Latest / Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling / How Disney Is Trying to Build Its Next Franchise From Scratch

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How Disney Is Trying to Build Its Next Franchise From Scratch · Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling

• 0:00
  I want you to picture this. You are walking into your local
• 0:05
  movie theater on a Friday night, right?
• 0:06
  How's. Your popcorn ready?
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  Exactly. You've got your popcorn, maybe
• 0:10
  you're widely overpriced soda, and you're strolling down that
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  long kind of neon lit hallway toward your auditorium.
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  The. Classic theater carpet.
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  The carpet, yes. And you casually glance at the
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  massive glowing posters lined up on the walls and like, what do
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  you actually see? Sequels.
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  Lots of sequels. Endless sequels.
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  You see a massive #2 you see a number 4.
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  You see a colon followed by a subtitle that starts with the
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  return of or Part 3, right? Or you see a superhero you've
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  known literally since you were wearing light up sneakers in
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  elementary school getting rebooted for like the fifth time
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  with a completely new actor. It's just a sea of familiar
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  faces it really. It is we live in this
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  entertainment ecosystem that is just completely overwhelmingly
• 0:55
  dominated by the known commodity.
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  You know, sequels, spin offs, prequels, cinematic universes,
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  established intellectual property.
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  It's all about established IP right now.
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  Exactly. So keeping that landscape in
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  mind, I want you to imagine the sheer terrifying challenge of
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  standing up in a boardroom at a major studio today and saying I
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  want to launch a completely original fantasy world.
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  Oh wow. No one has ever heard of it.
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  There are no best selling books. There is no multigenerational
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  nostalgia. We are starting from absolute 0.
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  I mean, that is a terrifying proposition.
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  It is. It's the ultimate high wire act
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  in modern Hollywood, frankly, and it is where careers are
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  either totally made or completely destroyed.
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  Yeah, I can imagine. Because the safety Nets that
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  studio executives have relied on for the past two decades.
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  You know, the built in fan bases Reddit forms that already
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  exists. The multi generational nostalgia
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  where parents take their kids to see the characters they grew up.
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  With right, like passing the torch.
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  Exactly all of that is completely gone when you pitch
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  an original idea. You aren't just asking an
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  audience to buy a $15 ticket, you're asking them to care about
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  a universe, a magic system, and a cast of characters that
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  frankly didn't exist in their minds 5 minutes ago.
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  Which is exactly why we're doing something a little different
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  today. Welcome to our deep dive today.
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  Consider this a peek behind the curtain of the entertainment
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  industry. It's.
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  Going to be a fun one. Oh, totally.
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  We're specifically focusing on that fascinating intersection of
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  data marketing and world building.
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  We are taking you right into the heart of that terrifying
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  boardroom to see how a mega studio actually mitigates that
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  massive risk. Yeah, how they use the numbers.
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  Right. Our source material today is
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  this highly confidential style consultancy report.
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  It comes to us from a group called Brighter Path and it
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  specifically uses data and insights authored by their lead
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  consultant Chris Colombo. And this is dated June 2026,
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  just to give you a timeline. Yep, June 2026.
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  The title of this dense, frankly fascinating document is Hexed
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  Strategic Franchise Assessment and Audience Formation Analysis.
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  It's a mouthful. It really is, but basically it
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  is a granular, deeply data-driven breakdown of the
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  very first trailer for Disney Animations Brand new original
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  IP, which is called Hexed. And we really need to set the
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  parameters for you right out of the gate about what this
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  document is and, perhaps more importantly, what it isn't.
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  Good point. Because this is not a film
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  critique. We aren't sitting here debating
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  whether the jokes in the two-minute trailer land or, you
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  know, if the animation style is is pushing boundaries.
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  Or if the voice acting is good. Right.
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  We're not talking about Oscar worthy performances here.
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  This is a strategic franchise assessment.
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  We are looking at cold, hard quantitative data.
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  We're looking at audience formation metrics.
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  The math behind the magic. Exactly.
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  This document reveals how a massive corporation utilizes
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  incredibly complex analytics to literally engineer the
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  architecture of a billion dollar franchise from the ground up
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  months before the movie is even finished.
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  OK, let's unpack this because getting a peek behind the
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  curtain of Hollywood marketing at this granular level is it's
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  incredibly rare. Usually we only experience the
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  finished product. Right, yeah, You just see it on
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  your phone and react. Exactly.
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  We scroll past the trailer on our feed, we decide if we like
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  the vibe and we just move on with our day.
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  We don't see the math, but Chris Colombo and the Braider Path
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  team, they treat this trailer like a piece of highly
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  calibrated multi $1,000,000 machinery.
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  They absolutely do. And the very first thing they do
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  in this document is establish the brutal uphill battle that
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  Hexed is facing. They explicitly contrast Hexed
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  against the studio's really heavy hitters, like the report
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  repeatedly brings up Frozen Moana, Zootopia 2, Toy Story 5.
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  Right, the juggernauts. Yeah, and the Marana live action
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  film in Frozen 3. In the contrast they're drawing
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  there revolves around 1 central corporate concept, which is
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  franchise equity. Franchise equity, right?
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  Those established properties have massive, undeniable equity.
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  Like when a new Toy Story movie is announced, the studio doesn't
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  have to spend a dime explaining who Woody and Buzz are.
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  Everyone already knows. Everyone knows.
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  Hexed, on the other hand, enters the market with 0 pre-existing
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  audience familiarity, 0 character affinity, 0 nostalgia,
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  and, crucially from a business perspective, 0 proven consumer
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  products demand. Right.
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  No one is searching Amazon for a hex toy because the concept of a
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  hex toy literally does not exist yet.
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  Exactly. It's like entering the Super
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  Bowl, but you have to explain the rules of football to the
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  audience while the first quarter is happening.
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  That's a great way to put it. And because of this total lack
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  of familiarity, Brighterpath states that the traditional
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  marketing playbook has to be completely thrown out the
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  window. Like you cannot just drop a
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  poster with a cool tagline and a release date and expect a
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  massive opening weekend. Oh, you'd be burning millions of
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  dollars. Instead, the report outlines a
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  very specific campaign sequence funnel that Disney has to
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  carefully navigate. Oh, funnel, right?
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  Think of this funnel as a psychological pathway that they
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  have to walk the consumer down step by step without rushing
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  them. It starts at the top of the
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  awareness. OK, awareness.
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  Then, if successful, it narrows into curiosity.
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  From curiosity, you attempt to build character attachment.
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  Once you secure attachment, you push for emotional ownership.
