How Disney+ Marketers Can Break Out of the Plateau
Having already pulled most superfans of its beloved IP, can Disney+ continue to grow its subscriber base? Only if its marketing executives know where to find new audiences and how to reach them.
Toward the end of the 2010s, the TV streaming landscape broke wide open. Suddenly, the hegemonic players Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video had to contend with a host of new competitors — first Disney+, then HBO Max, followed by Apple TV+, Peacock, and Paramount+. Of all these brand-new services (HBO Max was a continuation of previous HBO streamers HBO Go and HBO Now), Disney+ was the first to establish itself as a force in the industry, releasing pop culture phenomena like Loki and The Mandalorian. But with all this success, Disney+ now faces the same problem faced by its once-dominant rivals: how do they avoid plateauing?
Using a combination of Ranker Insights and other marketing tools, Disney+ can target fan bases for TV shows with audiences that are statistically more likely to love Disney+ originals. Whether using Facebook’s Suggested Audience tool for paid social campaigns, Google AdWords for search campaigns, or by simply purchasing ad space being sold by streamers with ad-supported subscription options, Disney+ can use our pop culture correlation data to identify audiences more likely to love their original shows. The series below belong to other streamers, but have fans that Insights says are more likely to also enjoy a number of different Disney+ originals:
Want to know how we got these results, and what Disney can do to maximize their utility in digital campaigns? Read on to learn which shows have audiences that are statistically more likely to love which original Disney+ series, as well as how they can use that information to target TV viewers with more precision and break out of the subscriber plateau. We’re taking a look at the TV viewers most likely to be interested in the two largest categories of Disney+ original series: Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Fan Bases That Love Disney+’s Star Wars Shows
Fans of these shows are statistically more likely to love The Mandalorian — that is, if they’re convinced to subscribe and see it.
The Mandalorian has a tremendous audience — it’s got a remarkable 76% positive sentiment on Ranker Insights, meaning that over three-quarters of the 18,000 votes cast for the show on lists across Ranker indicate positive sentiment. Thanks to its thousands of fans, it’s #1 on The Best Sci-Fi Television Series Of All Time, an incredibly competitive TV list with over a million votes. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be larger.
For every devoted Mandalorian fan, there’s another TV viewer who’s heard plenty of good things about the series, but for whatever reason hasn’t yet decided to take the plunge and get a Disney+ subscription. Maybe they primarily watch cable TV, or maybe they’re already spending their TV budget on other streamers. Maybe they know about The Mandalorian, but aren’t convinced they like the show so much it would be worth the subscription price. Ranker Insights tells us what other TV shows are statistically more likely to be beloved by fans of The Mandalorian so that Disney can not only identify new potential subscribers, but also make the case to them that Disney+’s marquee show is well worth their time and money.
Unsurprisingly, many of the TV shows that have a large amount of overlap with The Mandalorian’s fan base also belong to the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Mandolorian fans are more likely to love The Witcher than any other non-Disney+ original — specifically, they’re 6X more likely to be drawn to it. A statistical relationship as strong as that suggests there are likely plenty of Netflix-subscribing Witcher fans who don’t yet know just how much they’re going to love Disney+’s Star Wars spinoff.
While The Witcher has the strongest affinity outside of Disney+, there are plenty of other fan bases the streamer might consider reaching out to in order to expand its subscriber base. Marvel series that don’t belong to Disney like Daredevil and The Defenders are 5X and 3X more likely to be loved by Mandolorian fans, respectively. HBO Max’s Peacemaker and Watchmen are 3X more likely to be beloved by Mandolorian viewers, but notably, other DC properties from the streamer like Titans and Doom Patrol aren’t particularly likely to share fans with Disney+’s Star Wars show. Mandalorian fans are 4X more likely to be drawn to Amazon’s The Boys, but they’re equally partial to the streamer’s more grounded action series Jack Ryan.
