Last Saturday my wife sent me on a challenge: buy some meat for a lunch with friends. Off I went without any detailed scope of work describing the animal, the required piece, weight, budget ie. all essential information for my quest to be a success and limit the odds of having to feed our guests with frozen pizzas purchased last minute at the nearby filling station.
Mrs Jakob the butcher’s wife welcomed me with my name and after inquiring where my wife was must have realized it might not be an easy sell as I ordered meat for 4. With a smile she made 2 relevant suggestions from which I randomly picked one, paid my dues and left.
On my way out the parallel to our media business stroked me. It resonated with the over 50% of viewers declaring they cannot find something to watch and the resulting debate between search and recommendation versus curation.
Alexa would have recognized me but would have gained very little information from my previous meat purchases. A look into my diary and the lunch appointments of the week combined with the health information from my cell would have certainly led to the recommendation to buy plain green salad possibly without any sauce.
A man made curation combines the wealth of available viewer demographics and usage feedback with the depth of programming experience. It improves customer satisfaction, put forward less obvious long tail titles, generates a surprise effect and drives consumption.
