before starting at Yahoo!, where he worked for nine years and served as a Vice President. Adam earned a BA from Brown University and an MBA from Stanford University. Highlights from this episode: 2:16 -- Adam discusses his journey from Wall Street to beekeeper 7:00 -- Peak Prosperity’s business and subscription model 10:25 -- The “eight forms of capital” 11:20 -- Peak Prosperity’s efficient marketing and outreach technique 13:30 -- Turning viewers into members 14:20 -- Building community expectations and guidelines to promote quality engagement 16:04 -- The “tribe” within Peak Prosperity 16:30 -- How Peak Prosperity creates and maintains “superusers” 18:11 -- Managing a spike in acquisition 20:00 -- Making sure customers who come for coronavirus advice choose stay for other content 22:38 -- Adam’s advice for “working stiffs” 25:01 -- Building a subscription business with no outside capital Links: Adam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamtaggart/ Peak Prosperity: https://www.peakprosperity.com/ Robbie’s ...
Charity: water’s MZ Goodman joins Robbie to share how she is applying subscription model best practices to a nonprofit. They discuss how MZ leverages content marketing and digital community strategies developed in her work at The New York Times, Glossier and goop to build a donation-based subscription model, how they’ve leveraged a single 20-minute video to raise millions, and how to think about a Forever Promise in the context of engaging donors. Highlights from this episode: 2:00 - The birth of The Spring, charity: water’s subscription program 5:44 - Why a mission is the most important factor for attracting subscribers 7:15 - The importance of building a brand based on quality over charisma 11:00 - How to lure customers in with emotion, and make them stay through strong relationships 15:00 - Why charity: water is allowing subscribers to press “pause” during the COVID-19 pandemic to combat high churn rates 17:26 - Ways for nonprofits to allow members to remain active without opening their checkbooks 19:00 - MZ’s advice for product leaders who want to transition to the nonprofit world 20:24 - the differences between building a community at a news company, a make-up company, and a nonprofit 24:20 - Robbie’s Speed Round MZ's Bio: MZ Goodman is a product and marketing executive with expertise in digital products and subscriptions. MZ began as the Product Management Executive Director for The New York Times in 2007, managing the digital product team as the company first created its online subscription product. From there, MZ joined Ralph Lauren as Product Management Senior Director and was then recruited to join the leadership team at goop. After goop, MZ joined Glossier as Vice President of Digital and Business Insights. She now serves as Senior Vice President of Subscription ...
The first wave of the Membership Economy was mostly digital-- software, content, and services. But increasingly we’re seeing subscriptions around physical products. Challenges abound when manufacturing comes into play, especially with the pricing model. Many companies are selling the physical product and then offering subscriptions as an add-on. Examples include Peloton, where much of the value is in the subscription, but also products like Tile, Ring and Tesla where the subscription is truly optional. One company that’s getting a lot of attention for its innovative model is WHOOP. WHOOP offers a subscription-based service that combines a wearable fitness tracker with software to achieve its mission of “Unlocking human performance”. Today I talk to WHOOP’s Chief Product Officer, Ben Foster. Ben has literally written the book on Product Management along with his co-author Rajesh Nirlikar—Build What Matters, Delivering Key Outcomes with Vision Led Product Management. In this wide-ranging conversation, Ben and I discuss the best metrics for tracking customer value, the unique challenges of a subscription that includes hardware and software and why scrappiness is a key attribute of the best product managers. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook ...
