I was binging Netflix the other night and snapped out of my screen-inspired daze to consider the impact of the “Skip Intro” button, and how my thumb reflexively hits it without a second thought.
As someone who creates and consumes content, I took a step back to really analyze that behavior. Many of the intros on the shows I watch are beautiful, well-crafted, and talented people put a considerable amount of time and effort into them. Yet, they often fall by the wayside, especially after the first view, when Netflix doesn’t allow the skip.
With that in mind, no amount of craft can match an obstacle. And that is exactly what an intro is. Part of a lost era of early-childhood appointment TV, where each week you had a soft landing into your favorite show. Maybe it was a military helicopter flying over a ridge. Maybe it was Jack Tripper being a bike-riding perv in Santa Monica. Or maybe it was more of a visual expository, explaining the delicate connection between the Brady Kids, their parents, through the lens of a late 60’s modality.
But, things have changed.
Today, opening credits seem to have lost their purpose. We’ve probably come off a previous episode’s cliffhanger, and the intro is unnecessary at best. The problem is that it was made with a one-and-done mentality. That may have worked in the past, but streaming has changed habits and behaviors. Yet, with all the advancements in content, the strategic approach to the intro is stuck in a bygone age.
So how do we fix that? Simple, add value to the intro. Give viewers something more. Something they haven’t already seen. An easter egg, a bit of mystery, a teaser that hints at something to come. Make each one something versioned or completely unique. Something that stands out and piques curiosity. That is value for viewers, yet many still approach this with a traditional mindset, with little awakening to how viewing habits have changed. And that is why so many of us simply skip someone’s hard work, to get to our programming a minute early.
But not everyone is doing it wrong. One such example of integration comes from 2012’s Zack Stone Is Gonna Be Famous. In this MTV-era show, which is now getting a second life on Netflix, talented comedian Bo Burnham creates a unique intro for every episode. The structure is the same, yet the song and the setup is different. It adds a unique flair, and flows nicely into the episode.
A lighter touch but still welcome approach is in the opening of Succession. Each season updates the chyron on the ATN newscast to signal the type and tone of the stories they present. The episodes themselves do not get into the weeds on specific stories, but are instead painted with a broader stroke. This little moment is a brief but significant visual exposition that makes me better understand what I am about to watch, and keeps me on the lookout for how often the message changes.
It follows that just as some have mastered the after-credits approach (Ferris Bueller, Deadpool franchise, etc.), what is preventing other creators from applying that thinking to the show’s intro? Are we so stuck in a traditional way of working that anything new is not even seen? That no one can zoom out to discover how to do things better?
I am not in the title sequence business. But there are broader lessons for everyone to learn from these examples. Instead of providing roadblocks with our work, how can we provide value? How can we look at new behavior and decide the way to work around it? Is there a way to shift our thinking to discover that the lack of engagement is not a problem with the audience, but a problem in our dusty and settled approach on a broader scale?
So how can marketers take the missteps around the skip intro button, and apply it to our own work? For all of us who create, in any form, we need to challenge ourselves in these ways, to not simply accept the fate of audience behaviors and lower our expectations. It’s not in our best interest to complain about low click rates, or skipping commercials. It’s true, viewers have the upper hand, but is that a reason to throw up the white flag? Or just continue with business as usual? We spend so much time and effort tracking people, when we finally meet them we tend to fall short.
And that’s on us, not the audience.
Abstracting a bit from the day-to-day and being your own focus group is one way to combat that. Those who create and consume have the advantage in that respect. Study our own behavior to help create with new strategies in mind, and pitch it upstream. That curious mindset is what drew me to digital many years ago. The ability to adapt, hack, and experiment around platforms and behavior is the beauty of it all. And as much as I enjoy a good passed-tray snack at video village while my counterparts tap away at their keyboards, creative thinking around digital is much more attractive than creating a traditionally walled 30-second spot.
So keep an open mind, and don’t get caught in a trap. Even if no one is pushing you to change, push yourself. The more we individually adapt and challenge our own approach, the more it will lift every industry that relies on audience engagement.
