Enabling Passion to Thrive - A Reflection on our Journey at Otter Media

A member of the Otter Media family recently hit an incredible milestone. Crunchyroll – the world’s most popular anime brand with the world’s largest anime library – surpassed three million paid subscribers. It took them ten years to acquire one million subscribers, two years after that to break two million, and even less time to reach three – and there is no sign of slowing. 

Against a backdrop of the complex and rapidly changing media landscape, I am genuinely proud of all the Otter brands and companies – past and present – Crunchyroll, VRV, Rooster Teeth, Fullscreen, Hello Sunshine and Gunpowder & Sky, and the incredible journey we have all been on together. Though each has its own story, they each house a deep bench of skilled creators, storytellers and business leaders who are industry trailblazers in entertainment.   

They have been truly at the tip of the spear for how youth consume media – what they want to watch, how they want to watch it and what they are willing to pay for it. 

That matters when you consider that 85% of the earth’s population is under 38 (Millennials and Gen Z), which represents roughly 4B people. It will continue to be vital to have an expertise in this culture and play a role in creating it.

And Crunchyroll does just that. Fourteen years strong and they are not only surviving during one of the most challenging times in modern American history, they are thriving.   

As I reflected a bit on CR’s milestone I was reminded that there is more here. A deeper reason – beyond business acumen and agility – as to why these businesses are thriving in today’s environment. At the center of each business, wrapped in different brands and business models, has always been the permission to be who you are, and to celebrate that with others.  

We’ve watched as the media landscape fragments into an explosion of available options for consumers that strains the outer bounds of consumer attention. Consumers have responded by organizing around fandoms and self-selecting into communities to consume and celebrate what they love. Amidst the pressures added by a pandemic and long-overdue social reckoning, these “small worlds” where people can connect and amplify their voices matter more than ever.

Through its evolution, and long before anime was a ‘thing,’ the people of Crunchyroll understood that at the center of anime and its community is an invitation to be vulnerable, to be brave and to be you. And in this way, Crunchyroll’s orientation toward inclusivity has been a superpower from day one. As it turns out, it was a great business call as well.

When looking at the whole portfolio, it’s obvious that inclusion itself sits at the center of our communities, and in turn, the communities – year in and year out – are what have enabled this resiliency. 

To be sure, the success in execution is a reflection of the fact that each of the humans at these companies is a student of their audience, has an innate passion for their craft and a deep sense of loyalty and devotion for their fans. They are fans serving fans.

And at the heart of it, the founders are the original fans themselves. Crunchyroll’s Kun Gao, Burnie Burns and Matt Hullum from Rooster Teeth, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Harden from Hello Sunshine, George Strompolos of Fullscreen, and Gunpowder and Sky’s Van Toeffler, launched these brands out of their own love of – and insight into – these passionate audiences.  

And we’ve seen that the very sense of inclusion and “identity” associated with these brands is an enduring asset. 

It’s a true source of pride then to look back more than two and a half years ago, amidst a crowd of well-funded but challenged ‘digital’ media companies, as we set a new strategic charter for Otter with a mission to remove obstacles, see around corners, make hard decisions and – above all – enable this passion to thrive.  

It has meant keeping individual cultures intact while nourishing growth by connecting these brands together to build upon one another’s expertise. Shared successes and experiences, as an example, from Rooster Teeth’s annual expo, RTX, helped to positively influence Crunchyroll’s expo model. 

It has meant guiding and directing these assets and its stewards, toward a larger parent to enable aspects of scale. Most recently, both Crunchyroll and Rooster Teeth have teamed up with WarnerMedia’s new streaming platform, HBO Max. Crunchyroll is curating top anime titles for HBO Max each quarter, while Rooster Teeth’s animated mecha sci-fi series gen:Lock was picked up for a second season by the platform.

It has meant challenging the structure of each business – sometimes painfully – to identify areas that were non-core and refocus energy in what was working. After having to make some difficult decisions, our teams navigated through massive change with incredible resiliency and we started to see our renewed sense of clarity pay off. We changed the scorecard from revenue growth to profit and cash flow to build healthy, sustainable businesses. From 2018 to 2020 solid foundations were established leading to highly efficient subscriber and revenue growth. This incredible Crunchyroll milestone is just one of many examples.

And, most importantly, it has meant believing in our people – shaping and supporting their vision, taking chances on young talent to evolve the business, and trusting in their sense for how to serve their communities. By narrowing the focus, we were allowed to invest in what was working and in our people. All while our peers were capturing the headlines. We celebrated not being in them, focusing all our energy on growing our people and serving our communities and partners. 

In ten years, I have no doubt they will have celebrated many new milestones, anchored by these and new communities, and armed with an even deeper understanding having spent the past decade sharpening the skills in building fan passion.

But for now, it’s enough to see them standing prepared, thriving in their own ways during a massively turbulent time, and yes, every once in a while, trumpeting a milestone.