Vertical Networks CEO Talks Snapchat Success, Mobile to TV Transition

Tom Wright, CEO of mobile-first content studio Vertical Networks, told MIPFormats delegates about the success of Phone Swap on Snapchat and how the format is being brought to television, in a session moderated by World Screen’s Anna Carugati.

“We marry creative with data,” Wright said of Vertical Networks’ approach to developing mobile-first content. “By the time we make a show, we’re quietly confident, based on the math, that that show is going to be successful. And everything we make is designed to go to television. Everything we make, the end goal is to make big global TV formats.”

The company’s specialty, Wright explained, is “dense formats,” targeted to audiences with limited time—and attention spans. “If you look at a traditional piece of television, one could argue that you might have a 22-minute show and within it, you might have 4 minutes of really good stuff and then packaging. Our approach is to remove all the packaging. If you treat impatience as a virtue, with that comes the requirement that when you’re building a format, there isn’t time to explain what the format is. You have to get into it. There is an obligation that anything you provide for that audience has to be immediately impactful and rewarding. You’ve got to earn the right for exposition. You can’t assume you have this sit-back audience. They have everything in the world they could be doing with their time if you lose [their] attention.”

Phone Swap is among the company’s most successful properties. It’s a dating show where potential couples explore each other’s phones. “In a world where people put an impression of themselves forward on social media, how do you get to the heart of who these people really are?”

Wright said that the conceit “feels salacious. But the way we cast the show, we try and make it about human stories.”

On the show’s success, Wright noted, “We think it’s the biggest digital show in the world; 14 million people watch it [on Snapchat].”

He said the show’s popularity stems from Vertical’s approach to developing content. “We have a daily publication on Snapchat, Brother, where we have 50 million people a month coming to it. On any given day we’re testing all manner of things around the behaviors and content preferences of our audience. Before we make a show, we will typically have broken it down into its constituent parts. We’ll make six or eight different versions of that show, which we’ll discreetly test with various audiences. By the time we make the show, we know it’s going to stick. We have best practices articulated around having a clear premise, jumping straight into it. The lovely thing about the [Phone Swap] conceit is it has a clear beginning, middle and end. On landing there is a social experiment which is going to take place, there’s a wonderful moment with the reveal where you find out that we’re going to take your phone and you’re incredibly uncomfortable. We share that awkwardness, we get to look through these phones, which is fun, and then the big moment at the end—are these people going to want to see each other again? It’s about fifty-fifty.”

This year Vertical Networks will make ten original series, up from six last year. Of those six, two are headed to TV. “The way we built the business, to get away from a world where you’re pitching based on the strength of an idea and hoping that matches with the person you’re pitching to, we get to pitch with math. Rather than a piece of paper or a showreel that says, this is an interesting concept; I can say, here are 14 million people who care about the show!”

Vertical Networks’ digital shows thus far have averaged 7.5 million people, Wright said. “Even if some of those don’t make it to television, we’re a profitable company. It’s not core to the model, but the television piece on top is where we’re trying to take the business.”

The TV version of Phone Swap will have an older skew than the Snapchat edition, Wright said. “The core conceit is the same. The structure changes. The TV version is three dates and we have everything up until the reveal in three parts, and then the fourth act is all the reveals aggregated. It’s a lot more room to breathe. For Snapchat, the requirement to get to the good stuff means you often don’t get to tell more interesting human stories. The broadcast version will feel like it’s from the same family, but there will be more scope for people to hear more about [the participants].”