Content and the Consumer: 60 Minutes with Linda Yaccarino and Tim Armstrong

Last week, we marked the end of our Verizon Media Tech Venture Studio with a panel featuring Linda Yaccarino, the Chairman of Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships at NBCUniversal, and Tim Armstrong, the CEO of Oath.

Moderated by Adweek’s Jason Lynch, the conversation touched on the state of advertising, content distribution, and why brands can never lose sight of the consumer.

Here’s what we learned.

Consumers don’t see “content.” They see entertainment.

When NBC and AOL formalized their content partnership (before the AOL-Yahoo merger that resulted in Oath), media execs were still holding onto legacy ideas about distribution, Yaccarino explains. “People were so precious about content by vertical by brand, even though consumers don’t think that way.”

The takeaway: To be a great content company, think about that content from the POV of those who consume it.

It’s not just about ads. It’s about experiences.

Says Armstrong: When advertising is successful, it’s because a single person had a single successful interaction with a single message. Brands need to do a better job of investing in formats and technologies that prioritize this experience, he explained.

The takeaway: It’s about the user experience. Content itself is secondary to the vehicle used to deliver it, and the interaction the viewer has with it.

Embracing disruption is critical…

… and it all comes back to mobile. When asked about how companies like Oath and NBC Universal are competing with companies like Snapchat, Google and Facebook, Yaccarino and Armstrong both said that they view the tech giants as partners (not rivals). “We helped Apple monetize their mobile news,” Yaccarino explained. “That was our entré into the mobile space.” It’s also why they’ve developed a joint venture with Snapchat, and develop their own content for the social platform.

The takeaway: If your brand wasn’t born on mobile, you’d better adapt to it as quickly as humanly possible.

The future of content is conversation.

Armstrong recognizes that the role of big media companies is changing (and will continue to). “Your friends and family are going to be as good at distributing content as Oath is,” he says. Then there are the Creators: those individuals with huge influence and large followings who are increasingly communicating on behalf of brands. Finally, “we’re being taught that you can interact with anything that’s sent to you,” he explained. “We need to be thinking about two-way content and how to bring that to life.”

The takeaway: More and more, consumers are holding the keys to content and how it travels. Brands need to recognize this and take advantage of it.

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The Verizon Media Tech Venture Studio officially comes to a close this Thursday, November 9th, with a Demo Day at R/GA. Learn more about the program here and check out the eight companies in the cohort here.