Kokoro Content facing the great unknown: can television interest young people again?

Raül Asensio, founder and CEO of Kokoro Content, analyzes the creation of digital and television content adapted to young audiences, an area in which participation is presented as a key tool and production companies accompany not only the creation, but also the reach towards their target audience through talent.

The audiovisual industry is accompanied by some uncomfortable questions that are floating in the environment. They are addressed, resolved, forgotten, addressed again. They are that elephant in the room that must be faced and whose consequences, although they will not be able to overthrow a well-established industry, yes they will have the ability to shake the board and rethink those pillars that have accompanied broadcast for decades.

Among these issues is the question of generational change of audiences. Content directors and those responsible for digital strategies have been sharing impressions, measuring the impact of the digital consumption revolution and how it has affected the most common modes of consumption.

The diagnoses, however, are shoot. some voices they consider lost the battle of the linear, drawing a future in which on-demand and personalized consumption will rebuild televisions as we know them. Other executives, for their part, are confident that millennials, zetas and alphas They will improve their relationship with the screens as they age and are the natural relief of current viewers.

Key, a production company specialized in young audiences, considers that there is a third way. As a recently created company, but with a team of sector veterans specialized in the convergence between broadcast and digital platforms, does not doubt the scope of the digital aspects of the platforms and, therefore, develops innovative formats like vertical microseries (Stupid Cupid – RTVE).

However, he also considers that there are spaces in the traditional television for these new generations, as demonstrated by initiatives such as Team Total, Clan's first live program in which participation is key, or Tick ​​Tock Factory, and game show focused on crafts for SX3 (3Cat). Raul Asensio, producer, showrunner and CEO of Kokoro Content, analyzes the creation of content for new generations based on your experience in these programs and others innovative works that helped promote in the past, such as those awarded at MIPTV Rabia (Atresplayer) and Area 34 (RTVE).

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Learning from mistakes

Much of the team Kokoro Content He dedicated himself to making television, as they call it, “conventional.” After working in the context of the new audiences, he was able to identify some of the errors of those production companies that set out to build bridges between the entertainment of linear environments with the world of content creators.

“The long-time producers tried to get a influencer in a traditional program to “secure” that leg of the young audience. And that doesn't work."

“The traditional production companies, when trying to reach this type of audience, what they did was put a influencer in a traditional program to “secure” that leg of the young audience. And that doesn't work," explains Asensio. This formula, still widespread today in entertainment franchises whose audience ratings barely reach that desired percentage, takes content creators out of their context, which makes its audience “not buy it.”

Faced with this approach, Kokoro finds greater value in creating spaces “thinking of them and for them"And this variable is key: the content creator himself will be in charge of convincing his audiences: "If he sees himself doing that format, his audience will buy it."

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The value of choral content with creators

Among Kokoro's portfolio, Asensio highlights those productions that involve several content creators as one of the most successful solutions for its clients. "When you are going to create something with a single content creator, surely the audience that will consume you will be his fans and someone else. When making choral products, various audiences come to consume you," he explains.

“We don't pay what brands pay, but we offer you a additional value"We are creating a format designed and made for people like them."

This type of approach, which takes into account Rabia of Flooxer (Atresmedia) one of its greatest exponents, requires the total involvement of content creators and involves breaking the usual synergies between representation agencies and these celebrities. They will no longer have to do a couple of stories, but to become a central part of a team in which “40 people will depend on them”.

"This, more than a problem for us, is a plus point. We do not pay what brands pay, but we offer a additional value: We are creating a format designed and made for people like them. In this way, for an amount that would be the normal established in the sector, we can have committed people who maintain their own codes,” says Asensio, who reconstructs the language of his productions based on feedback of your own talent.

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Influencers, celebrities and television formats

The claim of influencers and content creators is not far from overly proposed established by the realities and traditional television contests. Today, his presence it is essential both to achieve the television approvals, as if to convince the public itself. As an example, the premature cancellation of the last edition with anonymous contestants from Big Brother.

For Kokoro Content, the presence of influencers committed takes on vital importance. Not only because of the value that this talent will bring, but because the communities of each of these creators serve as guarantee of success. In Asensio's words: "We sell content that we know will work, but also something that has not been common in the history of television: when I deliver the product, I make sure that that audience is met."

