Why Netflix Killed Blockbuster (and What It Means for Your Marketing)

Remember Blockbuster?

Those massive stores with endless rows of DVDs, where you would spend 20 minutes wandering around trying to find something decent to watch on a Friday night?

They had everything. Every film ever made. Every TV show. Every documentary about penguins or ancient civilisations you never knew you wanted to see.

Information? They had it in spades.

The thing that always fascinated us about those final Blockbuster years

You could walk into any store and find exactly what you were looking for. The staff knew where everything was. The selection was comprehensive. The information was perfectly organised.

And yet people were already starting to choose Netflix instead.

Even when Netflix only had a fraction of Blockbuster's selection. Even when you had to wait days for DVDs to arrive in the post. Even when their streaming service was basically just old TV shows and films nobody had heard of.

Why would people choose less selection and more inconvenience?

Because Netflix understood something Blockbuster never figured out.

People do not just want access to information

They want the experience of discovering it to be enjoyable.

Netflix made browsing fun. They had those little preview trailers that played automatically. Recommendations that actually made sense. Categories like "Films with Strong Female Leads Who Do Not Need Saving" that made you smile while you scrolled.

Blockbuster treated film selection like a filing system. Netflix treated it like entertainment from the moment you logged in.

And we all know how that story ended.

We think about this whenever we see "informational" content

You know the type. The same posts, over and over:

• "5 Tips for Better Customer Service"
• "The Importance of Regular Maintenance"
• "Why You Should Update Your Software"

All perfectly accurate information. All completely forgettable.

Because here is what most businesses do not realise. Your audience already has access to more information than they could consume in ten lifetimes. They can Google anything they want to know in 0.3 seconds.

What they cannot easily find is information presented in a way that is actually enjoyable to consume.

That is the real competition. Not other businesses in your industry. It is every other piece of content fighting for attention in the feed.

And in that battle, "informative but boring" loses to "entertaining and informative" every single time.

Meet Brian

This is exactly why Brian, our AI Comedy Marketing Assistant, does not just help you share information. He helps you make the experience of consuming that information genuinely enjoyable.

Instead of posting "5 Tips for Better Time Management", Brian might help you create content about the universal experience of making a detailed schedule on Sunday night, then completely ignoring it by Tuesday morning. (We have all been there.)

Same valuable information. Completely different experience.

The result is content people actually want to engage with, instead of scrolling past faster than a Blockbuster late-fee notice.

Try Brian and make your marketing as binge-worthy as your favourite Netflix series.

Unlike Blockbuster, Brian does not charge late fees, will not judge your viewing choices, and is available 24/7 without requiring you to drive anywhere.