Who is HBO?

Hbo, the world renown multi-prize winning cable and satellite network company owned by Time Warner, is one of the most popular and successful companies in the Tv and Film industry. In 2014 alone the revenue was 4.6 Billion dollars and viewers were 92 Million according to Sam Mattera. Despite being one of the most respected and best TV producers and Cable networks it cannot sit on its laurels since many innovations, competitors and industry changes are threatening the companies future.

As a result they must have a Digital marketing plan which ensures promoting their original programming that involves popular shows such as Game of Thrones, The Wire and the newly released Westworld alongside their cable network, their streaming app HBO GO and/or, in case it is not available in a country, their previously mentioned original shows on other platforms.

Currently the firms main strength lies in its multiple Prize winning shows and the brand association that comes with it, that being: Quality TV produced by capable TV show producers.

As a result its “library” is very diversified and aimed at all age ranges. But the companies hegemony and influence has been under threat in recent years.

The TV industry is changing

Currently the TV industry is witnessing a significant trend towards cord-cutting (the process of avoiding cable connections and services) in exchange for the more popular online SVOD (Subscription video on demand) Services such as Netflix and Amazon Video.

The developing trend of cord-cutting, according to Baccarne et al., is due both to the de-regulation and liberalization of broadcasting distribution alongside the opportunities created by the digitization and innovative business models available thanks to the Internet. Consequently, firms such as Youtube and Netflix have taken advantage of this gap and entered this market. Alongside these new entrants Tv producers are also experiencing a significant increase in illegal distribution of their content on peer-to-peer websites such as Putlocker. As a result of this wide array of accessing options, many users , according to the previously mentioned Digiworld academic journal,are constantly searching for the best “value for money” option.

The industry as a whole have been slow to react to these new business opportunities that allow them to, now more than ever, to distribute their content outside the US or embrace new business practices. HBO is trying to avoid this by being involved in the digital distribution era and trying to contrast in the US Netflix and similar platforms by offering its own fast growing streaming platform HBO GO and internationally by offering and promoting (via Press releases, Seo optimization and media alerting) the availability of its shows on partnered platforms.

The Marketing

Currently HBO’s Digital Marketing execution seems comparatively different compared to other competitors, especially in the Online SVOD industry.

Netflix and Amazon Video for example are more “Community focused” and try to have people interact with their content.

Hbo on the other hand seems to have a more “corporate” approach with mainly announcements being their focus.

On the other hand they promote the availability of their content on available platforms multiple times and ways.

But whilst the promotion of their shows on other platforms is positive it ignores one of Kaplans 4 I’s that being “Involvement” in which there is an attempt to engage the consumer and start a conversation. This can also be seen on the on the opt-in e-mail marketing side of things too as shown below.

The E-mail is old looking, not Mobile friendly and links to a now deleted Myspace page, a social media that by todays standards is basically dead. Compared to the basic industry standards that studies such as the popular Chadwick et al. study point out it seems to be sorely lacking in many elements such as Page lenght, number of Hyperlinks and images. This just shows that they are not considering the potential of promoting themselves, HBO GO or even their online store.

This seems so different to their previous modus operandi when in 2003 it won “best e-mail campaign” thanks to a highly targeted e-mail campaign as highlighted by Marketing Sherpa.

Email marketing could still be very useful since it can provide powerful imagery to grab attention, provide and incentivise viewer consumption and the promotion of the brand image itself. Below is a very good example provided by Campaign Monitor

A valid criticism one could make is that Hbo does not want to focus on e-mail marketing and wants to focus more on Online Partnerships and Social Media. On the other hand people can point out the statistics that show the still underlying profitability E-mail marketing brings. An example is the statistic provided by Campaign Monitor that claims that the ROI (Return on Investment) for every 1$ spent is 38$ earned.

As such HBO could promote DVD sales, new broadcasting availability and its online shop via a revitalised and repurposed e-mail marketing. Other sectors that need re-vitalizing are the interactive ad channel and the ability to quickly and promptly find their value on various platforms.