Newer Star Wars shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi haven’t had time to get as many votes on Ranker as Mandalorian has, but Insights has enough data to tell us a few shows that fans are more likely to also love. Boba Fett viewers like sci-fi that’s slightly more obscure than the fare enjoyed by Mandolorian viewers, as they’re 7X more likely to love HBO’s His Dark Materials and 6X more likely to watch Apple TV+’s Foundation. They’re also 3X more likely to cross sci-fi fandom’s biggest divide by watching Star Trek: Picard. Obi Wan fans share more in common with The Mandalorian’s audience, as they’re 4X more likely to love The Witcher. That said, they’re also 3X more likely to enjoy Amazon’s sci-fi comedy Upload, a testament to how far and wide Disney+’s potential new subscribers can be found.
A few more shows with fans that are more likely to love Disney+’s original Star Wars content more generally include Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, Amazon Prime’s The Expanse, and Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender — these are the most statistically significant suggestions for these shows, but there are hundreds of more affinities available on Insights.
Fan Bases That Love Disney+’s MCU Shows
Fans of these shows are statistically more likely to also be fans of Loki
As is the case with Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe superfans are almost certainly already subscribing to Disney’s streaming service. But as one of the most popular film franchises on the planet, the MCU also has plenty of more casual fans who might make the trip to see new movies in theaters, but haven’t yet jumped at the chance to see Disney’s Marvel TV shows. Insights can tell us which shows have fans that are most likely to love MCU TV shows available to stream on Disney.
Of all the Marvel Cinematic spinoffs, Loki is probably the most popular among Ranker readers, with 74% of votes for the show across Ranker indicating positive sentiment. The show with fans most likely to love Loki that isn’t also on Disney+ is Shadow and Bone, Netflix’s fantasy sleeper hit: those who love one show are 6X more likely to love the other. They’re also 6X more likely to love The Umbrella Academy, 5X more likely to love The Witcher, and 4X more likely to love The Flash. Once again, the challenge here for Disney is to take a share of Netflix’s massive subscriber base — it’s just a matter of identifying the fan bases within that subscriber base that have the most crossover with your own service’s fan bases. That said, shows from other streamers, like Amazon’s animated superhero story Invincible, also have lots of fans who vote up Loki on lists across Ranker.
WandaVision, Disney’s first Marvel show, also shares plenty of fans with Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy and Shadow and Bone, but its fans are more drawn to Stranger Things than they are to The Witcher, as they’re 4X more likely to love the ’80s sci-fi nostalgia fest. WandaVision fans are also fans of almost every kind of superhero show, being 3X more likely to love Peacemaker, Titans, Doom Patrol, and ABC’s 2000s hit Heroes. They’ve also got a taste for headier dramas like The Queen’s Gambit, which they’re 4X more likely to love, and The Crown, which they’re 3X more likely to love. Finally, they’re also big fans of modern classic sitcoms, as they’re 3X more likely to love Modern Family and 30 Rock. All in all, WandaVision fans have some of the most diverse tastes of any of the Disney+ shows we’ve looked at, spanning multiple genres and including both beloved classics and recent hits.
Insights also has some data on recent MCU series like Hawkeye and Moon Knight. Hawkeye, a gripping action series, has a surprising amount of crossover with the epoch-spanning romance Outlander — fans of the Starz series are 3X more likely to love Hawkeye. They’re also 2X more likely to love The CW’s DC properties Arrow and The Flash. Moon Knight fanatics, on the other hand, prefer Netflix’s Marvel series, as they’re 3X more likely to love Luke Cage and The Punisher. Fans of the Oscar Isaac series are more likely to love Foundation than any other show on Disney+, however, with fans of one show a shocking 7X more likely to love the other.
A few more shows with fans that are more likely to love Disney+’s original Marvel content more generally include HBO Max’s Harley Quinn, Apple’s Ted Lasso, and Amazon’s Carnival Row — these are the most statistically significant suggestions for these shows, but there are hundreds of more affinities available on Insights.
Star Wars and Marvel series aren’t the only thing Disney+ has to offer, of course — Insights could also be used to identify nostalgic ‘90s kids seeking out classic Disney Channel content, documentary fans who’d love their National Geographic specials, and superfans of The Simpsons looking to access the classic animated comedy’s archive. These suggestions are only the beginning of a strategy that could help Disney+ make the most of its digital campaigns and avoid the plateau that Netflix and others are struggling with and continue its impressive rise to the top of the Streaming Wars heap.