2018 LA edition
Marina del Rey Marriott · 2-3 August 2018
The third US edition, over two days at the Marina del Rey Marriott. Nine sponsors backed it, spanning streaming services, a film studio, an online education company, content analytics firms and two universities. Thirteen sessions ran, tilted further towards academic economics than the UK editions: digitisation and the incentives to create, theatrical window length, social influence, microscheduling and forecasting. A panel closed the first day by asking whether machines or people have better taste, with a broadcaster, a university, a retail platform, two streaming services and a studio answering.
Talks
- “Digitization, Revenue Shock and Incentives to Create: Evidence from Bollywood” – From a university researcher.
- “Maximizing Users for Live Streaming Gameplay” – From an analytics firm.
- “Quantifying the Social Influence of Actors and Actresses” – From a social analytics firm.
- “The Causal Effect of Reducing Theatrical Window Length on Box Office Ticket Sales” – From a university researcher.
- “Predicting Film Box Office Using Search Data” – From a large technology platform.
- “Trusting Your Forecasts: Marketing Applications of Structural Time Series Models” – From a marketing analytics firm.
- “A Risk-Retention Model for Subscription Video Services” – From a streaming service.
- “Revenues, Incentives, and the Creation of Artistic Works” – From a university researcher.
- “Panel: Who Has Better Taste, Machines or People?” – A broadcaster, a university, a retail platform, two streaming services and a film studio, closing the first day.
- “Content Genome Applications: Launching a Global Streaming Platform” – Jointly from a content demand analytics firm and a video platform.
- “Application of Causal Econometrics to Product Marketing and Optimization” – From a streaming service.
- “Strategic Microscheduling of Movies” – From a university researcher.
- “Brand Tracker Research on TV Show Fandom” – From a research firm.
What we learned
Half the Programme Was About Cause: Four of the thirteen sessions named causation or incentives in their titles: the causal effect of shortening the theatrical window, causal econometrics applied to product marketing, revenue shock and the incentives to create, and revenues and the creation of artistic works. The US editions were already asking what moves the outcome rather than what correlates with it.
Academics and Practitioners in Equal Measure: Four sessions came from university researchers and the remaining nine from practitioners at streaming services, technology platforms and analytics firms, with a fifth academic on the closing panel. That mix, rather than the individual papers, is what the US editions were built to produce.