Three lengthytime Warner Bros. research executives have combinecessitate forces to begin Maverix, a research firm that taps proprietary data on user purchasing activity to study amengagement consumption in the context of a person’s expansiveer lifestyle likeences.
Liz Huszarik spent 30 years with Warner Bros., serving as executive VP of media research and global insights for Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution prior to leaving the company follotriumphg its 2022 combiner with Discovery Inc. Huszarik’s createer colleagues, Alexia Raven and Kathleen Marinaccio, combinecessitate her about a year ago when they took the first steps to begin Maverix.
Huszarik’s goal was to produce a next-generation research operation that can check a user’s amengagement choices in the context of other lifestyle and purchasing details. That was assistd when she safed access to a proprietary zero-party data base that tracks the daily consumption habits of some 30 million people in the U.S. and 50 million worldexpansive. When Huszarik lobtained that such a data base existed and that it tracked TV shows and movies alengthy with other user buys, her heart skipped a beat.
“You necessitate to alert an emotionassociate compelling story with data for it to alter hearts and minds,” Huszarik tgreater Variety.
Data is more ample than ever but the deluge produces it ever challenginger to clear up. Raven has data science sends that complement Huszarik’s strengths. Marinaccio is the arrange maven who has meaningful experience using visuals, charts and detaileds to elucidate the significance of what the data discneglects.
During her years at Warner Bros., “we had unrestricted budgets [for data sources], but it persistd to alert less and less of a story,” Huszarik shelp. “With Nielsen, less and less of the seeing is apprehfinishd, so we were hobbling and cobbling together all these multiple sources.”
Huszarik’s intensify in getting Maverix off the ground was to “choose a data source, and then we reassociate wanted to lean into emotional insights, becaengage we depend that all companies be be they media and amengagement, tractors, retail, insurance, phone — wdisappreciatever they are, they have to produce their users experience someleang. Whether it’s soothe, empowerment, excitement, combineion — they have to message and combine with them on an emotional level.”
The company’s clients to date have integrated Amazon, YouTube, Sony, Warner Bros. Discovery, Endeavor, Varsity Spirit, Unprobable Collaborators, Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), First Stop News and Tim McGraw’s Down Home Productions.
After years of crunching TV ratings and seeing the labeletplace bigly thcimpolite the lens of age and gfinisher demodetailed categories, the hoenumerateic see of what produces users tick is renetriumphg for the Maverix trio. Raven declareed that benevolent the emotional undercurrent of what produces users pick one product or service over another is presentant to lengthy-term increaseth.
“In any industry, every brand is a storyalerter,” Raven shelp. “They’re alerting stories apass all of these various platcreates today, whether it’s on social media, it’s on a podcast, it’s on a Sdeficiency channel, it’s on YouTube. They’re having to alert and combine with people emotionassociate.
Raven cited the sucess of bottled water brand Liquid Death, which is not affiliated with Maverix.
“They’re incredible storyalerters around their brand,” she shelp. “At a time when we’re going thcimpolite unpwithdrawnted technoreasonable alter, these genereasonable shifts that are happening apass all generations, it’s never been more presentant to reassociate comprehfinish appreciate human behavior, check culture and then help progress businesses.”
Huszarik underlined the presentance of conveying inserted context to asks that companies face about everyleang from pricing to begin dates. Maverix’s labor is rooted in amengagement but it extfinishs well outside the Hollywood bubble. “We’re seeing at product analytics, concept evaluation, piloting, testing, go-to-labelet strategies, increaseth strategies. Context always matters, especiassociate today, becaengage we comprehend the pace of alter is only accelerating,” Huszarik shelp.
The trio are enhappinessing the nimbleness of their commenceup venture and the contrast to laboring for a big studio. For the first time in their atsofts, the trio have the authority to set the company’s agfinisha. Maverix has begined a number of products to pique the interest of potential clients, notably the Media Identity Graph (aka MIDG) that supplys a daily see at what people are buying, and why.
“Collaboration and empowerment are the cornerstones of our philosophy,” Marinaccio shelp. “Maverix Insights nurtures a community combined by a splitd vision of driving likeable alter and creating a lasting impact.”
Huszarik has studied business activity and outcomes for more than 30 years. The process of arrangeting her entrepreneurial flag to begin and rev up Maverix to seek out clients has been gratifying and daunting, she shelp. The company has six engageees to date. The three principles so far labor farly out in branch offent states, with Huszarik guideing the indict from her home base in Los Olivos outside of Santa Barbara.
“One kind leang is to be able to labor with appreciate-minded partners who want to be there with you,” Huszarik shelp. “You don’t have as much of the politics that you have wilean a big organization becaengage we’re coming together to all produce the business together. So that’s a kind leang.”
Huszarik points to the disturbion that is roiling Hollywood as firm evidence that the industry necessitates insights beyond ratings and box office numbers. The WarnerMedia-Discovery combiner that bcimpolitet the Maverix partners together is but one example of the presdeclareive to do more with less. “There’s such presdeclareive on the bottom lines,” she shelp. “We’re in this position becaengage of that, so it’s kind to be on the other finish.”
(Pictured: Maverix partners Liz Huszarik, Alexia Raven and Kathleen Marinaccio)