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  This is a long process. It is, and only after all of
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  those psychological hurdles are cleared do you finally aim for
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  theatrical intent, which is the actual desire to get off the
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  couch and buy a ticket. And then the very bottom of the
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  funnel, the ultimate goal? Consumer products adoption and
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  broad franchise expansion. OK, so I was staring at that
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  sequence. Awareness, curiosity,
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  attachment, ownership, intent, and I think I have a way to make
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  this really relatable. Oh, I'd love to hear it.
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  Think about sequel marketing. Marketing Zootopia 2 or Frozen 3
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  is basically like reuniting with an old best friend you haven't
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  seen in a few years. When you meet up for coffee, you
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  don't introduce yourself, you don't explain your back story or
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  your basic personality traits, you skip all the small talk and
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  you just dive right into the new stuff.
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  What have you been up to? Right, you get right to the
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  drama. Exactly, that's a sequel
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  trailer. It just says Elsa and Anna are
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  back and here is the new crazy obstacle they have to overcome.
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  Because the heavy lifting of building the relationship was
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  done a decade ago. The sequel trailer and relies
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  entirely on a pre-existing shorthand of emotion.
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  Wait, actually it goes deeper than that.
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  It's not just shorthand. It's a guaranteed emotional
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  return on investment. But marketing an original IP
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  like Hexed, that is like going on a blind first date.
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  You cannot walk up to a stranger at a bar on a first date and say
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  hey, want to move in together? Open a joint checking account
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  and buy a golden retriever. Terribly.
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  Right. In this corporate funnel, that
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  would be the equivalent of demanding emotional ownership
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  and consumer products adoption immediately.
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  You would absolutely terrify them.
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  You really would. You have to start with basic
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  awareness. Hi, I exist.
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  Then you move to curiosity. Oh, you have an interesting job.
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  You have to slowly, meticulously build that character attachment
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  before you can even dream of asking them to commit their
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  Friday night and 20 bucks to you.
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  That's spot on. And if you view this campaign
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  through the lens of that first date, it completely changes how
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  you evaluate the success or failure of this initial trailer.
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  How so? Well, the Brighter Path report
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  explicitly points out that this specific trailer exists
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  primarily within just the first two stages of that massive
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  funnel awareness and curiosity. That's it, just the first two.
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  Just the first two, yeah. So if the goal isn't to get you
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  to buy a ticket immediately, if we aren't asking you to move in
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  with us on the first date, then how do we define what this
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  trailer is actually supposed to achieve?
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  Right. Which transitions us directly
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  into the trailer's hidden objectives.
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  And I have to admit, reading this section of the report broke
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  my brain a little bit. Oh, it's wow.
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  Because when you sit down and watch a trailer, you inherently
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  assume you know what it's trying to do, right?
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  It's trying to summarize the movie.
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  That's the logical assumption. But Chris Colombo's team details
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  4 very specific, highly targeted primary goals for the Hexed
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  trailer. Number one, introduce the
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  protagonist #2, establish the core transformation premise #3
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  expand the visual scope into a larger fantasy world and #4
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  create curiosity around the future mythology of that world.
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  What's fascinating here is what is entirely deliberately absent
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  from that list of corporate goals.
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  Yes, Did you notice what wasn't there?
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  According to the report, the trailer intentionally spends
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  virtually zero time explaining the actual plot mechanics of the
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  film and it completely ignores the villains motivations.
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  Which is insane. Let the sheer risk of that sink
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  in. A major studio is launching a
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  massive hundreds of millions of Caller's original fantasy epic,
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  and they are deliberately choosing not to tell the
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  audience what the story is actually about or who the
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  central antagonist is. OK, I am going to push back on
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  this strategy because my initial reaction to reading that was
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  just pure skepticism. Sure.
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  Isn't the fundamental undeniable point of a movie trailer to
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  communicate the narrative like you need a protagonist, you need
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  an antagonist, and you need a central conflict.
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  That is storytelling 101. If I am watching this trailer
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  and I don't know what the conflict is.
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  If I don't know what the main character is trying to achieve
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  or who is trying to stop, why on earth would I care?
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  Isn't incredibly risky to just hide the plot?
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  It feels completely counterintuitive.
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  I agree. It feels like they are violating
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  the foundational rules of narrative marketing, but this is
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  exactly where Chris Colombo's data comes in and completely
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  overrides our traditional gut level assumptions.
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  OK, what does the data say? The report states this very
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  clearly. The campaign prioritizes
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  audience onboarding over narrative explanation.
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  Onboarding over explanation you. Need to separate those two
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  concepts? Narrative explanation is telling
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  you the plot. Audience onboarding is
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  acclimatizing your brain to a new environment in the context
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  of a completely unknown intellectual property.
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  If you throw complex plot mechanics, nuanced villain
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  motivations, and intricate magical rules at an audience in
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  a 2 minute window, you don't engage them, you overwhelm them.
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  You give them cognitive fatigue. We're giving them too much
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  homework. Exactly, you're asking them to
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  memorize a syllabus before they've even decided if they
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  want to take the class. Take a great point.
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  The data shows that the strongest positive signals from
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  test audiences are entirely focused on the aesthetics of the
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  fantasy world and the central visual hook of the
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  transformation mythology. Just the visual.
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  The audience is reacting to the vibe, the visual setting and the
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  concept of the magic conflict and villains.
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  The report notes that those elements are standard narrative
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  drivers that are strategically reserved for later campaign
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  phases. Right now, in phase one, it's
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  about establishing the architectural foundation of the
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  franchise. You have to convince the
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  audience that this is a world they simply want to exist in
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  before you bother explaining what is going wrong within that
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  world. I see.
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  So it's not a summary, it's an invitation.
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  It's literally just opening the front door and letting you look
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  at the foyer. Yes, perfect analogy.
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  But how do they know this onboarding overexplanation
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  strategy is actually working? Like how does a consultancy
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  measure an invitation? With a lot of data.
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  Right, Which brings us to one of the most technical parts of the
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  report. Brighter Path doesn't just look
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  at YouTube likes or comments, they analyze how the trailer
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  orchestrates the viewers emotions second by second.
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  It's incredible. They map out this deliberate
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  emotional progression, basically treating the trailer like a
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  Symphony. And it's a very specific eight
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  step escalation. The psychological precision they
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  apply here is really quite staggering.
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  They aren't just surveying people afterward and saying,
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  hey, do you think it was cool? They are tracking the specific
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  emotional cadence as the two minutes unfold.
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  I want to walk you through this eight step aggression because
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  honestly, the next time you watch a big budget trailer, you
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  are going to physically feel this manipulation happening to
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  you. You really will.
