Morgan Spurlock On Millennials, Digital Content

CANNES: Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock told MIPDoc delegates that all networks, commissioners and producers must have a digital strategy and should be looking for gaps in the marketplace to target underserved audiences.

Spurlock spoke about the U.S. networks’ moving away from “low-brow, low-rent, low-bar programming” to embracing “the smartest content you’ve ever seen and changing what we thought about television. Changing the way we looked at content.”

On the scripted side, “every single network has one or two high-profile huge shows that are getting mega audiences and are smart and compelling and challenging viewers in a way that’s never happened before.”

However, “as the rising tide was lifting fiction programming, it was not happening in nonfiction,” Spurlock stated. That too is changing now, he noted. “We are now in a place where more people are watching nonfiction entertainment than ever before. What’s next? More people will start watching smarter nonfiction entertainment than ever before. Why? The price point is still the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re making something with a guy in a swamp or with someone in a university. It will cost the same and be equally compelling. Audiences want smarter nonfiction content.”

People are moving more and more towards digital content. Producers must “transition into a digital marketplace in a way that is accessible and easy and makes the most economic sense for all of us. Your production strategy has to contain a digital strategy.”

At Spurlock’s own production company, Warrior Poets, 30 percent of the slate is film, 30 percent is TV and 40 percent is digital. “Going into 2016 that will most likely jump above 50 percent. If you want to have a company, if you want to grow, this needs to be your focus.”

The digital space can serve as a “test bed,” Spurlock said. “I can launch [a show] online and see what people think. Is it going to pilot well? You can do that in an affordable way before you take things out to the marketplace.”

Spurlock called on producers to formulate a digital strategy that is “a natural extension of your current pipeline. Build a bridge between what you’re doing now and your digital content.”

For Spurlock, most networks don’t have digital strategies yet. “They don’t have a focus of where they should be taking their content or what their plan is digitally. That’s where you come in as a content creator. You have the ability to help them build that magical bridge to digital nirvana.”

Spurlock spoke about targeting Millennials, noting that 16- to 24-year-olds are consuming almost 70 percent of their content digitally. “You should chase the holes in the marketplace,” Spurlock said. “There is a hole that surrounds Millennial women. There isn’t programming that is focusing on what they believe in. They’re the most educated generation in history. They will be 25 percent of the global workforce in 2020. Two thirds earn as much as or more than their partner. They represent $840 billion in annual purchasing power. They use multiple screens simultaneously. They’re consuming content in every way, and they share content constantly. These are your evangelists. They’re the people you want sharing, talking, getting everything you make out into the universe.”

As for how to make money with digital content, Spurlock said, “As long as you’re not losing money, you’re winning. So long as you’re cash-flow positive, and creating content that you can put out for people to see that will make a difference, you are winning.”