Hello Sunshine head of direct-to-consumer Maureen Polo, Audible head of content acquisition, strategy and partnerships Pat Shah, Hartbeat EVP and head of television and audio Mike Stein, Snap head of entertainment Elana Sulzer and Lionsgate EVP and head of global products and experiences Jenefer Brown joined VIP+ analyst and research editor Audrey Schomer for a panel at the Variety Entertainment Summit that tackled what content is breaking through to today’s audiences, as part of CES in January.
“With [Reese Witherspoon’s] book club inside our ecosystem, we are getting inspiration from the books that we’re reading and listening to, and the stories that we see authors wanting to tell,” said Polo, acknowledging what helps drive engagement to Hello Sunshine’s projects that typically target female audiences. “Our inspiration is really everywhere,” she said.
Like Hello Sunshine, which was founded by Witherspoon, Stein is also familiar with building a brand around an established talent like Kevin Hart, through Hartbeat. “Comedy is, you know, first and foremost… deeply embedded in our brand and what we look for, but at the same time… it’s taking the ethos of that and just trying to find ways to uplift the audience,” he said, acknowledging projects like Netflix’s “Fatherhood” film that have delivered on both fronts.
Audible’s Shah followed that up with points on how the audio-content company is able to capitalize on brands that hail from other platforms.
“As an Amazon company… we have the benefit of 20-plus years of audiobook data and consumption behavior in history,” explained Shah. “We really just try to identify big areas of content needs that satisfy customers and then work with the creative community to say, ‘Here’s what we think our customers want.’”
“We have a great partnership with Higher Ground, President Obama, Michelle Obama, and we had a similar conversation with them,” Shah continued, name-dropping the Obamas’ Netflix prodco. “We said, you know, you’re busy [with] film and TV and thinking about your post-presidential life… we think all of your books have done really well on Audible. How do we double down on that and bring a unique experience to us?”