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  Once you see it, you can't Unsee it.
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  So it starts with curiosity, just an opening image that asks
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  a question. Then it quickly moves to
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  relatability, grounding the protagonist in a human emotion
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  you recognize. Right from there it introduces
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  anxiety, a spike in tension. Then suddenly it pivots to
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  wonder, a sweeping visual reveal.
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  The big money shot? Exactly after wonder comes
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  discovery. Learning a rule of the world.
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  Discovery Ramps Up into adventuresome kinetic action
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  adventure inevitably introduces threat danger to the
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  protagonist, and finally the trailer crescendos into
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  empowerment, the protagonist standing tall, usually
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  accompanied by a massive musical swell.
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  Boom 8 distinct, engineered, emotional.
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  Beats. It's crazy.
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  And within that very carefully constructed emotional
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  rollercoaster, the Brighter Path team isolated A crucial data
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  point that dictates their entire strategy.
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  What's that? They found that the strongest
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  engagement moments, like the exact timestamps where the
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  audience is most psychologically locked in, do not happen when
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  the protagonist is dealing with her specific localized problem.
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  Interesting. The engagement spikes occur when
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  the trailer expands beyond the protagonist and introduces the
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  broader fantasy ecosystem. So when the camera literally
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  pulls back to show the landscape.
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  Precisely when the scope widens, when the audience realizes this
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  isn't just an isolated story about one person in one room,
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  but a massive, living, breathing, interconnected
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  ecosystem, that realization is what spikes the data.
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  OK, but I want to challenge the long term implication of that
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  though before it. If audiences are responding to
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  the sheer scale of the background rather than the
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  character's immediate personal problem, doesn't that mean the
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  character is weak? Like why is the background more
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  important than the hero? Well, if we connect this to the
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  bigger picture of how mega franchises operate, the world
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  actually has to be bigger than the hero.
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  Yes, this is the Holy Grail for Disney.
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  Think about it. If your audience only cares
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  about the immediate localized plot, let's say a detective
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  trying to defuse a bomb. Once the bomb is diffused and
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  the credits roll, the relationship with the audience
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  is effectively over. The narrative is consumed.
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  You're done. But if the audience falls in
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  love with the scale of the world itself, it indicates the
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  potential for infinite repeat engagement.
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  It means the intellectual property can hold more than just
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  one specific story. Oh, I see where you're going.
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  The world can hold spin offs, it can hold completely different
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  video games, it can hold massive immersive theme park lands.
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  You aren't just selling a 2 hour narrative, you are selling a
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  permanent destination. That makes total sense.
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  I want you to think about your own favorite movie trailers
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  right now, the ones you watched over and over again on your
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  phone. We all have a few.
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  Did they hook you because you were fascinated by the intricate
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  details of the plot? Or did they hook you by making
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  you desperately want to step through the screen and live in
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  that environment? Usually the latter.
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  For me, I think about the very first time I saw a trailer for
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  The Lord of the Rings, or even the first Avatar.
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  I didn't fully grasp the geopolitical nuances or the
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  granular plot points, but I knew viscerally that I wanted to step
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  onto that grass. Yeah, exactly.
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  I wanted to see those trees. That destination appeal is
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  exactly what Hecht is trying to trigger with this emotional
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  escalation. And generating that visceral
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  emotional engagement is vital. It's the necessary spark.
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  But a multibillion dollar corporation like Disney doesn't
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  green light sequels and build theme park rides based on sparks
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  and good vibes. They need cold, hard numbers.
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  They need to quantify those nebulous human feelings.
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  They need a way to translate wonder and discovery into hard
• 16:53
  mathematical data that can justify a multi $100 million
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  board decision. Which brings us to the absolute
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  meat of the Brighter Path report, the data deep dive.
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  The numbers. How does Chris Colombo's team
• 17:06
  actually quantify something as abstract as franchise potential?
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  Well, they have developed a suite of proprietary metrics and
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  we're going to go through them because they reveal exactly how
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  Hollywood views us as consumers. It's pretty eye opening.
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  Let's start with the CRI, the Cultural Resonance Index.
• 17:22
  Right, so the Cultural Resonance Index is essentially designed to
• 17:25
  measure the extent to which a property aligns with
• 17:27
  contemporary audience interests, societal themes, and current
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  emotional identities. It asks, does this story
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  naturally tap into what society is collectively feeling right
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  now? Hecht scored a 7.8 out of 10 on
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  the CRI. Which in academic terms is like
• 17:43
  a solid C plus, maybe B minus. But how do they actually measure
• 17:47
  that? Are they just reading Twitter?
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  Well, while the report doesn't reveal their exact proprietary
• 17:52
  algorithm, consultancies typically measure this by
• 17:54
  mapping the thematic keywords of the film, in this case self
• 17:58
  discovery, transformation, and finding where you belong against
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  macro cultural data. So big data sets.
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  Exactly. They look at search trends,
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  social media sentiment and sociological polling.
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  The report notes that Hecht performs well precisely because
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  themes of self discovery and belonging are highly potent
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  universal desires right now. Right, Everyone wants to feel
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  like they belong. However, the score is capped at
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  7.8 because it hasn't demonstrated broader organic
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  cultural adoption yet. The test audiences relate to it,
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  but it hasn't pierced the larger cultural zeitgeist.
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  People aren't using hexed references in their daily lives
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  yet. Which makes perfect sense for a
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  property that hasn't been released.
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  You can't resonate with a culture that literally doesn't
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  know you exist. Exactly.
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  OK, moving on, we have the MVP, the meme velocity potential.
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  This is one of the most modern and critical metrics they track.
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  And it scored a 6.8 out of 10. The meme velocity potential
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  measures the statistical likelihood that characters,
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  specific visual frames, or moments from the trailer will
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  organically become shareable Internet content.
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  Like, are teenagers going to make TikTok transitions out of
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  this magic system? Are office workers going to use
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  GIFs of the main character to react to their bosses and Slack
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  channels? And a 6.8 is is middling.
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  The report specifically notes that the visual effects
• 19:16
  surrounding the core transformation concept offer
• 19:19
  decent opportunities for short form video creators, but there
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  is no obvious, undeniable breakout meme moment in the
• 19:26
  trailer. It's not going totally viral.
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  It's warm, but it isn't Catching Fire.
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  But wait, why does a studio like Disney care about memes?
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  Shouldn't they care about ticket sales?
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  Because in today's digital marketing ecosystem, organic
• 19:38
  social sharing is infinitely more valuable and cheaper than
• 19:42
  paid need advertising. If your trailer has a high mean
• 19:45
  velocity potential, the audience does the marketing for you.
