Xfinity Hangouts — They should’ve called it “Hot Takes”
As a major cable TV provider, Xfinity has access to some of the biggest names in show business. That was the impetus behind the celebrity interview series Xfinity Hangouts, which the entertainment giant posts to both its proprietary platform and YouTube, along with snippets on social media. Originally, interviews were conducted face-to-face on a set, creating a cozy and spontaneous vibe. Since COVID, however, production shifted to a webcam format, and while this works fine, Hangouts no longer looks or feels different from other celeb content, and it doesn’t represent Xfinity’s brand in any meaningful way.
We were tasked with reimagining Hangouts while still utilizing the existing webcam format — with the specific goal of generating greater engagement on social media. Additionally, the client requested the interviews laddered back to Xfinity’s “What to Watch” initiative where possible, using star interviews to help guide customers to their next TV obsessions.
It was a challenging project, as celebs can be anybody from A-listers to lesser-known actors or personalities, as well as producers, directors, musicians, sports broadcasters and WWE wrestlers. Interviews could also be conducted with two or more stars at a time, so you can’t rely on any gimmicks that are intended for solo participants. Other constraints include time, with most interviews maxing out at five minutes (you wouldn’t have a moment to spare explaining the rules of any games you might want to play, for example) as well as the willingness of the interview subjects to engage in conversation not directly tied to the project they’re currently promoting. Finally, they wanted to ensure that interviewers were no longer focal points of the episodes, so many ideas were concepted in a manner the questioner could be edited out in post-production. Oh yeah, and remember, the whole thing is via Zoom.
We presented in two rounds, with the first set of ideas pushing the boundaries of what is possible in this format.
Round 1
(Art direction by Josh Lane)
Watch Party — We were envisioning something along the lines of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Ridiculousness or even the video scenes in Beavis & Butt-Head. People just reacting to what they’re watching and saying hilarious things. In the end, viewers would be provided the watchlist based on what was discussed in the episode.
Buried Treasures — Somebody in the brainstorming process had the idea of sending some kind of kit that celebs could interact with. There were obvious issues with this approach, namely logistics (since it’s remote, how do we know where interview subjects will be at the time of the shoot), cost and whatever’s inside needing to be a quick get. Josh and I arrived at memorabilia, as there’s no set event that needs to happen when a person sees an item that allows them to reminisce.
Round 2
Predictably, the client found our first set of executions unworkable. (Predictably, because this was a concern our team voiced in numerous meetings.) We needed to stick to something that would work comfortably within the confines of the existing webcam format. In some cases, there were also concerns as to whether the concept felt “ownable” by Xfinity, and the client had issues envisioning how conversations would play out — so for Round 2, we addressed these issues with additional tactical details and made-up interviews.
Essential Viewing — The client thought “What to Watch” was missing from previous executions, so here we went all in on celebs providing customers with watchlist suggestions. What’s not represented here is we could also stitch together responses across multiple interviews where, for example, multiple stars could give their favorites for holidays, genres and more, all in the same video.
Unrehearsed — This entire idea was built on a simple premise: people can’t get enough of debates. The entire goal here is to blow up the internet because big stars delivered funny or controversial opinions, which is a thing that happens all the time. We’re just building an environment that creates more of those types of responses.
The original title for this concept was Hot Takes, but we couldn’t get buy-in from the project CDs, while strategy felt the name was too close to “Hot Ones,” one of the interview shows that was referenced during the project’s kickoff. The idea really wasn’t the same at all, though, and as you can from the emojis, Xfinity really could’ve owned this common phrase.
As of this posting, Xfinity is still searching for their big idea to refresh Hangouts. Our concepting team feels strongly that it’s right here.
