Media & Entertainment: Strategy Consulting Projects SPRING 2020Update: 10.9.19 DRAFTCourse: B8685 section 1Date Set: M/W - B TermStart Time: 4:00 PM, End Time: 5:30 PMCredits: 1.5Room: TBD

Adjunct Associate Professor Ava SeavePhone: 917 279 6270 (mobile) (off campus office)Office hours: By appointmentEmail: as2486@columbia.edu

General Course Description

Very helpful, but in no way a requirement: One media course and/or one strategy course and/or professional experience at a media company.

In “Media & Entertainment: Strategy Consulting Projects,” the concepts and theories introduced in previous media and strategy courses will be applied in a practical way to problems brought to the class as projects from real companies and their managers.  

The ultimate goal of this class is for students to have team experience in helping companies recognize and solve strategic media problems.  

Among the techniques the students will work on

Industry mapping SCP: Structure/Conduct/Performance analysis Market sizing  Defining the goals of a project Defining and understanding scope Value propositions and Value curves Mapping Business Systems Introduction to Business Canvas and Minimal viable product

The half-semester course will introduce techniques to perform strategy consulting for media companies and teach students how to apply these techniques to real projects from real companies. In the seventh week, the teams will present their findings to the sponsoring companies.

To master these skills, each week students will be given specific tools to work through each concept and will to apply these concepts in several ways:

to current situations of well-known companies and industries

1 | P a g e

to a case about an evolving media SaaS company and to a case about a French media company

to the company project they have been assigned to

Each team will do brief presentations in 10 out of the 12 classes. The teams will have an opportunity to work in a break out room for a portion of each class.

The class is limited to 28 students. There will be four teams of seven members each. Team work, and active participation in each and every class will be required.  Check in meetings (physical or by phone) with sponsor companies are required each week. Collaboration is expected and encouraged throughout the course.

The class may be assigned some readings throughout the class which will be applicable to certain problems we will be discussing. There will be some reading that is required before the class starts. Optional textbook for this class is: Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies (Knee, Greenwald, Seave; Penguin 2009.)

Which companies? 

Of the four companies that will work with the class, one is still being identified and chosen. When they are confirmed and the projects are defined, the syllabus will be updated.

The three confirmed companies still are formulating their projects; but they are: Oaklins DeSilva + Phillips   – media investment bank Babbel.com – online language learning WBGO –“The Jazz Source” –largest jazz music station/media property in the U.S.

But to give you an idea of the sorts of companies we worked with in the last two semesters this class was taught, the 8 companies were: Goodreads, a division of Amazon BISG, Book Industry Study Group –publishing industry association Comcast NBCUniversal: Xfinity Entertainment Services Group , Strategy and Business

Operations The Conversation – nonprofit media Babbel.com   – online language learning TheChisel  -- SaaS company RFBinder   – Communications firm Oaklins DeSilva + Phillips   – media investment bank (OD+P work with this class

almost every year.)

Before the class begins

2 | P a g e

Pre class reading: Introduction and Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of The Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies (Knee, Greenwald, Seave; Penguin 2009.)

Read the case Contently: Evolution of a Media Start-up

Additional Reading assigned after start of term

French News Start-up L'Opinion:  Swimming Upstream in Uncertain Times. Spotlight on Cumulative Advantage, pages 1-13

o Customer Loyalty is Overrated by A.J. Lafley et al o Counterpoint: Old Habits Die Hard but they do die by McGrath

Classroom expectations Attendance at the first two classes is mandatory, with companies visiting the

classroom on Class 2 Attendance to all classes is strongly encouraged, and is expected Except for the first two classes, each class will consist of presentation to the professor (and

one other team) of the week’s assignment, team work time and lecture/discussion of the next week’s assignment.

Class Project Assignments Students will be assigned projects by the professor based as much as possible on student

preferences.o Note that each team will work with all other team throughout the semester, so

each student will have exposure (and ability to contribute) to all projects. Project assignment mechanics:

o Before class begins, I will send a detailed description of the class projects, students can prioritize your preferences, and I will try to honor them as much as possible.

o Once assigned to a team, if a student would like to try to switch to another team, he/she has 24 hours to convince someone on the desired team to switch. However, no one is required to switch.

o Only contact me after the switch is made to let me know. Do not involve me in any kind of discussion or negotiation.

