NETFLIX IS LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE
I love me some Netflix and get a bit happy everytime I hear them expanding into new markets or their stock rising. (Need to get me some of them options by the way.) Anyway, I was binging on some “House of Cards” when an idea came to me. I think Netflix is leaving some money on the table. I have a couple of ideas concerning Netflix that I would like to share with the hope that if implemented, it would get me free Netflix for life. If the powers that be are especially grateful, some Netflix stock would be reason enough for a happy dance (or Michael Jackson “moonwalk.”)
IF I LIKE MY MOVIE, CAN I KEEP IT?
I put a lot of movies in my queue and some I do not get around to viewing. Unfortunately, some disappear from my list before I can engage them and I am denied the choice altogether. (Ugh!) This had me thinking, “what if for a few pennies more, I could “lock” a movie in my list?” In this way, should Netflix cut it from the general offerings, I still have it in my list for as long as I pay the “lock” fee. This would be on top of my regular subscriber fee, by the way. If I cancel my “lock” privileges, my locked movies disappear only as long as they are no longer available to the general subscriber audience. Make sense? I think people would pay for that, even if they are too busy to actually watch everything they are saving.
DON’T LET ME SPOIL IT FOR YOU, BUT THE BUTLER DID IT
“House of Cards” and “Lillyhammer” are two of my favorite Netflix original shows. Love ‘em! Mean it. I would like to tweet or comment about each episode as I watch it but, I do not want to spoil it for other people. Moreover, I do not want anyone else spoiling it for me. So, this is what I thought would be cool. Howzabout Netflix gives viewers the options to leave comments at different points of the video and call it the “Spoiler Chat” or something like that. In this way, people who have already seen a show or are watching it for the second time, can rant and rave without messing it up for everyone else. Get me? Hmm… Just in case you do not, imagine this.
Let’s say I am watching the latest season of “Arrested Development” and a certain someone says, “Say goodbye to these!” I leave a comment on the video that very moment saying, “There’s always money in the banana stand.” The only way someone would see my comments and other “spoiler chats” is to click an option like, umm… the close captioning option. By doing that… ah! Okay. I think you get me now. Annnnd just in case there is still any ambiguity, check out the video below. If you mouse over the dots, you will see comments I’ve made.
Okay, back to my point. For this to work, people would have to be watching on their desktops. Umm… I say that because of all the typing they would want to do. But now that I think of it, one could very well do this on a mobile device. The accuracy and speed by which my daughter can text with her friends is amazing. I’m sure others could follow suit. But, to make it easy, maybe on the “spoiler chat” interface could be some predetermined responses like smilee faces or “you had me at hello” or “Say hello to my little friend” or, any number of famous movie quotes. Just an idea. Hmm… Maybe people could add their own canned responses?
I would think that such an endeavor would present a double benefit to Netflix. Not only do they give their customers a means to build community around content, but they also get more data to extrapolate and analyze. For example, how many people commented on the action scene verses the love scene? Do they prefer to leave smilee faces at certain scenes? Do they prefer to write original notes or use the canned responses? Maybe they don’t like the idea at all or, maybe they love it? How do they respond when an actor or director leaves comments in the spoiler chats? Does this change draw in a larger audience? So much to speculate on and of course, all fodder to help purchase compelling content for their customers. Just a thought.
I also had some ideas around how Netflix could garner an unfair recruitment advantage over their competitors. I will save that for another day.
What do you think of the above ideas? Pretty solid? Or, a waste of time? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks!
Jim
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