The Beginning of the Brand Wars: Streaming Edition

A case of the... Sundays?

We’ve all been there. You’re winding down on a Sunday evening, capping off a fun-filled or relaxing weekend, when the influx of email notifications brings on a wave of stress and overwhelming dread of the workweek to come. 

More and more people are feeling this pre-Monday stress called the “Sunday Scaries” and companies are doing their best to combat bad workplace practices that set unrealistic expectations from the top down.

A recent study found that 62% of 2,059 working adults said they felt pressure to be available around the clock and another looked at managerial habits outside the office and concluded that every hour a boss spent online translated to 20 extra minutes of work for his or her direct reports outside of normal business hours.

Strategist Courtney Emery found that this tracks well with her early findings in our upcoming “Future of the Healthy Morning” report. “Research has shown that a healthy morning is dependent on the night before and how you can start your routine even 12 hours ahead to optimize your time asleep and resting without disruptions, including workplace disruptions.”

Companies are employing new tactics to combat burnout culture by diverting emails to a phantom box to delay sending until office hours, thus shutting off email when outside of the office. Some employees are taking matters into their own hands and simply removing work email accounts from their devices. 

“I think this is a big opportunity for AI,” said Annalie Killian, VP of strategy & partnerships. “Just as it recognizes when you don’t add an attachment, we can’t rely on people’s emotional intelligence to kick in and technology can help manage email etiquette.”

Be better, big burger!

Last week we looked at two signals that highlighted consumer backlash against two of fast food’s biggest competitors for very different reasons.

Burger King looked to become a brand activist within the student debt crisis, partnering with fin-tech company Earnest to pay off student debt for every BK purchase through their app. 

However, consumers were quick to point out the irony of the partnering with Earnest’s parent company, Navient, a student loan company that has gained off of this crisis.

Client Strategy Director Mary Klindworth also pointed out that this isn’t the first space Burger King has ventured into and received backlash. “Burger King has been trying to play in a lot of very complicated areas, with their anti-bullying campaign as well as their recent alternative happy meal stunt on Mental Health Awareness Day.”

And speaking of Happy Meals, a British petition called for McDonald's to eliminate the plastic toys included with a Happy Meal has now garnered over 325,000 signatures. With the anti-plastic movement continuing to gain momentum across industries, it sparked the question as to whether or not it’s even worth continuing to include a toy in a happy meal when so many will wind up in a landfill. 

McDonald’s said last month it would swap out two hard plastic toys for books during a six-to-eight-week period in the U.K. While the Happy Meal has been a long-standing brand treasure, an extension core to the McDonald’s brand and heritage, it’s worth investigating further to see what other brand treasures or rituals might be forced to change amidst shifting consumer environmental concerns.

Adios "Friends," your move Netflix

A few weeks after Netflix announced that it would be losing The Office in 2021 once NBC launched its own streaming service, WarnerMedia announced its platform HBO Max. Netflix takes another hit as the beloved show Friends will leave for this new HBO platform, along with other favorites including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Pretty Little Liars.

“The burden is on Netflix to continue to create their own or purchase content that will increase talk value and they’ve really proven that they can do that,” said Steve Goldberg, director of cultural strategy. “To not be a Netflix subscriber means that you’re missing out on some really important conversations and I don’t know if Friends, at over 25 years old, is the kind of show that can be the glue that holds together a modern conversation.”

One of our Elements of Culture, Market Fragmentation, is absolutely in play within the streaming landscape, as Netflix will also be battling Disney once their new streaming service takes all Disney, Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel properties off the Netflix platform as well. 

The future is primed for hyper-targeted, hyper local content and Cultural Strategist Alice Li feels they’re positioned strongly to do so. “Their animated series, Love, Death & Robots, is a great example of their strong local strategy, setting up teams in different countries to create original local content for local audiences.”

So get your popcorn ready, because it feels like we’re heading towards a subscription showdown with services fighting for consumers devices and smart TVs - and I’m sure at least one of them will release a documentary about how it all shakes out.