The presentation to the company will consist of a presentation deck plus any back up analysis and research that is appropriate

Grades and how you get themGrades will be based on the quality of the work for the client, class participation during the full class, collaboration during other groups’ weekly presentations, weekly completion of assignments that will be presented to the class, revision of these assignments if requested and the final presentation (group, type A) to your company’s executives in the seventh/exam week. That deliverable for the presentation will consist of a presentation deck plus any back up analysis and research that is appropriate. You will also be given a short quiz at the end of the semester (multiple choice) to test your retention of major principles discussed.

Class Dates

Class # Day DateClass 1 MANDATORY Monday March 23

3 | P a g e

Class 2 MANDATORY Wednesday March 25Class 3 Monday March 30Class 4 Wednesday April 1Class 5 Monday April 6Class 6 Wednesday April 8Class 7 Monday April 13Class 8 Wednesday April 15Class 9 Monday April 20Class 10 Wednesday April 22Class 11 Monday April 27Class 12 Wednesday April 29

Presentation at the companies should be scheduled April 30 to to May 8

4 | P a g e

THESE ARE SELECTED PROJECTS THAT TOOK PLACE IN 2019 AND ARE EXAMPLES; AS PROJECTS ARE CONFIRMED

THEY WILL BE LISTED.

2019 Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/

What is Goodreads’ brand awareness who are not Goodreads’ members, but who qualify as “Readers” of 6 or more books per year in the U.S.? And what should Goodreads do to increase brand awareness?

About Goodreads

The company was launched in 2007 and purchased by Amazon in 2013.

From the website:

80 million MEMBERS 2.3 billion BOOKS ADDED 80 million REVIEWS

“Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Our mission is to help people find and share books they love. Goodreads launched in January 2007.

“A Few Things You Can Do On Goodreads See what books your friends are reading. Track the books you're reading, have read, and want to read. Check out your personalized book recommendations. Our recommendation

engine analyzes 20 billion data points to give suggestions tailored to your literary tastes.

Find out if a book is a good fit for you from our community’s reviews.”

The Project:

To start the project, students will review and reconsider previous customer research as well as any industry-wide research and data that Goodreads currently has access to. In particular, the students will be given the results of several waves of the brand awareness research that the company runs periodically, identifying what they most value now about this research. (The historical brand awareness survey results that will be shared answer the question: “How familiar (if at all) are you with a company called Goodreads?”) In this research the qualifier for “Reader” in the US is an adult reading 6 or more books per year.

For the competitive and “cognate” set of 5 properties/sites that Goodreads is interested in vis a vis their business, the students will sketch out an analysis including features,

5 | P a g e

functions, community involvement, revenue generation, potential overlap or complimentarity, ownership and other characteristics that they think will be of interest to the question of brand marketing and brand recognition and may be relevant to the final recommendations. This will be done with desk research and/or interviews with these companies and/or experts in the field.

The list of properties is

Yelp Trip Advisor Bookbub Reddit Rotten Tomatoes

The heart of the research, however, is fielding and evaluating a qualitative study through consumer surveys.

Goodreads will provide the mechanism to survey Readers (adults reading 6 or more books per year) who are not members; the company expects to collect surveys which will generate up to 1,000 responses with a goal to have ~20 completes for in-person interviews.

Goodreads will assist with organizing both written surveys and in-person interviews, and hopes to have the quantitative survey fielded right after the first team meeting on June 3. It will be a short 10 closed-end question survey which will help to rank and rate some basic characteristics of brand awareness.    This will give the leads for the qualitative work, as it will ask for volunteers for a 10 question I.D.I – in depth interview-- to delve deeper and more illustratively. The students will choose a selection from the volunteers for the I.D.I.s, with the goal of ~20 completes.

