Episode Details

"The intersection of content and commerce" asks the question - would you buy Cheesy Blasters while watching 30 Rock? Odds are, you would. And that's the bet that NBC/Universal is placing on investing in bringing DTC brands to their large audiences across their portfolio of original programming and content. From Goop to the Minions we go deep on the opportunity at hand with Evan Moore. Listen now!

Main Takeaways:

• In today's episode, Brian and Phillip are joined by the Vice President of Content and eCommerce at NBCUniversal, Evan Moore.
• Over-personalization has started to run rampant, so how do you battle against too much personalization?
• NBCUniversal has taken a content-first strategy across its vast portfolio to create meaningful marketplaces and platforms for different verticals.
• Empowered creatives are becoming the driving force in the commerce powerhouses of the future.

A Brief History of Evan: The Intersection of Content and Commerce:

• For the past 11-12 years, Evan has worked mainly in a digital product capacity for several different companies (e.g. Ticketmaster, Goop, Beautycounter) all at the intersection of content and commerce.
• At Goop, Evan had the opportunity to put the commerce and content strategy into the world and drive a lot of massive commerce scale using Goop's strong content.
• NBCUniversal was trying to do something similar so they hired Evan to execute the same strategies at scale across their entire content portfolio.
• How did Evan merge the content and commerce to create successful brands?

The Goop Story: From Email Newsletter to a Commerce Powerhouse:

• Brian mentions that Goop is one of the first examples he can think of that has a brand taking an email newsletter and turning it into a commerce powerhouse, but how did that happen?
• Goop has been around for about eleven years and the first six years it was mainly an email newsletter that had recipes that Gwyneth Paltrow wanted to send to her friends.
• Over the next six years, Goop grew organically and built equity with its audience around some lucrative content verticals like clean beauty, high-end fashion, travel, and home goods.
• Just in the last few years, Goop kicked its monetization into high gear by giving brand partners great exposure to its audience and finally launching its eCommerce marketplace.

Plagued by Targeting: What is Too Much Personalization?:

• Having content comes first establishes ideals and allows your audience to almost fanatically align with a brand's ideals.
• Really good content is the antidote to over-personalization of the internet and there are fewer companies that have harnessed the power of storytelling better than NBCUniversal.
• Retargeting algorithms are effective at driving lower funnel activity, but they are not cognizant of who the customer actually is. (Phillip apparently doesn't avidly love toilet seats.)
• Even with how far AI technology has come, we still don't understand how people identify themselves of the meaning they derive from the products that they buy.

The Antidote: Combating Over-Personalization

• The stories that we tell and that we read are how we connect with each other and with the rest of the world, which inevitably informs our decisions on what we consume and the brands that we align ourselves with.
• NBCUniversal reaches a massive part of the US audience lets brands tell stories that its massive viewer base can connect with.
• Create your audience first and then decide what the need before you create a product.
• As we get to a place wher