It’s been another busy week at Gloo and we’ve had plenty to discuss. From streaming wars to mobile banking, and lots in between—there’s never a dull moment in the world of content.

Mobile banking takes on a whole new meaning

We write a lot about finance and how new technology is both helping and challenging traditional banks. Digital transformation is helping banks to reinvent themselves to better appeal to today’s customers, but it’s also paving the way for new entrants to the market.

Those new entrants are often agile, young Fintechs. But it seems technology is opening the way to other companies too. T-Mobile has just announced plans to move into banking with the launch of T-Mobile MONEY across America. It claims this new current account will offer a whole host of benefits that many traditional banks can’t match, like increased interest rates, no overdraft fees and no minimum balance requirement.

Traditional banks aren’t mobile-first, and they’re definitely not customer-first. As more and more people use their smartphones to manage money, we saw an opportunity to address another customer pain point.

John Legere, T-Mobile CEO

So a new threat for traditional banking, and an interesting development for the telecommunications market. We’re interested to see how it turns out.

BBC iPlayer loses the streaming wars

The BBC recently announced that it has lost the streaming fight with Netflix. You didn’t realise iPlayer was part of the streaming wars? Neither did we. So what makes the BBC think it was ever in the same league as Netflix?

It could be because five years ago iPlayer had a 40% share of the UK streaming video market—its share has now fallen to 15%. But comparing iPlayer with Netflix is like comparing Uber with DHL. Netflix has revolutionised how we consume entertainment—we have access to hundreds of titles whenever we want. iPlayer was launched as, and essentially remains, a catch-up service. It only really offers programming created by the BBC and often will only have things available for limited periods of time.

People go to iPlayer if they missed Match of the Day or an episode of a new drama on the BBC. For on-demand TV, they go to the likes of Netflix or Amazon—and, no doubt, soon Disney. If the BBC really wants to compete in a streaming fight, it’s going to require a drastic rethink—not just of its user interface or functionality, but exactly what type of platform it wants to be.

Life saving wax

One of the biggest challenges facing marketers is how to reach the desired audience. You may have a fantastic message, perhaps even a really important life-saving message, but if your audience isn’t seeing your content, it’s unlikely to have much impact.

That was exactly the problem facing Public Health England. Cervical screening can cut preventable deaths. That’s a pretty powerful message. But screening is at a 20-year low in the UK, especially in the 25–34 year old bracket.

Now, while women may avoid their smear test, it seems that 90% of them do like to have well-groomed pubic hair. And they’re not shy to have someone else take care of the job for them—1.2 million women head to beauty salons to get a trim. So, a partnership was born. Public Health England has teamed up with beauty brand TreatWell to advertise directly where its audience is.

Posted by John on 13 May 2019