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  They remix it, they share it, they embedded into their own
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  digital identities. A low MVP means the studio has
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  to spend 10s of millions of dollars artificially pushing the
• 19:58
  trailer into people's feeds. Rather than the culture pulling
• 20:01
  it in naturally. So 6.8 means Disney is going to
• 20:04
  have to open their wallet a bit wider to get this scene.
• 20:07
  Pretty much. Next up is the Nas, the
• 20:09
  narrative Adoption score, which came in at a 7.4 out of 10.
• 20:14
  The report defines this as a measurement of how quickly and
• 20:16
  accurately audiences understand and retain the core premise
• 20:20
  after one viewing. And Brighter Path concludes that
• 20:22
  the central transformation storyline is clear to the
• 20:24
  audience, hence the solid 7.4. But the broader mythology
• 20:28
  remains intentionally ambiguous. OK, the audience understands the
• 20:32
  basic mechanical hook, but the deep lore is still a mystery.
• 20:36
  But wait, doesn't that directly contradict what we just talked
• 20:38
  about? You told me they're prioritizing
• 20:41
  onboarding over narrative explanation.
• 20:44
  If they are intentionally hiding the plot, shouldn't the
• 20:47
  narrative adoption score be incredibly low?
• 20:50
  Not necessarily, because premise and plot are two different
• 20:53
  things. OK, break that down.
• 20:54
  The premise is the concept a girl discovers she can
• 20:58
  transform. The plot is a girl must use her
• 21:02
  transformation powers to stop an evil wizard from stealing the
• 21:05
  kingdom's crystal. Ah, right.
• 21:07
  The 7.4 indicates that the audience perfectly grasped the
• 21:11
  premise, the concept of the transformation.
• 21:13
  They adopted the rules of the magic.
• 21:15
  They don't need to know the plot to adopt the premise.
• 21:18
  That is a very fine but crucial distinction.
• 21:21
  OK, now here is where the numbers start to aggressively
• 21:23
  jump up the Ajs, the Audience Jumpstart score.
• 21:27
  This metric hit an 8.2 out of 10.
• 21:29
  That's a great number. This is one of the strongest
• 21:31
  metrics on the entire board. The Audience Jumpstart score
• 21:34
  specifically isolates the trailer's effectiveness in
• 21:37
  onboarding audiences who are completely 100% unfamiliar with
• 21:41
  the property. So this is essentially the blind
• 21:43
  date metric. Exactly.
• 21:45
  Can you make a compelling first impression in under 2 minutes?
• 21:50
  An 8.2 is an excellent signal. It indicates that the trailer is
• 21:53
  highly efficient at communicating the basic identity
• 21:56
  of the protagonist and giving the viewer a reason to care
• 21:59
  about her emotional state. OK, but the absolute highest
• 22:01
  score in the entire report is the Wai, the World Adoption
• 22:05
  Index, an 8.6 out of 10. That's massive.
• 22:09
  It is this metric measures the extent to which audiences
• 22:12
  express a desire to explore the physical and magical world
• 22:15
  beyond the boundaries of the central narrative.
• 22:17
  Which perfectly validates the emotional engagement tracking we
• 22:20
  discussed earlier. The world of Hecht is sticky.
• 22:23
  When focus groups are asked what they liked, they're talking
• 22:26
  about the environments, the creatures, the architecture.
• 22:28
  The vibes, the. Vibes.
• 22:30
  The audience perceives this universe as being significantly
• 22:33
  larger than just the initial story being teased.
• 22:35
  It is an ecosystem capable of supporting future expansion.
• 22:39
  And if you are a Disney executive sweating in a
• 22:42
  boardroom staring at this report, that 8.6 World Adoption
• 22:46
  Index is the number that helps you sleep at night.
• 22:49
  That scores the concrete foundation of a franchise.
• 22:52
  Absolutely. OK, so let's summarize the
• 22:54
  board. We have an 8.6 for the world.
• 22:57
  We have an 8.2 for the Jumpstart.
• 22:59
  We have an overall FPI, the Franchise Potential Index,
• 23:03
  sitting at a very healthy 8.1 out of 10, indicating strong
• 23:06
  fundamental architecture. Good so far.
• 23:08
  But there is one score hidden in this deep dive that completely
• 23:12
  derails that optimism. For me, it's the TES, the
• 23:15
  theatrical excitement score. It came in at a 6.5 out of 10
• 23:20
  that is noticeably the lowest score in the entire breakdown.
• 23:23
  So I have to ask, what does this all mean?
• 23:26
  If people love the world and they understand the premise, but
• 23:28
  their immediate quantified motivation to actually go sit in
• 23:31
  the theater and watch the film is only a 6.5, isn't the movie a
• 23:35
  flop waiting to happen? I know it looks bad.
• 23:37
  If people do not urgently want to buy a ticket, hasn't the
• 23:40
  trailer fundamentally failed its most basic job?
• 23:43
  It is the most logical, immediate question to ask when
• 23:47
  you see a 6.5 Next to the theatrical excitement.
• 23:51
  Every alarm bell in your head goes off.
• 23:54
  But if we connect this to the bigger picture and specifically
• 23:56
  loop back to that psychological campaign funnel we established
• 23:59
  at the beginning, Chris Colombo argues that this score is
• 24:02
  actually intentionally low. I'm sorry I have to stop you
• 24:05
  intentionally. A marketing team intentionally
• 24:08
  wants a 6.5 out of 10 for excitement.
• 24:10
  Let me. Because that sounds like a
• 24:12
  consultancy trying to spin bad news to a client so they don't
• 24:15
  get fired. Like, don't worry Disney, nobody
• 24:17
  wants to see the movie. But that's all part of our
• 24:18
  master plan. I understand the skepticism
• 24:20
  totally, but look at the psychology of the funnel.
• 24:24
  They expect a 6.5 and they are strategically comfortable with
• 24:28
  it at this specific chronological moment in the
• 24:30
  campaign. Remember, this is the very first
• 24:34
  trailer for completely original IP released months before the
• 24:38
  premiere. A phase One trailer is not
• 24:40
  designed to be a hard, urgent call to action.
• 24:43
  It is an audience formation exercise.
• 24:45
  It's just the introduction, right?
• 24:47
  If they edited this trailer to aggressively scream at you to
• 24:50
  buy a ticket right now, before you've even developed basic
• 24:53
  character attachment or emotional ownership, it would
• 24:56
  feel incredibly desperate. It would feel unearned.
• 24:58
  It goes back to asking for marriage on the first date.