The final report will:

Summarize the “themes” of the qualitative research Analyze how this information will help Goodreads raise brand awareness Presentation to Goodreads staff will include

o Summaries of qualitative information and selective verbatimso Recommendations for what the client might consider as a course of

action.

2019 BISGBook Industry Study Grouphttps://bisg.org/

What steps can BISG, a nonprofit research and trade association for the book business, take to become an invaluable and relevant digital resource now and as the industry swiftly evolves?

6 | P a g e

About BISGBISG is the leading U.S. book trade association for research and information for digital and printed books. Since its founding in 1976, BISG members have come from every segment of the book industry supply chain. They work together to research emerging issues, develop standards and best practices, and share information that increase the viability and impact of publishing in the U.S. and around the world.

Research funded by BISG has addressed a wide range of topics, including: attitudes about digital content by consumers; use of digital content in public libraries and in higher education; subscription models for books; the development, use, and modification of book product metadata; innovation across the supply chain; mobile commerce; environmental trends and the climate impact of the US book industry; and international markets. Until 2013, it also provided a data set of U.S. publishers’ sales, a product that may be offered again in the future.

The Project: While BISG focuses on books, the definition of a “book” and the supply chain needed to get that physical or digital product to the consumer are increasingly broad and varied. Beyond publishers, distribution platforms, tech companies, and retailers are key to the industry, but for many “books” are only a small part of their business.

The student team will conduct an environmental scan of how nonprofits, associations and for profits work with the companies in the book business supply chain (which run from Amazon to Google to individual publishers, to public libraries). Targets will also include those who just sell data sets and analysis. The students will work directly with the Executive Director who will facilitate their contact with industry leaders.

At the time of the study, BISG will also field an industry survey to gather qualitative data about the information of greatest value to the industry. BISG also has at its disposal relevant original research and metrics which the students may consider. Students will combine information from the environmental scan with early results from the industry survey.

The student team would be expected to do the following:1. Work with the Executive Director to choose 12-20 organizations to profile.2. Benchmark these companies in terms of identifying services offered, customer

types, data sets, and other characteristics to be determined.3. Interview between 4-6 individuals from a cross-section of these companies, and

three other industry experts (such as consultants, reporters, academics, or publishing executives).

4. Summarize early responses from the industry survey fielded by BISG.

The final report will: Summarize the “themes” of the interviews, the desk research and the survey and

where they validate/reinforce each other and where they differ.

7 | P a g e

Present these summaries and selective verbatims to support recommendations for what BISG might consider as a course of action.

2019 The ConversationDemocratizing knowledge for the public good.https://theconversation.com/us

How can The Conversation, a four-year old nonprofit news organization, scale its business?

About The ConversationThe Conversation US is a four-year-old independent non-profit news organization that helps scholars write journalism pieces on their area of expertise. Those pieces are independently commissioned by their staff of 18 editors based on news of the day, interesting findings and compelling research. The authors are not paid.

The Conversation produces on average 10 stories a day that are read on site by 2 million people a month and another 8 million people via republishing in the Associated Press, CNN, and scores of other US and international publications, as well as local news sites. The Conversation is part of a global organization - with franchises in 8 countries.

From the website: “The Conversation US arose out of deep-seated concerns for the fading quality of our public discourse – and recognition of the vital role that academic experts can play in the public arena. Independent and not-for-profit, it is part of a global network of newsrooms first launched in Australia in 2011. The Conversation began its US operations in October, 2014, and now also publishes in Canada, the UK, France, Indonesia, Africa, Spain as well as Australia. The Conversation’s mission is particularly resonant in the U.S., where people universally sense that the country’s social fabric is strained and the common ground people share is shrinking.

The Project: The Conversation wants to scale and needs advice on how to do this. The Conversation receives the bulk of its funding from charitable foundations and university members and is building up an individual donor program to diversify revenue. It is also exploring sponsorship, government funding and events as possible revenue.

The questions: 1. How many paying universities can we realistically service and not overwhelm our

editorial resources?2. How should we grow revenue and still maintain our editorial independence?

