A Guide to Content Curation for an Improved End-User Discovery Experience
These days, video streaming services rely more and more on recommendation algorithms to surface content for their viewers. While this can be helpful in many ways, it also makes it difficult for viewers to discover content they may have yet to see or search for otherwise. This is where human content curation comes into play. By creating video categories beyond traditional genres, viewers can better discover and watch content they may never have known existed.
Curating content categories that are original and exclusive to your service is a fantastic way to boost brand identity and promote content discovery. For example, consider seasonal or topical themes or categories based on popular actors or films, making it easier for viewers to find the content they may miss.
Exploring user data to identify what types of content are most popular amongst your viewers (including in different markets) can be a great starting point for category inspiration. It’s also an excellent way to discover what existing content from your library is worth investing in further or resurfacing.
The Magine Pro CMS Console offers our partners fantastic flexibility for manual category curation. We enable operators to configure collections of content independently, including selecting specific video content, category titles and determining where collections appear on the discovery page. Our partners can also boost the prominence of select categories by setting larger thumbnail image sizes for featured content. Follow our step-by-step below within the CMS Console and configure a unique collection of content for your viewers.
Content Curation with Magine Pro’s CMS Console
To learn more about content curation and how categories can be configured within the Magine Pro CMS Console, head over to our knowledge base, and explore other comprehensive content curation and content design guides.
You can also get in touch with the team for more guidance on content curation and customising a Magine Pro-powered streaming service. Check out our blog for additional insights, including a recent post on why curation is key to reducing churn. And learn more about our flexible OTT platform and how we enable our partners to monetise their live events, linear and VOD content seamlessly.
Content Engagement Strategy: Why curation is key to reducing churn
A content engagement strategy will vastly improve user retention rates, which is critical for video streaming service operators where the cost of new customer acquisition is high.
Viewers who deem your streaming service and content engaging are much more likely to stick around and continue watching regularly. They are also inclined to share positive recommendations with their friends and family, leading to increased subscriber numbers and revenue.
At its core, user engagement is about driving viewers’ active participation. For streaming service operators, this means creating a content engagement strategy that offers a wide variety of quality programming and actively encourages users to explore the full breadth of your video streaming service.
Content Engagement & Curation
It’s not enough to simply rely on algorithms that recommend content based on a user’s past behaviour. To keep audiences coming back for more, streaming services need to offer a mix of content that appeals to users’ current interests and trends. Human curation can help bridge this gap by providing context and relevance that automated recommendations may lack.
At Magine Pro, we offer our partners the flexibility to curate their own content categories. Our partners can choose catchy and unique category names, decide what content appears in a category, and even how and where it is displayed in the service.
Manually curating content categories that are original and exclusive to your service is a fantastic way to promote discovery; here are a few of our top tips to get you started:
1. Review your user data and determine what types of content your viewers like to watch. This will help you build content categories that are more likely to resonate with your audience.
2. Create content categories that are seasonal and relevant to all users. Obvious choices include romance in February, horror during October, and family Christmas films during December, but also think outside the box and incorporate other important dates.
3. Create categories that are topical in response to current events. For example, you might want to consider building categories around well-known actors when their latest films are released in theatres.
4. Resurface older popular content from your library to fill new categories. This not only lets you make the most of your existing library but also helps keep the service discovery page fresh.
5. Based on user data, you can build categories that include the most-viewed content. People trust others’ opinions, and if they perceive content to be popular, they are more likely to engage with it.
There are countless other ways to increase content discovery and engagement in your streaming service. At Magine Pro, we offer a flexible OTT platform that can be customised according to your needs. And have a team of experienced experts on hand who can help you launch and grow your OTT business successfully. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you build and launch a successful OTT business, get in touch or book a meeting with the Magine Pro team today.
For more tips on building a content engagement strategy, check out our white paper ‘OTT Discovery: How to stand out amongst the crowd‘ which explores what new streaming services can do to enhance service and content discovery. We also have some useful insights and resources available on our blog.
Video Streaming Services: Human Curation Vs Algorithms
In this post, we look at the benefits of human content curation over recommendation algorithms for video streaming services and the impact it can have on your brand and content discoverability.
Recommendation Algorithms
Recommendation algorithms are commonplace in most video streaming services, designed to connect audiences with content they’re most likely to enjoy based on what they’ve previously watched. Content categories that are based on recommendations are generated by the data gathered on a user’s viewing habits and will continue evolving the more input and data a user provides. However, algorithms are also somewhat limited; they can’t anticipate how a user’s tastes might change for example, the impact of trends, current events or even how a user feels on a particular day.
That being said, they are an essential feature for most mainstream players, primarily due to them having vast libraries of content that can overwhelm users and make it much more difficult to find something they want to watch. But even so, we’re beginning to see more prominent video streaming services, including HBO Max and Netflix, turn to human content curation alongside.
Human Curation
Curating content categories that are original and exclusive to your service is a fantastic way to boost brand identity and promote content discovery. Smaller and niche services in particular that don’t have an extensive library of content can benefit significantly from manual curation. It gives services much more control over what and where the content appears. And when positioned and promoted effectively, categories curated by experienced editor’s can prove to be more popular with users than AI recommended categories.
Key Benefits
- Boost Brand Identity
How content is presented in your service is a reflection of your brand. Grip users on the discovery page of your service with exclusive content and curated categories that reflect your service’s niche and brand’s tone of voice. - Resurface Content
Utilise your entire library and curate categories that mix new content with older but equally relevant content. Manual curation gives you more control over how this content appears and the context. - Creative Categories
Build digital campaigns around creative categories to boost content and brand awareness. Consider curating content categories that reflect topical events, currently popular actors/directors or even moods.
Magine Pro CMS Console
The Magine Pro CMS Console offers our partners fantastic flexibility for manual category curation. You can also determine where a category appears on the service discovery page and boost its prominence by selecting larger thumbnail images sizes for the featured content. Increase user engagement and discovery by creating a dynamic interface that features a range of uniquely curated categories to explore.
To discover more about the benefits of human curation on content and streaming service discoverability, download our latest white paper, OTT Discovery: How to stand out amongst the crowd. This white paper also includes original research by Omdia and partner case studies that highlight their in-market experiences. You’ll also discover what new streaming services can do to boost brand awareness, drive discoverability and increase conversion rates through marketing efforts and service features.
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Want more advice and support on driving awareness & discoverability? Get in touch with the Magine Pro team and find out how we can help. You can also learn more about our CMS Console and branded OTT solutions and services here.