• 25:01
  Exactly. The 6.5 simply tells the
• 25:03
  analysts the audience is intrigued by the world, but they
• 25:06
  aren't reaching for their wallets yet.
• 25:09
  And according to the data models, that is exactly where a
• 25:12
  consumer is supposed to be at the awareness and curiosity
• 25:15
  stages. Wow.
• 25:16
  That is a massive paradigm shift and how we understand marketing.
• 25:20
  We are so culturally conditioned to think of every single
• 25:22
  commercial or trailer as a pure aggressive sales pitch.
• 25:26
  By now. By now.
• 25:27
  Exactly, but this document frames it more like planting a
• 25:31
  seed and watering it. The metrics show that the soil
• 25:34
  is good. The architectural foundation is
• 25:35
  built, but it forces another question looks at if the
• 25:38
  intellectual property has absolutely 0 history, where is
• 25:42
  this current 6.5 level of interest actually originating
• 25:45
  from? Like how do you mathematically
• 25:47
  measure the hype of an entity that did not exist in the public
• 25:50
  consciousness 30 days ago? That's where it gets really
• 25:53
  granular. Brighter Path doesn't just ask
• 25:55
  how much hype exists, they model where it is coming from.
• 25:59
  They created a deeply granular breakdown of current demand
• 26:02
  formation, assigning specific percentage values to the origin
• 26:06
  points of the audience's interest.
• 26:07
  I love the section of the report.
• 26:09
  It is literally like looking at the nutritional facts label on
• 26:12
  the back of movie hype. It really is.
• 26:14
  OK, let's read the label. Where is the demand for hacks
• 26:16
  coming from right now? The absolute biggest slice of
• 26:19
  the pie? Trailer creative is driving 42%
• 26:22
  of the demand. Next down is the Disney
• 26:25
  animation brand itself at 23% original IP curiosity, just the
• 26:29
  sheer novelty of something new is at 15%.
• 26:32
  World building is driving 10%, character attachment is sitting
• 26:35
  way down at 5%, PR efforts are 2%, music is 2%, and social
• 26:40
  conversation is at a microscopic 1%.
• 26:43
  We really need to unpack the harsh reality of those numbers
• 26:46
  because they paint a very stark, frankly terrifying picture of
• 26:49
  the vulnerability involved in launching new IP.
• 26:52
  Terrifying is the word. Let's look at the Disney
• 26:54
  Animation brand sitting at 23%. That means simply pasting the
• 26:59
  iconic Disney Castle logo at the beginning of the video buys you
• 27:03
  nearly 1/4 of your total audience interest, regardless of
• 27:06
  what the movie actually is. That is the immense power of
• 27:09
  historical brand equity. Really is.
• 27:11
  But the number that I cannot get past is that 42% for trailer
• 27:16
  creative. I just marvel at how much heavy
• 27:18
  lifting the actual video editing has to do.
• 27:21
  Nearly half of the reason any human being cares about this
• 27:23
  movie right now is simply because the two-minute video
• 27:26
  they watched had a good pacing, shiny visual effects, and a
• 27:30
  decent sound mix. And compare that to actual
• 27:32
  character attachment which is sitting at just 5%.
• 27:35
  That's nothing. This is the crux of the original
• 27:37
  IP dilemma. To contextualize this, if Chris
• 27:40
  Colombo were running this exact same demand formation report
• 27:43
  for, say, Frozen 3, character attachment to Elsa and Anna
• 27:47
  would likely be driving 60% or 70% of the initial demand before
• 27:51
  a single frame of trailer footage was even released.
• 27:53
  Because the audience already loves them.
• 27:55
  Exactly. They're deeply invested, but for
• 27:57
  Hexed, nobody loves this new protagonist yet she's a total
• 28:01
  stranger. They just think the visual
• 28:03
  presentation of her trailer is neat.
• 28:05
  The key take away from Brighter Path is that unlike established
• 28:09
  franchises, the vast majority of current demand for Hexed
• 28:13
  originates from campaign execution, the sheer technical
• 28:17
  quality of the trailer rather than franchise equity.
• 28:20
  The hype is entirely manufactured by the marketing
• 28:22
  materials. Yes, not by a deep seated love
• 28:25
  for the story. It perfectly illustrates how
• 28:27
  incredibly fragile this entire endeavor is.
• 28:30
  I mean, if Disney releases a second trailer next month and
• 28:33
  it's slightly poorly edited, or the pacing is sluggish, or the
• 28:36
  jokes fall flat, that 42% could just evaporate overnight.
• 28:40
  Completely vanish. And because character attachment
• 28:42
  is only at 5%, there is no underlying bedrock of love to
• 28:46
  catch the fall. The whole thing collapses.
• 28:49
  So knowing that structural weakness, knowing that character
• 28:51
  attachment is dangerously low at 5%, how does Disney plan to
• 28:55
  artificially build that up before release day?
• 28:57
  It's not going to happen by accident.
• 28:59
  No, it requires the activation of a very specific, highly
• 29:03
  engineered mechanism. And according to the Brighter
• 29:05
  Path analysis, everything moving forward centers entirely on the
• 29:09
  studio's most valuable franchise asset and the core narrative
• 29:13
  mechanic that defines. Her right The protagonist
• 29:15
  herself. The report states unequivocally
• 29:18
  that the teenage protagonist is currently carrying significantly
• 29:21
  more franchise potential than the supporting cast or the
• 29:25
  hidden villain. Typical Disney playbook.
• 29:27
  Exactly. They detail her psychographic
• 29:29
  strengths based on focus groups. She possesses high relatability,
• 29:34
  strong emotional accessibility and striking visual
• 29:37
  distinctiveness. But crucially, to leverage those
• 29:40
  traits, they introduce a corporate concept called the
• 29:43
  transformation fantasy. This is arguably the most
• 29:46
  important strategic insight in the entire Brighter Path
• 29:49
  document, and it is vital that we deeply analyze this idea of
• 29:52
  the transformation engine. Let's do it.
• 29:54
  In the narrative of Hexed, the protagonist clearly undergoes
• 29:57
  some kind of profound, visually striking magical transformation.
• 30:02
  But Chris Colombo and his team do not view this merely as a
• 30:04
  cool plot point in a script. They view the concept of
• 30:07
  transformation as a multi purpose corporate machine.
• 30:10
  It is a mechanic designed to function as multiple distinct
• 30:14
  engines simultaneously. OK, here's where it gets really
• 30:17
  interesting. When I read the phrase
• 30:19
  transformation engine in the report, my mind immediately
• 30:23
  bypassed film terminology and went straight to the tech world.