We would like the student team to do the following analyses:5. Analyze cost data (which we have collected already) on

8 | P a g e

what it costs to produce a story what it costs to serve a university partner

6. Interview current stakeholders 7. Do desk research and expert interviews with comparable news outlets to come

up with recommendations for The Conversation US's sustainable future. We are looking five years out.

The final report will: Summarize the “themes” of the interviews and the desk research Show the costs of running the organization in ways that will be helpful to the

nonprofit (e.g., fixed vs. variable, direct vs. indirect, cost of sales) Evaluate the revenue structure and suggest any additions or changes Presentation to The Conversation staff will include summaries of quantitative and

qualitative information and selective verbatims along with recommendations for what the client might consider as a course of action.

2019 Comcast NBCUniversal: Xfinity Entertainment Services Group, Strategy and Business Operationshttps://corporate.comcast.com/company/xfinity The question:With a thorough review of Ad-supported Over-the-top products -- also known as AVODs – what are the salient aspects of competition and the business model that are important for Comcast/Xfinity  to know as they explore this space? About Xfinity:From the web site: “Innovation in Technology & Entertainment. With Xfinity, Comcast delivers the best in TV, Internet, voice, mobile, and home management, all working together to give customers instant access to the things that matter most – anywhere, anytime.”  The project:The company would like to work with the students to execute a thorough review and analysis of the state of ad-supported OTT products (also known as AVODs) such as Roku Channel, Tubi TV, XUMO, Pluto, Crackle, Vudu, and/or Amazon’s Freedive. The final list will be decided on by the second or third class. This analysis should describe the overall competitive landscape surrounding these different offerings and include these characteristics for each of the products

         The viewing audience         Revenue opportunity         Content offerings         Ad measurement         Viewing behavior         Total Addressable Market (TAM)         Market positioning

9 | P a g e

 It would also be helpful if the students could do a really deep dive into the Roku Channel and offer an analysis of why Roku has found so much success with this offering, the current user experience and target audience, bringing forward other salient ideas that they discover. The students will conduct desk research with publicly available information, as well as semi-public/syndicated data that Comcast/Xfinity has access to as well as any previously conducted studies. 

They will also interview 3-5 experts in the field generally or within the Comcast orbit.

The final report will:         Summarize the characteristic analysis of 4 to 5 products above         Answer four or five of these more holistic questions about AVOD, with guidance from the company’s sponsor within the first few weeks of the project.   These might include:

1.    How are these products building and keeping audiences?2.    How much duplication of audience is there across offerings?3.    What type of viewer are these offerings attracting?4.    How can we characterize their content libraries?5.    What opportunities exist for content vertical expansion?6.    On what connected devices are viewers watching this content?7.    Which partners represent appealing strategic partners?8.    How are these AVODs monetizing? What is fill rate, CPM, etc?9.    What is the future of AVOD products and how will they compete in a landscape with an ever-growing number of SVODs and differentiated live linear offerings that (unlike most AVODs) contain news and sports?

2019 Babbelhttps://www.babbel.com/

Should Babbel expand its offerings to include a live tutoring product?

About Babbel

From the website: “Unlock a new world. At Babbel, we obsess over crafting the tools you need to start having practical, everyday conversations.

“We believe the sooner you begin to speak a new language, the sooner you’ll open yourself up to a world that’s bigger, richer and more inspiring.

“Founded in 2007, Babbel is the world’s first language learning app. A leader in the online language learning industry, Babbel is an international success with more than 1 million active subscribers and ranked as the world’s #1 innovative company in education. Our meticulously

10 | P a g e

designed courses guarantee you language skills you can use right away. Babbel is the shortest path to real-life conversations; 73% of our users indicated that they’d be able to have a short, simple conversation in their new language within five hours of using Babbel.“At the core of Babbel is a world-class, empirically-proven method that enhances language learning with advanced technology. Our language experts obsess over how to bring you the best quality in modern language learning, covering 8,500 hours of content in 14 languages, from Spanish to Indonesian. Babbel is the only product to offer courses tailored to your native language, building on grammar and vocabulary you already know. Audio examples and dialogues are recorded with real native speakers, not automated computers, empowering you to speak correctly and confidently. Time tested strategies such, as cognitive research and communicative didactics, optimize how new vocabulary and grammar is received, saved and recalled. Babbel trains your brain to learn constantly and efficiently, so you absorb more information while in the app and continue learning outside of it. Babbel is a premium product and our iOS and Android app makes our practical language lessons available wherever and whenever. With no ads and a transparent, subscription-based business model, we work directly for our learners — not for any third party. And it’s all supported by a fast and dedicated customer service team, available via telephone, email and online chat.”

