Original series are the fresh products that platforms have to offer to the hundreds of thousands of users that seem to remain unimpressed by everything, not that we have lost the ability to be surprised or baffled, but there’s a stream of updates and just when we were barely understanding, suddenly the battle for the best network gets a new challenger, making us lose focus of what’s innovative and thrilling.

Some run, some fly

Amazon began to surprise us with original series that gained loyal followers left and right, then Netflix saw that and decided to bet on their own content, giving us exciting series such as Black Mirror, that catapulted them as creators of well-produced and accessible content. In this wave of original productions and the rise of video as preferred by internet users, Facebook launched Facebook Watch, where we could find compiled videos we posted, shared and commented, until suddenly…

Indeed, Facebook has brought upon the world the chance to consume original mini series with half hour chapters each (with the possibility of uploading episodes as small as three minutes long) with the famous characters that millennials already know. This strategy sounds attractive considering that everyday more people claim preferring ads than paying for subscriptions to streaming platforms; accessing these networks only requires a Facebook account (a “cheap” price to pay, considering the constant leaking of data from the network).

Snap Originals

The one mistake Snapchat had, was to fall from grace with Kylie Jenner, otherwise the app would still be a preference amongst the younger generation Z, at least in the United States, where people replaced Vine with this microcontent platform. They really haven’t stayed behind before, and besides the dispute about the original idea behind filters, they have shown how much they listen and predict the preferences of younger audiences and give them what they didn’t know they wanted, on this particular occasion, original series with episodes no longer than 5 minutes with fresh themes and characteristics like Augmented Reality which gives them the possibility to visit new settings from the series directly on the smartphone.

These series are produced in vertical format -which is preferred by the generations coming, for they have no interest on wasting time turning the smartphone to the old timer horizontal format- and will have their very own tab where they will all be in the same place.

We will be able to subscribe to the series that call our attention, receiving a notification every time a new chapter is uploaded

What about the ads?

Ads on Instagram Stories came after the discovery that people prefer to browse stories from their friends than to actually scroll down their timelines, the same thing happens with Facebook Stories and, adding insult to injury, Netflix is planning to display ads even on premium accounts, which is already causing headaches to users who are willing to pay for a little privacy. These formats get us closer to a new era in publicity, new ways to reach audiences and new execution ideas, as we said earlier, we have lost our capacity for astonishment, something that as publishers, should take in account every day.

Sources
www.emarketer.com
www.socialmediatoday.com
www.snapchat.com