Release Strategy for Serialized Content
Introduction
An American Statistical Association Marketing Section webinar, 24 Sep 2024
INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING RESEARCH
POSTING TYPE: Revisits
Posted by: Shibo Li
American Statistical Association (ASA) Marketing Section Webinar on September 24, 2024
The second speaker in our ASA Marketing Section webinar series in Fall 2024 is Nitin Mehta () who is the Ellison Professor of Marketing and the PhD Coordinator of Marketing at University of Toronto. His research focuses on structural models of consumer search, multi-category choices, imperfect recall and learning, consumers’ healthcare decisions, the economics of binge consumption, adoption of AI by firms and consumers, and the socio-economic impact of AI. Nitin has taught the core MBA marketing course for many years and is currently teaching Pricing and Analytics for Marketing Strategy. He is presently serving as an Associate Editor at both Marketing Science and the Journal of Marketing Research.
The time and date of the webinar are 9-10pm Eastern time, September 24, 2024, with the webinar link:. You are welcome to see the webinar details and bookmark the webinar series website (). Below is the title and abstract of the paper he will be presenting:
Title:
Abstract:
Using data from an online book platform, we investigate three release strategies of serialized digital content: simultaneous (releasing the entire content of a book at once), sequential (releasing the content of a book sequentially over time), and hybrid release. These release strategies impact the platform’s revenue through two opposing effects: binge consumption and product exploration. The simultaneous release of a book induces binge consumption, which gets consumers hooked on it, leading to a larger number of its chapters being purchased. The sequential release of a book induces consumers to visit the platform more often to purchase its newly released chapters, which increases their exploration of other books. We estimate a model of consumers’ platform visits and purchases that allows for both these effects. Our counterfactual analysis shows that sequential release yields higher revenue than simultaneous release. Platform revenue is maximized with hybrid release in which the first 60% of chapters of books are released simultaneously, and the rest are released sequentially. Hybrid release turns binge consumption and product exploration into complementary effects-simultaneous release of the first 60% of chapters of a book induces its binge consumption, which gets consumers hooked on it; sequential release of its remaining chapters keeps consumers returning to the platform, resulting in them exploring other books.
We look forward to seeing you in the webinars.