Online language learning is a competitive category of media, with several established players, such as Rosetta Stone (public) and Berlitz as well as newer players supported by VC funding. A round up of the V.C. funded ones (from September 2016) is below.

The Project: Babbel U.S. would like the student team to delve into research and analysis that will guide the company on whether or not to develop a live tutoring product through trying to understand use cases for it. Who would be willing to pay for an hour (or half hour) on the phone or in a virtual classroom talking with a native speaker/teacher? Why do they want this kind of instruction? What is their motivation? Babbel U.S. has some theories to test which they will share with the

11 | P a g e

students, but of course there are likely reasons that they never thought about. User insights would be helpful.

To start the project, students will review and reconsider previous customer research as well as any industry-wide research shopper studies or other data that Babble currently has access to. They will consider the questions:

Do consumers purchase (or use, in the case of a free product, such as DuoLingo) multiple language learning products that teach in either the same or different mediums: paper workbooks and grammar books, online lessons, native language magazines, in-person workshops, traditional classroom courses, podcasts, and of course, with particular attention to remote one-on-one tutoring by video or audio? Do they use these different products at the same time or serially? Is there a typical order of use?

Are there any clear demographic or psychographic segments for various combinations of product? For example, do people who study a foreign language for family legacy reasons differ from those who study a foreign language for work reasons?

Are there significant differences by language type and cohort? Is there is a lack of awareness for this kind of solution? If so, is it an issue because of lack

of players in the market, or is it an issue because of lack of interest/willingness to pay from consumers? What are those barriers to adoption of this kind of solution for US learners?

Deep dive on the users interested in live tutoring: Is it their perception that live tutoring will give them more success? What does success mean for them? Do they believe that live tutoring will get them speaking or help them overcome hesitation and fear? Do they believe that they'll need practice before they can comfortably speak and live tutoring might give them practice? Etc.

Students should do desk research as well, creating a competitive analysis of product choices for one-on-one remote tutoring, including product groupings and possibly when the option is introduced, pricing and other characteristics that are differentiators. They should also do a literature search, looking for any competitive information or industry round ups considering the questions about multiple platform use for online language learning, companies that have added one-on-one tutoring, etc.

The heart of the research, however, is fielding and evaluating a quantitative and qualitative shopper study through consumer surveys. Babbel wants to survey its current customers and leads for this purpose and will facilitate recruitment of them.

The quantitative survey that the students will design will be a short 10 closed-end question survey which will help to rank and rate some basic “whys”. This will give the leads for the qualitative work, as it will ask for volunteers for a 10 question I.D.I – in depth interview-- to delve deeper and more illustratively. The students will choose a selection from the volunteers for the I.D.I.s, and complete from 7- 10 I.D.Is.

The final report will:

12 | P a g e

Summarize the “themes” of the qualitative research Analyze how this information will help Babbel understand the potential of a one-on-one

tutoring product that will be on a skype-like platform either audio or video – if possible by language, demographics and/or psychographics

Presentation to Babbel staff will include summaries of quantitative and qualitative information and selective verbatims along with recommendations for what the client might consider as a course of action.

2019 RF|Binderhttps://www.rfbinder.com/

RF|Binder is looking to create a unique product offering around measurement, monitoring and the use of data in the planning process. What would a differentiated approach and solution that RF|Binder can offer its clients look like?