• 30:26
  OK, how so? I want to offer an analogy to
• 30:28
  clarify this. Think of this central
• 30:31
  transformation concept exactly like the core operating system
• 30:34
  on a smartphone. Oh, I like this.
• 30:36
  Like Apple has iOS, right? That underlying code, that
• 30:39
  single foundational operating system, is what powers your text
• 30:43
  messages, your camera, your complex mobile games, your bank
• 30:46
  apps. It runs everything seamlessly.
• 30:49
  In the business model of Hexed, the transformation fantasy is
• 30:52
  the iOS. It is the operating system.
• 30:54
  That is the brilliant way to frame it because it highlights
• 30:57
  the pure utility of the concept. The report details exactly what
• 31:00
  apps this specific operating system is designed to run first.
• 31:04
  It functions as a story engine. Right, the narrative.
• 31:07
  The literal mechanics of how she transforms and the limitations
• 31:11
  of that power provide the necessary narrative momentum and
• 31:14
  conflict. Second, it acts as a character
• 31:17
  engine. The physical transformation
• 31:20
  serves as a visual metaphor for her internal psychological
• 31:23
  growth and emotional arc. That makes sense.
• 31:26
  But the genius of the engine is how it moves beyond the
• 31:29
  two-dimensional screen. Right.
• 31:30
  Third, it operates as a consumer products engine.
• 31:33
  We will definitely explore the retail implications of that in a
• 31:35
  moment. But yes, it drives physical
• 31:37
  merchandise. 4th it functions as an interactive experience
• 31:41
  engine. Think about the physical spaces
• 31:44
  Disney controls. Theme parks.
• 31:46
  Theme park attractions, virtual reality experiences or video
• 31:50
  games where the user gets to personally simulate that exact
• 31:52
  transformation, and 5th, it serves as a social participation
• 31:56
  engine. The Tik Toks.
• 31:57
  Exactly. It provides children with a
• 31:59
  clear, recognizable visual mechanic to mimic on the
• 32:02
  playground, or gives teenagers a distinct visual hook to recreate
• 32:06
  using filters in TikTok transitions.
• 32:08
  It is the underlying foundational code that powers
• 32:11
  the emotional story, the plastic toys, the viral social media
• 32:16
  trends, and the immersive theme park rides all at the exact same
• 32:20
  time. Like the magical transformation
• 32:22
  isn't just a cool sequence that happens at the end of Act 2.
• 32:25
  The report explicitly states it might ultimately become the
• 32:28
  properties most scalable, profitable franchise asset.
• 32:32
  Yes, it is the singular mechanic.
• 32:34
  They can export into a million different revenue streams.
• 32:37
  Which, fundamentally, is the ultimate goal of corporate
• 32:40
  franchise creation. The theatrical movie itself is
• 32:43
  simply the delivery mechanism designed to install that
• 32:46
  operating system into the culture's consciousness.
• 32:49
  Wow. Speaking of exporting into
• 32:50
  revenue streams, let's talk about how this theoretical
• 32:52
  transformation engine translates into actual, quantifiable
• 32:55
  dollars and cents. The fun part?
• 32:57
  Let's look at the Consumer Products Outlook section of the
• 32:59
  report. Because no studio spends $200
• 33:02
  million on a fantasy epic solely for the love of cinema.
• 33:06
  They need a plan to sell some stuff.
• 33:08
  Oh absolutely. And Brighter Path has modeled
• 33:11
  out the retail potential here very carefully.
• 33:14
  Using historical comps and play pattern analysis.
• 33:17
  They breakdown the consumer product ecosystem into 3
• 33:20
  distinct tiers based primarily on the character's visual
• 33:23
  identity and the utility that all important transformation
• 33:27
  fantasy. OK, let's go through the tiers
• 33:29
  because this explains so much about what we see in the Isles
• 33:32
  of Target Tier one, the highest potential, highest revenue
• 33:36
  driving categories. This includes plush toys,
• 33:39
  fashion dolls and role play costumes.
• 33:41
  Notice the commonality there how physically interactive those
• 33:44
  specific categories are. Right, very hands on.
• 33:47
  Then Tier 2 moves into slightly more passive lifestyle items,
• 33:50
  accessories, school supplies like backpacks, home decor and
• 33:54
  publishing. Which means your standard
• 33:55
  picture books and graphic novels.
• 33:57
  And finally, Tier 3 covers the periphery, high end collectibles
• 34:00
  for adults, stand alone gaming and localized experiences.
• 34:04
  Now we need to pause and remind you, the listener, that Brighter
• 34:06
  Path currently classifieds all of this modeling as having
• 34:09
  merely moderate to strong potential.
• 34:12
  This is theoretical forecasting. It's a model.
• 34:14
  This is not proven retail demand.
• 34:16
  There are absolutely no kids lining up outside a Disney Store
• 34:20
  begging for a hexed backpack right now.
• 34:22
  No, but the underlying psychology of why Tier one?
• 34:26
  The plush, the fashion dolls, the costumes possesses the
• 34:29
  highest financial potential is entirely due to the
• 34:32
  transformation mechanic we just discussed.
• 34:34
  Transformation is an inherently physical act.
• 34:38
  Think about how an industrial toy designer looks at a
• 34:40
  transformation mechanic on screen.
• 34:42
  It is a goldmine. So.
• 34:44
  True. They can design A plush toy that
• 34:46
  you literally turn inside out to reveal a completely different
• 34:50
  magical creature. They can design A fashion doll
• 34:52
  equipped with a mechanical dress that pulls away to reveal combat
• 34:56
  armor, a Halloween costume that allows a child to physically,
• 35:00
  tangibly enact the magical change they witnessed in the
• 35:02
  theater. I want you to think about the
• 35:04
  kids in your own lives, or even go back to your own childhoods.
• 35:07
  What makes a toy truly, obsessively irresistible?
• 35:11
  It's not just that the plastic is molded to look exactly like
• 35:14
  the character on the poster, it's that the toy physically
• 35:17
  allows the child to do what the character does.
• 35:20
  The urge to physically enact a character's defining moment,
• 35:23
  their transformation, is a primal, deeply ingrained
• 35:27
  childhood play pattern. Absolutely.
• 35:29
  That psychological urge is exactly what drives that massive
• 35:32
  tier one costume and doll demand.
• 35:35
  It is the fundamental difference between a static, boring action
• 35:38
  figure that just sits on a shelf and a dynamic toy that actually
• 35:42
  performs the magic trick. And Disney is without question
• 35:45
  the undisputed global master of monetizing that specific active
• 35:50
  play pattern. They've clearly modeled the
• 35:53
  visual development and physical merchandise potential for hexed
• 35:56
  around this specific engine from day one.
