You got a couple of minutes? Then you should take a closer look at the brand new video-streaming app Quibi. It stands for Quick Bites and offers 10-minute shows and movies to watch on your smartphone. With stars like Steven Spielberg, Liam Hemsworth, Christoph Waltz and Jennifer Lopez, Quibi is not only great entertainment but also a new era in video content production. Launched on April 6, it already achieved 1.7 million downloads. Here are three things you can learn from this new video app to get your audience hooked.
When we found out there is another streaming service about to be released, we were sceptical at first. After Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus what else could fill a gap in our streaming universe? Turns out - Quibi does. It’s hard not to get hooked by this app. Think a mix of Instagram Story and Netflix Original. Its shows get released daily from Monday till Friday and range from thrillers, daily news to documentaries and reality shows. The video categories range from Laugh Out Loud, Adrenaline Rush, Feel Good to Quick Fix and many more. So what does this app teach us about content production?
1) Telling a story, one bite at a time
Today 25-35-year-olds spend an average of 60-70 minutes watching content on their phones. They don’t consume this in one take, but in short moments during the day. While commuting to work. While waiting for the elevator. While standing in line to pick up lunch. A YouTube tutorial here, a motivational IGTV show there and browsing through TikTok. Those „quick bites of content“ are exactly what Quibi is offering and what you should offer too! It’s your turn to take advantage of this well-established consumer behaviour. If you get your audience to spend 10 minutes with your content each day, you master the game! For your next content production, make sure to include video and try to focus on 6-10 minutes formats. You can upload this content to IGTV, Facebook and even YouTube.
2) Start thinking in series
Founded by former Walt Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and run by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, the company raised 1 Billion $ and plans to release 8.500 episodes of quick bites this year. This duo knows how to tell great stories. If you can’t look back at a Walt Disney career, we got your back. A brilliant move of them was to release daily series instead of full episodes. Therefore the users tend to use the app daily. Imagine the Boom team waiting each day to watch a new set of Most Dangerous Game. Luckily, we only need a quick coffee break to be up-to-date again. What does this mean for you? Think about your content as a continuous story, told in short bites. Try to end with a hook and produce series instead of one-off stories.
3) Mobile, mobile, mobile
Finally, you can watch a series while holding our phone vertically. Thank you Quibi! If you haven’t produced your videos for vertical screens aka smartphones yet, don’t wait any longer. Livestreams, IGTV, Stories all are vertical. Include this format in your next content production, or better, only think in this format. You will need it in the future, and it would be a waste of money and resources not to include it in every content production. Even if it’s just you with your smartphone recording a DIY video, everyone can do it, flip your phone.
Whether Quibi will be as successful as its predecessors, we will find out this fall. It currently offers a three months test phase and its plans range from 4.99$ to 7.99$ without ads. Let us know on Instagram what you think about this new video-streaming service.