No, Snapchat’s Laguna Beach reality show isn’t watched more than Game of Thrones
By Dan Selcke
Snapchat executive Jeremi Gorman is making headlines thanks to something she said at Advertising Week, a major conference for all things branding. She claimed that the 12-episode Snapchat docuseries Endless Summer, about the life of YouTube star Summer Mckeen, was watched by 28 million people, more people than tuned in to “The Iron Throne,” the series finale of Game of Thrones.
That episode had a record 19.3 million people tune in to watch it live, with lord knows how many others piling on afterward. So on the surface, Gorman’s claim is true, with some caveats. For one, she seems to be comparing the number of people who watched the entirety of Endless Summer to the final episode of Game of Thrones. For another, each episode of Endless summer is around seven minutes long, which is an easier watch than an 80-minute epic.
But the big caveat is in how views are counted. On Snapchat, as on other social media platforms, if you see a video for even a second, it counts as a view. That can even include stumbling on a video in your feed that starts to play before you scroll on by. Watching an episode of TV, on the other hand, means watching an episode of TV. And in the cast of Game of Thrones, that’s a lot of episode.
Gorman is the first to admit that making contact for mobile apps like Snapchat is a different game. “The linear television that we’re used to is a story that’s told from beginning to end, where it builds to a crescendo and stops and wants you to watch again the next week,” she said. “Mobile video is different. You have to make sure you’re telling the story upfront. You have to catch the attention in second one, or someone can skip your content.”
Recently, mobile companies are pushing more into original content, hoping to draw in new kinds of viewers. But because of the way people consume mobile content as opposed to longer-form linear stuff, that sort of content may not be as valuable to advertisers.
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It’s something content creators everywhere are still working out. All we know is that there’s a lot more content to go around today than there used to be, so viewers are winning either way.
Next. Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm) thinks Jon Snow got off too lightly. dark
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