“We sell content that we know will work, but also something that has not been common in the history of television: when I deliver the product, I make sure that that audience is met.”

When signing a contract with a creator for these youth-focused formats, Kokoro adds among his responsibilities the dissemination of content. They will be part of a promotional campaign premiere of the program, but they will also be able to revive its relevance if views begin to decline, with a plan adhoc created to enhance your reach.

This approach, although it makes it more dependent on some external channels The success of a proposal modifies the usual codes of television audiences. However, it returns a certainty to televisions and platforms: the The audience that will watch the program is, strictly, that audience that you want to address..

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The fight against the algorithm

Regardless of the type of content chosen to try to reach these young audiences, television stations not only compete against an industry full of alternatives with million-dollar budgets. His target audience are those generations to which the algorithm power has modified his attention and permanence capacity, making the loyalty is increasingly complex.

"We are seeing a generation that seeks a continuous impact. It is a complex and precise question of reflection. Should we go towards this and promote that kids are continually overstimulated? It's difficult to say, but the reality is that when you are looking for the audience part, you have to go there,” says Asensio.

"We are seeing a generation that seeks a continuous impact. It is a complex and precise question of reflection. Should we go towards this and promote that kids are continually overstimulated?”

To adapt to this context, Kokoro Content has decided to launch the production of the microdramas. This phenomenon, widespread especially in South Korea, offers series with chapters with a maximum of two minutes in length aimed at competing with reels, shorts, tiktoks and all types of short consumption parts.

Stupid Cupid (Playz – RTVE) brings together all these characteristics: "We have not created another series and we have cut them into two-minute chapters. We have thought episode by episode so that they all end on a high so that you want to go to the next. You have to go one step further, because it is very easy to swipe and move on to other content."

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Participation and interaction in young audiences

Las dissemination strategies for youth content They are frequently accompanied with snippet publishing directed at social networks. The success of these programs cannot be measured exclusively by looking at the response to these clips: it is necessary that, if we are committed to building a format for linear television, it is capable of gather an audience which usually consumes other windows.

To bring together its audience and face this challenge, the magazine youth Team Total of Clan (RTVE) of Kokoro Content relies on the interactivity. Specifically, viewers can decide live through a QR code what the next section will be or if there will be a penalty for anyone who has lost a test: “It is a way for them to feel that they have the power and have that active decision-making capacity about what they are watching.”

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From “minor” channels to conventional television

Although the contents of Kokoro Content are based on some digital concepts and creators, are technical realization It is based on the usual standards of the fiction and television production. For example, his vertical microdrama has been filmed in 4K horizontal with the monitors marked vertically, but they have also been deployed Alpha type semi-professional cameras for your making of, and all types of parts have been generated directly with mobiles high end for promotional work.

"The main channels are still afraid to take that step. But it has to come: the audience that watches conventional television right now is older, older and will end."

The technical approach of this type of proposals for new audiences, as well as their conceptual treatment, meets all market standards. Secondary channels like Playz (RTVE), Flooxer (Atresmedia) o Infinity (Mediaset) naturally receive the new proposal promoted by production companies with the Kokoro approach.

The jump to first divisionAsensio explains, it is a matter of time: "The main channels are still afraid to take that step. But it has to come: the audience that watches conventional television right now is older, older and will end. If we want to reach young audiences, we have to take a turn. Some of my colleagues, content directors of large producers, are convinced that what we do at Kokoro is the future."

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The value of brevity

Despite these standards, aimed at new audiences, there are still concepts of the past to overcome. If the formats aimed at the new generations have never been among those with the most financial support, the variable of the short content only increases a gap halfway between the prejudices and one lack of confidence in the value of production.

"Everything has a price and we are not lowering the quality to make this product. Both the viewers and the creators themselves value it."

There is a risk that a possible standardization of short-lived parts translates into a budget reduction and a new degradation of the conditions of audiovisual workers. In this ecosystem, production companies must stand firm to claim content destined to become a standard. At least until the audiovisual consumption codes are modified again.

Asensio is clear: "Everything has a price and we are not lowering the quality to make this product. Both the viewers and the creators themselves value it. They have been making streams in their homes or with their social networks because they did not have access to do it with a television. But beyond this, if they take the leap, they want to do it with the appropriate means.”

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez