Young Pros Spotlight
Efe Akbulut
Age: 26
What is your current title? Manager, Analytics at BBC Studios
When did you join the ARF Young Pros? 2019
What is your proudest professional achievement?
The Recording Academy honored my business innovation pitch idea aimed to solve the increasing market competition among U.S. music festivals with a nomination for a national contest they held last year. But if you are asking for something more current, I can’t say I am calm nowadays as I prepare to speak on a panel in Digital Hollywood this May in LA.
What is your biggest professional challenge?
Combining my creative writing skills with my industrial engineering background in the correct way. Sometimes I find myself fighting with myself about how creative or data-driven my reports should be. One day I’ll feel like a math-lover who always took high level probability and engineering statistics classes in school. Another day, I’ll write my reports like a movie script writer with high-level emotions. So, I challenge myself to not give up either of my sides and turn things into the best of both worlds, finding magical ideas with logical strategies.
What’s an example of a company/brand that you think is doing a great job?
My current team, BritBox! It is a streaming service developed by BBC Studios and ITV aimed at serving top British content to North America such as Doctor Who, Vera and Midsomer Murders. In two years, BritBox has more than half a million subscribers! We have double digit WOW % growth. This is such a rare scenario in today’s SVOD market. I have seen companies get happy when they get one digit month over month growth before. This great performance was the reason why I was so excitedly nervous when BBC Studios offered me a position as head of the BritBox data department last year.
What is your favorite show/program?
Friends – my dream report to analyze is looking at daily watching rituals of Friends watchers. Personally, I am obsessed with audience watching behaviors. I wonder when they watch, how they watch, what are they doing while they are watching, do they start watching it before bed, or on Saturday nights as a background noise during a house party. I believe that companies should figure out their audience’s daily rituals so they can find a piece of people’s daily life to put their content among all the competitors in the SVOD market.
What is your favorite restaurant in your city?
Bryant Park Grill – that’s my parents’ favorite, so it’s mine, too.
What’s your dream job? (If money was no object, what would you do?)
Exactly what I am doing right now – maybe in a more complex way!
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