From the website:

About RF|BinderRF|Binder is a fully integrated communications and consulting firm—powered by strategy, creativity, analytics and purpose. We are business builders. We address challenges and opportunities with a communications mindset, enabling our clients to build, grow, protect and transform their brands and reputations. Our team has deep expertise across industries, non-profits, and government entities and an extensive range of offerings. We are independent, entrepreneurial, woman-owned, and integrated across capabilities and geographies without boundaries. RF|Binder is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and a global presence through our PROI Worldwide partners, an association of leading public relations firms across 50 countries in 100 cities. For more information about RF|Binder, visit www.rfbinder.com.

What we do:We build, grow, protect and transform brands and reputations. We are committed to delivering exceptional service to our clients. As an independent agency, we are flexible, adaptable, and entrepreneurial. We pride ourselves in delivering industry-leading work that combines business insights with research, analytics, and creativity to help our clients stand out and achieve their communications and business objectives.

Our People:We are business leaders, communicators, and impassioned creators. Our team is nimble and multi-disciplinary. We ensure our clients have the right people with the right skills to drive results. To do this, our team includes marketers, entrepreneurs, consultants, strategic advisers, data scientists, MBAs, PhDs, JDs, artists, designers, academics, and reporters. We value analytical thinking, rigorous execution and creativity that enable our clients to have influence.

13 | P a g e

We are passionate about our work, our community, and our world, and we bring that enthusiasm to everything we do. We are solution-oriented and creative problem solvers, who are undaunted by challenges. We care deeply about our clients who can count on us to understand their sense of urgency, be collegial, collaborative, and a trusted partner.

Our Services:

About the projectMeasuring and monitoring the ROI of public relations and communications has always been a critical topic and challenge in the industry. The rise of data and analytics in the media and communications space over the past several years has created an even higher demand to effectively measure the impact of organizations’ and brands’ communication efforts. In addition, for the first time, the new technologies are enabling communicators to use data as part of the planning process. As a result, there has been a recent increase in services that PR agencies, communication consultancies, and digital firms are offering their clients in an effort to reliably illustrate the impact communications can have on driving business results. While there are many tools and technologies that enable this effort, many questions still remain around the reliability of such metrics and the direct causation of communications and business impact.

RF|Binder is in the process of developing a series of unique offerings/solutions that would be RF|Binder Intellectual Property (IP) that we can provide our clients around measurement, monitoring and planning.

There are three key phases in developing this IP, all of which would be part of this project: Phase 1: What are the best metrics to use when measuring/monitoring ROI in PR and

communications? This phase will include:o Secondary research on how brands and agencies/consultancies are measuring

ROI on their efforts (In addition to checking the general business media, RF|Binder to provide a list of b2b media that might cover the topic. Checking with some professors about academic work on this topic will also be advised).

14 | P a g e

What is said in the press and in academic writing about the reliability of such metrics?

Is it reported that this data enables communicators to make smarter planning decisions?

o Interviews with five communication practioners to understand their needs when measuring/monitoring ROI on their efforts. (RF|Binder to provide a list of interviewees). Key questions to answer in this research include but are not limited to:

When and how do they currently measure/monitor ROI? Where do these current efforts fall short? What type of metrics are required to meet their needs in the future? How do they see the use of data driving business outcomes from

communications? Phase 2: Understand the Competitive Landscape. Determine what other PR , digital and

integrated communications firms are offering as it relates to measurement, monitoring and the overall use of data. (RF|Binder to provide a list of competitors to evaluate). Key questions to answer in this research include but are not limited to:

o What solutions currently exist/are offered today? When are they used? Who are the target audiences?

o Where are there opportunities to deliver existing solutions more effectively?o What are potential white space opportunities? (e.g., target different audiences,

provide a different type of solution) Phase 3: Create a Unique Approach/Offering. Based on the needs of brands today as

well as current offerings, the project team should determine a unique approach that RF|Binder could offer its clients to provide added value in measurement and monitoring.

Final deliverables: Slide deck that outlines RF|Binder IP/unique solution to offer clients around

measurement and monitoring . Besides working with the class template, RF|Binder will provide a sample output based on other RF|Binder IP to also use.

15 | P a g e