What is Quibi?

Have you heard of Quibi?

The new streaming service spent $63 million on advertising in six months. They raised $1.75 billion (yes with a “b”) at the startup. So I would guess you might have seen something. They also just went out of business.

Even with COVID forcing folks to stay home and streaming growing exponentially, Quibi couldn’t make a go of it. Think about all the time, effort and resources poured into that platform. Sound familiar?

I’ve been concerned with brands for years trying to keep up with digital. Digital is so young and it continues to evolve. But when will it mature? “Follow Us on Facebook” was all the rage for so many years. Twitter. Then Instagram. Now it’s Tiktok. Snapchat. Youtube. FB Live (or remember Periscope?). E-mail Newsletters. Podcasts. Blog Posts. Some have tried to create content for the Apple Watch. Apple News. Then Apple News Plus. Oh, don’t forget, the failed Apple Newsstand. What about AR and VR? The list continues to grow… 

Sharing your message in the correct medium is key to its success.

Catalogs and direct mail are welcome in our homes – to introduce us to new products and ideas. They are familiar products with familiar messages. Magazine media has always revolved around the print channel. Remember the British Music Magazine NME?

A case study by Magazine Media (Netherlands) highlighted a change in the channel was deadly for the publication. It notes, many brands that went digital-only have realized it was a mistake and are now returning to print.

“One of the reasons for this homecoming is detailed in a new case study of the cult British music magazine NME. After having stopped the print in March 2018 (after 66 years and a record circulation of 300,000 copies), the engagement of readers has collapsed. Faced with an equal offer, people spent much less time on the digital title; in this case up to 72% less,” the article explains.

Publisher data shows NME’s weekly and monthly online readership grew… but those online readers spend only three minutes on average with the publication online, compared to the 30 minutes or more readers used to spend with the print version.

What can we take from all this?

If you have valuable content that people want, delivered in the proper media channel, you can have success. Magazines, catalogs and direct mail are excellent printed products that deliver messages in a great format.

Sure, digital can support… but it can’t replace the time tested, mature medium for magazines and catalogs that is print.