• 35:59
  It's not an afterthought. It's a foundational theory of
• 36:01
  consumer behavior. It is an incredibly solid
• 36:03
  theory, but as I was reading through this exhaustive, hyper
• 36:07
  detailed report analyzing the visual merchandise, the
• 36:09
  emotional escalation charts, the meme of potential scoring, there
• 36:12
  was a glaring, massive omission. Oh, it's huge.
• 36:15
  Disney has modeled everything visual and physical.
• 36:19
  But there is one historical, undeniable Disney franchise
• 36:23
  accelerator completely missing from this data set.
• 36:26
  And to their credit, Brighter Path calls it out as a massive
• 36:29
  blind spot. They absolutely do.
• 36:31
  It is the missing magic. The report reveals that the
• 36:34
  Point trailer deliberately does not showcase or even hint at the
• 36:38
  films core music strategy. Not at all.
• 36:40
  There is no signature pop song featured.
• 36:42
  There is no Broadway style. I want song driving the
• 36:46
  emotional escalation. And for a modern Disney
• 36:48
  animation franchise, that is a huge, terrifying blank spot in
• 36:53
  the equation. The report references historical
• 36:56
  examples to drive this point home to the executives.
• 36:58
  Frozen, Encanto. Moana, the trifecta.
• 37:02
  All three of those massive, generational, multibillion
• 37:05
  dollar hits utilize proprietary music as a primary franchise
• 37:09
  accelerator. The songs weren't just nice
• 37:11
  background noise in the movies, they were the vanguard of the
• 37:13
  entire marketing strategy. The music was the virus that
• 37:16
  successfully infected the broader culture.
• 37:18
  Yes, think about Let It Go or We Don't Talk About Bruno or How
• 37:22
  Far I'll Go. Those songs leaped out of the
• 37:25
  physical confines of the movie theaters and aggressively
• 37:28
  infiltrated minivans, elementary school talent shows and Spotify
• 37:32
  playlists everywhere. You couldn't escape them.
• 37:34
  They drove awareness, they forced curiosity, and they
• 37:37
  cemented emotional ownership far faster and vastly deeper than
• 37:42
  any visually impressive trailer ever could.
• 37:45
  It is important to clarify, though, as Chris Colombo does in
• 37:47
  the text, that the total absence of music in this specific first
• 37:51
  trailer isn't necessarily a negative signal about the
• 37:55
  quality of the film. It doesn't definitively mean the
• 37:57
  movie has bad music or no music at all.
• 38:00
  It simply means that this massive, historically proven
• 38:04
  component of Disney's success remains entirely unproven and
• 38:07
  untested. For Hexed at this moment is a
• 38:10
  massive variable left completely blank in their predictive
• 38:13
  equations. It.
• 38:14
  Falls into a section of the report titled Critical Unknowns.
• 38:17
  These are the looming unquantifiable factors that will
• 38:19
  ultimately decide whether Hexed is a massive success or a
• 38:22
  catastrophic write down. The make or break stuff.
• 38:24
  Exactly. The list includes the musical
• 38:26
  identity. It includes character adoption.
• 38:29
  Like will audiences actually tolerate, let alone love the
• 38:32
  protagonist once they are forced to spend 2 full hours with her?
• 38:36
  Family word of mouth is on there too.
• 38:37
  Yep. Villain appeal.
• 38:39
  Remember, they purposely hopefully haven't really shown
• 38:41
  the villain yet, so I have no idea if the antagonist is
• 38:43
  compelling. Sustained social participation
• 38:46
  and finally consumer product pull.
• 38:48
  Will parents actually open their wallets to buy the transforming
• 38:52
  toys? These are the unpredictable
• 38:54
  human variables that separate a movie that performs decently on
• 38:57
  opening weekend but is forgotten a month later from a cultural
• 39:01
  juggernaut that sustains a multi billion dollar corporate
• 39:04
  ecosystem for a decade. I have to ask you to speculate
• 39:08
  on the inherent risk here, because looking at that list of
• 39:10
  critical unknowns, especially the music, I seriously wonder if
• 39:14
  a modern Disney animated franchise can even reach the
• 39:17
  financial stratosphere without a viral Billboard charting song.
• 39:21
  It's a valid question. Let's say Hecht has a rock solid
• 39:24
  script, a great story, and a perfectly engineered visual
• 39:27
  transformation engine, but it doesn't have a We Don't Talk
• 39:31
  About Bruno pop culture moment. Is the financial ceiling capped?
• 39:35
  Can it be a true mega franchise on visuals alone?
• 39:39
  It is the multi $1,000,000 question keeping executives
• 39:42
  awake. History strongly suggests that
• 39:45
  without the pervasive, ubiquitous cultural penetration
• 39:48
  of a hit song, the climb to mega franchise status is
• 39:51
  significantly harder, bordering on impossible for this specific
• 39:56
  demographic. Because a song allows the
• 39:58
  franchise to live continuously in the audience's daily life, in
• 40:02
  the car, during the commute, in the kitchen while making dinner,
• 40:04
  in their air pods at the gym, in a way that visual mythology
• 40:07
  simply cannot replicate. Right, because visuals require
• 40:10
  you to actually look at a screen.
• 40:11
  Exactly, visuals require active attention.
• 40:14
  Music surrounds you passively. If Hexed lacks that auditory
• 40:17
  hook, it's visual and narrative elements, the World Building
• 40:19
  Index and the Transformation Engine will have to work twice
• 40:21
  as hard to maintain any level of cultural relevance between the
• 40:24
  theater release and the Disney Plus drop.
• 40:27
  It exponentially raises the stakes for every single other
• 40:30
  metric they've built. The world has to be flawless if
• 40:33
  the music isn't there to carry it.
• 40:35
  So with all these unknowns hanging in the balance and the
• 40:38
  Phase One audience formation complete, what is the
• 40:41
  consultancy's advice for the next step?
• 40:43
  Like how does Brighter Path tell Disney to proceed with Campaign
• 40:46
  Phase 2? Well, the primary directive for
• 40:48
  Phase 2 is a fundamental shift in the psychological funnel.
• 40:52
  They need to aggressively convert the passive awareness
• 40:55
  and curiosity they've just built into active emotional ownership.
• 40:59
  So the blind date is over. The blind date is officially
• 41:01
  over. Now the studio has to start
• 41:04
  actively proving that this is a narrative relationship worth
• 41:07
  investing time and money into. The report lays out five
• 41:10
  specific actionable priority areas for phase two.
