Yes, CEO and founder of Giphy, Alex Chung (not to be confused with Alexa Chung), admits his talk title is very "click-baity", but he asks the question of whether we have capacity left for more content and how we can still create in an overbooked life.

The Real Estate Content

In an effort to simplify the content crisis currently being experienced, Chung used the housing crisis as a metaphor to highlight the scale of the issue.

We are currently struggling to make impact on the average person who consumes 18 hours of content a day. Content is on display 24/7 and time has become the coveted 'real estate' that brands are after. Each hour is a location brands want to live in; consider prime-time hours like inner city living; it’s cool and hip and you’ve seen other cool and hip people there being creative. So, like any rich kid with old money, you move into these gentrified neighbourhoods of the inner north. And herein lies the issue… you need money. Big money.

Brands are finding it harder to afford houses in primetime and are being priced out by the big players in the market. Even these big brands with money are trying to one-up each other for a cool loft near a trendy café and a good tram line. So what else could we possibly do? If you don’t have enough capital behind you to live in an inner-city bachelor or bachelorette pad, then you’ll have to sublet and become a roommate in a share house; consider this sponsored content.

As sponsored content you become a user’s weird random roommate they found on “find-a-flatmate.com” who was the best out of the bunch. You can talk to them about stuff they vaguely like, but they’ve just gotten home from work and want to relax in their room without you there. You vaguely pique their interest every now and then, but most of the time they don’t really pay attention unless you have something really good to say.

So, your brand lives that inner city life for a while but your avocado eating ways are still making it impossible to move permanently. It’s time to move to the ‘burbs; a pleasant place, where everything is mildly entertaining and will keep users mildly engaged but they’re a bit bored staying there. It's pretty much Facebook. It’s a last resort to stay close to cool.

The next step is the country life; pure, anxiety free content landscape. It's soap TV you have on in the background and don't care about.

So what's the solution?

A solution for some is alternate housing. To flog the housing metaphor one more time, AR + VR space is where real life estate is becoming the new prime-time screen space. Content no longer has to sit there and wait for an audience or shout, scream and force their way to your screen to get attention, but can come to consumers in their everyday life in a new way previously never thought possible. The problem is, at this current time, only the big brands can really invest in this type of alternate housing as it isn’t cheap… yet.

And so, what are we left with but micro content; the spackle that fits in the cracks of any type of home (ok, that’s the last housing reference). This is content that is under six seconds and what Giphy specialises in. It's easily digestible but done correctly can be effectively shared to others. 

Gifs are nothing but a really good source of expression, and expressions are extremely relatable in the emotion they evoke, making them easily sharable. Is that not what we want from all content? Relatable and sharable creative?

Chung also made the argument that google as a search engine and advertiser has become out of touch:

"Text is a bad compression, it simply takes too long to type out an expression of feeling... Gifs (and micro content) helps you share an expression (not a description)"

He used the example of typing "hungry" into both Google and Giphy. People searching for hunger through google were met with descriptions or articles about hunger (or where to find Hungry Jacks), but users on Giphy were met with ways to express their own current feelings. 

A part of this micro content is that it can be ubiquitous, as its short format removes context so it can be everywhere, unlike long-form content that needs certain understanding. We also need to develop passive content, or "on-demand attention content". This follows on from it being ubiquitous, users need to be able to choose when to tune in and out without missing anything important to understand the message. 

The biggest most obvious solution? It needs to be entertaining!

Key takeouts

There's no time left for content. We either need to be small enough to fit in the cracks, find alternative spaces or have enough money to just buy the best space in a big way.

Also, it's "Gif" and literally NO ONE IN THE WORLD CARES ANYMORE! 

Listen to the full talk here.