UX and Content Curation | Marketing and Strategy
UX | Content Curation
In my 17+ years with Warner Bros. and The CW, I oversaw a wide variety of UX and design projects, ranging from B2B sites and apps to immersive consumer-facing digital experiences for the studio’s and network’s biggest television shows.
We launched the first CW mobile streaming apps in 2012, and rapidly expanded to all major platforms over the next few years with the free, ad-supported service. Starting with only a dozen series, the initial experience was highly curated and editorially driven, focused on putting the latest episodes in front of the viewer with the least amount of friction. We also launched parallel apps for CW Seed during this time, a digital-only network that served as an incubator for both talent and digital development.
Over several iterations, The CW app grew in content and expanded its streaming environment accordingly to continue to push audiences to their episodes as quickly as possible. Our digital team worked to evolve the app rapidly, pushing out hundreds of updates, constantly improving the experience. As the audiences for The CW and CW Seed overlapped and shared interests, the natural progression was to combine the two curated experiences into a more robust and diverse experience. The new unified app was built to sustain catalog growth and be more adaptable to future feature add-ons and needs.
The CW App
UX | Content Curation
OBJECTIVE: Provide digital audiences with latest episodes of hit shows in a frictionless experience that can evolve with the network.
My Contribution
Art Direction
Visual Identity
UX / UI
Content Merchandising
Context
I led a design team that launched and developed content apps on multiple platforms for The CW Network. These experiences were all free, ad-supported experience.
We developed parallel experiences for mobile, web, OTT and Smart TV platforms, adapting each version to the nuances and needs of the specific devices and environments. This required constant attention to user feedback, business objectives and platform evolutions.
Through hundreds of iterations over many years these experiences grew from a handful of series to over 10,000 hours of content including series, movies, FAST channels, and live sports.
Implementation
The CW Network began in 2006 with a dozen series and a website, so the digital experience was highly-curated and very editorially driven. We launched mobile apps in 2012 and these were rapidly adopted by the network’s young, highly engaged social and digital audience.
OTT apps followed shortly after as the network grew in its content offering. As the type of content grew and diversified, so did the digital audience, and this growth required ongoing reassessment of the UX needs. We evolved the app to accommodate more content and discoverability.
Cult Series Xbox SmartGlass
UX | Marketing
OBJECTIVE: Create a digital second screen experience for Cult series to build interest and enable deeper engagement for fans and promote streaming on The CW app for Xbox.
My Contribution
UX/UI
Art Direction
Visual Identity
Context
Cult was a new series whose themes dealt with reality vs. perceived reality and aimed to pull viewers into to its surreal storyline that played with those boundaries.
Implementation
We partnered with Microsoft and their SmartGlass team to develop a unique, meta experience that would engage fans and make them feel like part of the mystery of the series. Each episode would unfold with puzzles and ciphers that the viewer could unravel and then be rewarded with additional storybuilding content that enhanced their experience of Cult.
Viewers would launch the SmartGlass experience on their companion device (phone or tablet), as they streamed the Cult full episode on The CW app on Xbox. Throughout the episode the viewer would then be prompted with pop-ups and notifications on their device and have a new puzzle to solve that related to the scenes they were watching. After solving the ciphers and completing the episode the viewers would be directed to a URL with an additional puzzle and reward.
CW Seed
UX | Content Curation
OBJECTIVE: Launch and cultivate a digital-only network to explore new business opportunities, experiment with technology, and identify emerging concepts and talent.
My Contribution
Art Direction
Visual Identity
UX / UI
Content Merchandising
Context
CW Seed was a digital-only brand spun off from The CW, conceived to be an incubator for up-and-coming talent and a year round destination to boost engagement and streaming during off-season lulls. We launched the brand in 2013 with a handful of digital originals.
In success, the strategy quickly pivoted to grow the catalog and include a select collection of millennial favorite series and relevant content to compliment popular series on The CW Network. As the strategy evolved, so did the brand and voice.
Implementation
The initial presence of CW Seed at launch was a simple, content-forward experience featuring just a few original series, without much need or opportunity for robust features in terms of navigation and searchability. The main goal was to quickly and easily get users to sample the content and then point them to The CW.
As the CW Seed brand grew so did the needs of the digital experience, and we evolved the app to appeal to broader and more diverse audiences. With the content library growing rapidly, discoverability became more of a challenge, so we expanded the merchandising options and touchpoints to editorialize titles and help get users to their content faster and with less friction.
Unified CW and CW Seed Apps
UX | Content Curation
OBJECTIVE: Combine our two legacy streaming apps into one unified destination, to create an improved user experience and build the largest audiences possible for The CW.
My Contribution
Art Direction
Visual Identity
UX / UI
Content Merchandising
Context
As both The CW and CW Seed continued to grow and expand, coordinating both apps and sets of users was a growing challenge. Our two successful streaming destinations were dividing our audience’s attention.
We combined our two experiences into one more robust singular destination to keep users engaged and increase time spent viewing.
Implementation
The new unified app combined the features and content of both network apps, allowing our design and product teams to focus ongoing development efforts on just one destination. The content catalog continued to grow, expanding to include series, movies, live sports and FAST channels.
Marketing | Strategy
For over 15 years I provided creative and strategic direction for The CW’s digital marketing of all series and streaming experiences. This encompassed content creation through produced marketing shoots, partnerships with content and platform leaders, ongoing organic social promotion, as well as paid, partner and branded integrations in the digital space. We implemented hundreds of strategic and dynamic projects, including digital apps and games, immersive in-story experiences and influential talent interaction for The CW Network and Warner Bros TV properties.
The CW built its success with series for young audiences who were highly engaged on social and were rapidly gaining an appetite for on-demand viewing whenever and wherever they wanted it.
Our digital marketing team launched over 150 series and was able to grow super fandoms for multiple series on all social platforms by providing a steady stream of engaging content with compelling visuals and a direct and informative voice.
As social platforms were rising and falling, developing and enriching their experiences, The CW was right there in the mix, working closely with platform partners to stay on the leading edge of trends and technology. That, combined with slick, exciting series and up-and-coming talent, created a perfect set of circumstances for The CW to become a network leader in the social and digital conversation.
Riverdale Series on The CW
Marketing | Strategy | Voice
OBJECTIVE: Find and grow a digital audience for a new high priority series with limited resources and small marketing budget.
My Contribution
Creative Direction
Visual Identity
Content Capture
Strategy
Context
The CW built its business on young female viewers with shows like Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries, but Riverdale was a tougher sell. The Archie Comics title was almost 80 years old, so we couldn’t count on it being relevant to younger audiences who were already fleeing broadcast. But we knew the show would connect if we could get CW viewers to give it a chance.
Execution
As we launched new social accounts for Riverdale, we leveraged our existing social footprint from other hit shows to prime the 18-34 female demo. Initially, rather than teasing storylines, we introduced prospective viewers to the dynamic young cast, which had immediate buzz thanks to talent like Disney star Cole Sprouse. When we did address the series and IP, we wanted to separate it from the dated original comic. We leaned into the edgier new take and sold it as a racy, chic Twin Peaks for teens.
After the series premiered we immediately saw a small but passionate fanbase showing up for Riverdale. We quickly shifted promotion to focus on the elements that were popping on social media. We got involved in the conversation, producing highly shareable content that helped spread word of mouth. We also utilized social trends and celebrity fandom to expand our audience.
We quickly learned that our rabid fans couldn’t get enough of Riverdale and its hot new talent. But, with a small digital team, we had limited resources and needed to adapt and evolve. We ran the breakout cast through a social media marketing boot camp so we could unify our messaging and underscore the influence they had over the fans. We helped the actors build their own individual brands, and in return they generated even more promotion for us and the series.
The Riverdale audience grew rapidly each week. Knowing that the show was going to leave The CW quickly after the finale for a window on Netflix, we focused on keeping viewers watching weekly instead of waiting for a binge watch. We did this by leaning into very contextual themes and content, and by teasing massive reveals that could spoil those who waited. As we saw our young demo begin to broaden out, we began to run targeted paid media campaigns to hook older viewers and round out our audience.
In the following seasons the Riverdale audience and conversation continued to thrive and grow, dominating the social charts during its in-season runs. We leaned heavily into the voice of the show and the tenor of the fan discussion, capturing content year-round through additional marketing shoots and on-set capture while in production.
Alan Estridge 