• 41:14
  Number one, strengthening direct emotional attachment to the
• 41:17
  heroine. They have to move that measly 5%
• 41:19
  character attachment number up quickly.
• 41:21
  Oh, absolutely. #2 revealing the film's musical identity.
• 41:26
  They know they can't hide it forever.
• 41:28
  They have to show their hand #3 clarifying the narrative stakes.
• 41:32
  This is where the onboarding ends and they finally have to
• 41:35
  tell the audience what the actual plot is and introduce the
• 41:38
  threat of the villain. Right.
• 41:39
  Bring in the conflict. #4 expanding the mythology further
• 41:44
  and #5 beginning character LED licensing activation.
• 41:48
  We should define that last term Character LED licensing
• 41:52
  activation, because it sounds like corporate jargon, but it's
• 41:55
  highly visible in the real world.
• 41:57
  What does that actually look like?
• 41:59
  This means moving beyond on just movie posters and starting to
• 42:02
  deploy the intellectual property into retail partnerships.
• 42:06
  It means getting the characters on the cereal boxes.
• 42:08
  It means initiating the McDonald's Happy Meal toy
• 42:11
  campaigns. It means giving the public their
• 42:13
  very first glimpse of the physical merchandise.
• 42:16
  We discussed officially transitioning the IP from a
• 42:19
  concept into a tangible product. It's the moment the movie
• 42:22
  becomes a brand, and that leads directly to Brighter Paths final
• 42:27
  overarching assessment of the situation.
• 42:29
  Their conclusive verdict is that the first trailer is a highly
• 42:33
  successful, mathematically validated audience formation
• 42:36
  exercise. It proves that the foundational
• 42:38
  architecture for a potential franchise is solid, the
• 42:41
  scaffolding is strong, but ultimate billion dollar success
• 42:46
  remains profoundly unknown. They pour the concrete
• 42:48
  foundation. They've surveyed the land, but
• 42:50
  they haven't actually built a house yet.
• 42:52
  Exactly. I mean, taking that a step
• 42:54
  further, they don't even know if anyone actually wants to live in
• 42:57
  the house once it's built. And this raises an important,
• 43:00
  almost philosophical question about the reality of the modern
• 43:02
  entertainment industry. It highlights the immense,
• 43:06
  almost incomprehensible patience, nerve and capital
• 43:10
  required in Hollywood today. The money involved is insane.
• 43:13
  A studio most willingly invest 10s of millions of dollars into
• 43:16
  phase one marketing just to build a scaffolding of an
• 43:19
  audience, gently onboarding them with aesthetic vibes and
• 43:23
  ambiguous world building before they can even start trying to
• 43:27
  sell the actual story stakes in Phase 2.
• 43:30
  The financial runway required just to introduce an original
• 43:33
  idea to the public consciousness is staggering.
• 43:37
  It really puts the endless sea of sequels into perspective,
• 43:39
  doesn't it? When you realize how incredibly
• 43:41
  hard and expensive it is to build the road from scratch, you
• 43:45
  understand why studios just prefer to drive on the highways
• 43:47
  they already paved 20 years ago. It's the safer bet.
• 43:50
  We've covered a massive amount of ground today on this deep
• 43:53
  dive. We've explored the incredibly
• 43:55
  daunting high stakes task of launching original IP in a
• 43:58
  heavily sequel dominated world. We've walked step by step
• 44:02
  through the complex psychological funnel of audience
• 44:04
  formation, from the awkward first state of basic awareness
• 44:08
  all the way to the deep commitment of emotional
• 44:10
  ownership. Quite a journey.
• 44:12
  We decoded the hidden, counterintuitive metrics of
• 44:15
  trailer success, discovering that sometimes a complete lack
• 44:19
  of plot explanation and a low theatrical excitement score are
• 44:23
  actually signs of a perfectly executed, data-driven strategy.
• 44:28
  Who would have thought, right? We unpacked the immense,
• 44:31
  multifaceted power of a transformation engine acting as
• 44:35
  the central operating system for a multi tiered consumer product
• 44:39
  empire. And we looked at the calculated,
• 44:41
  highly engineered game plan required to build a modern mega
• 44:45
  franchise, even when massive critical variables like musical
• 44:48
  identity and villain appeal remain completely unknown.
• 44:51
  It truly is a master class in corporate risk mitigation.
• 44:54
  What we're seeing is a mega studio taking the terrifying,
• 44:58
  inherently unpredictable chaos of human creativity, attempting
• 45:01
  to constrain it within highly predictable, mathematically
• 45:04
  measurable data models. And I want you to remember this
• 45:06
  conversation the next time you are sitting on your couch
• 45:09
  scrolling, or you're sitting in a dark theater and a trailer for
• 45:12
  a brand new original movie comes on.
• 45:14
  I want you to actively look past the explosions and the cool
• 45:18
  visual effects. Look closer.
• 45:20
  Look critically at what they're intentionally not showing you.
• 45:23
  Notice the deliberate emotional escalation beat by beat.
• 45:28
  Notice if they are pushing the scale of the world building over
• 45:30
  the specific details of the plot.
• 45:33
  Because you now know exactly what psychological levers and
• 45:36
  commercial engines the studio is trying to pull.
• 45:38
  You can clearly see the scaffolding behind the magic.
• 45:40
  You are no longer just a passive consumer reacting to the
• 45:43
  marketing. You can actually see the
• 45:45
  machinery at work. Which brings me to a final
• 45:48
  thought I want to leave you with today.
• 45:49
  Something to genuinely chew on after you finish this deep dive.
• 45:53
  We've just spent our time looking closely at how a
• 45:55
  potential franchise's emotional resonance, its visual meme
• 45:59
  potential, its cultural adoption rate, and even its physical toy
• 46:03
  sales are deeply modelled, meticulously quantified, and
• 46:07
  engineered by data consultancies months before any of us even
• 46:10
  know what the actual plot of the movie is.
• 46:12
  Long before. If all of these deeply human
• 46:15
  elements, wonder, discovery, empowerment, attachment are so
• 46:19
  perfectly calibrated and predicted in a corporate
• 46:22
  spreadsheet before the story is even fully sold to us, are we
• 46:25
  actually engaging with art? Or are we simply participating?
• 46:28
  Participating in a perfectly calibrated, mathematically
• 46:30
  optimized product ecosystem designed to extract engagement?
• 46:34
  I want you to Mull that over the next time you were walking down
• 46:37
  that neon lit carpeted movie theater hallway, looking at
• 46:40
  those glowing posters and deciding exactly which world you
• 46:43
  want to buy a ticket to visit.