A GLOBAL REPORT ON WHAT MAKES ENTERTAINMENT MEANINGFUL FOR PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD
The Future of Entertainment
83% of people globally—including 92% of Prosumers—consider entertainment a vital need.
6 in 10 Prosumers admit they can’t stand still without consuming content.
Around 3 in 4 Prosumers would like their experiences with brands to be more entertaining.
Core Insight:
The digital era has revolutionized the field of entertainment. In addition to technological advances such as CGI and augmented reality, we have been seeing fundamental changes in how people consume and consider entertainment. Rather than relegate it to the fringes of our lives, entertainment is now something we carry along with us and access virtually all day, every day, whether streaming music or podcasts, scrolling through videos or Instagram posts on our phones, or immersing ourselves for hours on end in massively multiplayer online games. Entertainment now sits at the center of our existence.
Snapshot:
In the first quarter of 2019, Havas Group, part of Vivendi, worked in partnership with Cannes Lions to explore the fundamental shifts that are transforming how people think about and experience entertainment. The study draws on the attitudes and behaviors of 17,411 people ages 13+ in 37 countries, with a focus on Prosumers, the leading-edge influencers and market drivers whom Havas has been tracking for more than 15 years.
Among the insights revealed by the global study:
Entertainment is now as critical as health. People no longer see entertainment as superficial: 83% of them consider it a vital need; this compares with 54% in an earlier study who claimed to pay a lot of attention to health issues. Should the right to entertainment be added to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Forever seeking our next fix. Six in 10 Prosumers admit they can’t stand still without consuming content, while 56% are willing to sacrifice sleep to binge-watch a show they like. Nearly 4 in 10 claim they couldn’t live without Netflix—and this even includes people for whom the brand didn’t really exist 5 or 6 years ago!
Gimme more! The more entertainment we consume, the more we crave. Some 6 in 10 Prosumers want our educational systems and workplaces to be made more entertaining, while more than a third say the same about hospitals and retirement homes.
The real value of entertainment lies in its ability to enrich and transform. As much as we crave distractions and temporary escapes, people are most drawn to entertainment content that educates, empowers, and gives them tools with which to create better versions of themselves. Nearly half of Prosumers would be willing to pay more for entertainment that is meaningful in this way.
We are all pixels in a bigger picture. Younger people, especially, feel pressured to participate in entertainment culture, both as consumers and as creators. Among our respondents ages 13-17, 55% feel they always need to entertain their friends and others, and 43% feel pressured to showcase an entertaining lifestyle.