Game Tape #7: New Media should actually feel new

Analyzing "Olivia Unplugged," Opal's in-house influencer

Game Tape is a weekly series where I analyze a new media property. Today we’re talking about the “creator-in-residence” and emergent definitions of “quality.”

Welcome to my loyal new Attention Heads who are here from this tweet <3

For the rest of you who have gracefully avoided Tech Twitter, everyone over there is trying to milk engagement from a WSJ article on companies desperately seeking “storytellers.” It’s downstream of the discourse to “go direct” with “new media.”

It’s no surprise that companies will have to find new ways to tell their stories in our overwhelmingly noisy content environments — I’ve written as much here, here, and here. But it is surprising to me that there’s so much noise about “new media” that doesn’t look all that different from the formats we had ten years ago. Don’t mistake this for me throwing shade at a16z’s New Media team; it’s cool what they’re doing and commendable that they’re even attempting to push the envelope on storytelling in tech. I’m sure there’s a lot they’re working on that I’m missing, but at first glance, do these Twitter launch videos really look all that different from, say, the product launch videos on Stripe’s 2015 YouTube Channel?¹

The best “storytellers” in the world do not want to talk about your B2B SaaS product! We need new forms that give these storytellers a chance to actually create interesting media. Olivia Unplugged, Opal’s secondary channel, is a good example of tech’s New Media that actually looks new. The gist is:

1. Opal creates an entirely separate TikTok account, called “Olivia Unplugged”

2. Olivia, a social media manager at the company, starts posting talking head videos as though she’s a creator, speaking on “Screen time therapy for the chronically online.”

3. The account subtly links to Opal on the App Store, but otherwise has no clear connection that it’s run by a brand

A few takeaways for startups looking for storytellers:

I. Abstract your product into a philosophy or worldview

From my post about the “creator-in-residence”:

Companies like Starbucks and Ulta are smart to incentivize their employees to post content, but in this context, the act of creation is still rooted in the company’s products. The Starbucks creators talk about coffee, the Ulta creators talk about makeup. For a hopeful creative, a more interesting version of this job would be to abstract away from the product that your company sells, and towards the broader thesis statement or problem set it covers. Then, you give the creator-in-residence the freedom to create new IP within those constraints.

I’m not sure if Olivia Unplugged is exactly a creator-in-residence, since in my definition that would depend on whether or not she gets any upside on the properties she is creating. But this secondary account certainly gets at the heart of creating new IP: she isn’t talking about Opal, she’s talking about all the realities around Opal that make it so important. Her most popular videos are on things like “making your life interesting again,” or “how to not be lonely.” These are natural pain points that arise from the phone addiction that Opal solves, but as a creator instead of a brand account, she has the flexibility to talk about a worldview, not a product.

II. Understand the emerging definitions of “quality”

Doug Shapiro has a fantastic post on the changing definitions of “quality” in media. In it, he posits that “new entrants don’t compete on existing measurements of performance,” instead they “introduce new attributes,” which “can change how consumers define quality.” Airbnb didn’t compete with hotels on 24 hour concierge services or high-end spas, instead they introduced entirely new attributes like a full working kitchen, or space to host guests. In the context of media, he cites a YouTube study where “55% of viewers agree that their content choices collectively create a sense of belonging.”²

The degree to which you can develop a parasocial relationship through a piece of media is an emerging definition of its quality. Olivia Unplugged is a person first, with all of the personality quirks and visual worldbuilding that Gen Z has grown to expect from shortform creators. But she also doesn’t really fit the standard mould of a creator, since she’s borne from a company and its needs. When you contrast this against “New Media” in tech, especially launches or fundraise announcements, it’s clear that people are trying to apply old models of success to new formats. There is are obviously different ways to reach different audiences, it’s clear there’s success to be found in simply increasing production value or adding real story structure to a Twitter-native video, but it’s fundamentally missing the point of how media preferences can evolve.

Most of the discourse around “New Media”, at least in tech, is us applying ten year old mediums (podcasts, newsletters, short form video) to new contexts (comms, founder-led content, marketing). That’s fine, and is obviously working to some degree, but it really does feel like a failure of the imagination. The most exciting part of emerging mediums — and definitely the area with the most value to capture as a brand or startup — is in creating new forms entirely. To anthropomorphize a character like Duolingo’s bird or to create a branded influencer like Olivia Unplugged is to actually push the envelope on what tomorrow’s media might look like.

1. I do think that Founders Fund’s hype reel from last year was somewhat of an evolution in tech media. It feels more akin to a TikTok-native fan edit.

2. Tbh it looks like the YouTube study is laughably weak, with something like 600 survey participants specifically in Italy. But, intuitively, I think the broader point stands.