Chris McCarthy, head of Paramount and Yellowstone pusher, said this about streaming services: “I think the misconception was the winners are always going to be the ones with the most amount of content, when in fact the winners are gonna be the ones with the most mass hits. And what breaks through that clutter for most people is franchises.”

A franchise is not the point.

Creating something that resonates with people is.

I think the progression can be summarized like this:

  1. Quantity
  2. Quality
  3. Quaverity

We spend a lot of time in pursuit of more. Get more out of your day. Hustle more. Produce more content on more platforms to reach more people.

That may have worked 50 years ago. But we’re not in the industrial age anymore. The most successful people, teams, and brands don’t win on quantity.

We’ve learned that quality matters. When you google anything, if you’re not on the first page, you’re last. It’s the difference between being a New York Times bestseller and just another writer. In a world of (seemingly) unlimited quantity, quality makes you stand out.

Quality was the formula for success 20 years ago. Then ChatGPT came along. Now, anyone can produce quality. AI killed the information star.

So what’s next?

I think it’s quaverity.

What’s quaverity? It’s a word I made up that comes from quaver. Here’s my definition:

_Quaverity is the set of deep emotions, insights, commonalities, and metanarrative that, taken together, account for a consumer’s experience of content.

If a consumer (whether that’s an individual, a group, or a business) isn’t deeply affected by a product or service, then no quaverity exists for that consumer. _

Quaverity puts a value to how much an experience captures the heart and mind of a consumer.

Today, a franchise is a shadow of quaverity, something that signifies it’s existence. But just as it takes more than a great recording studio to make a hit song, it takes more than sequels and spinoffs to make something into a successful franchise. If it doesn’t move you emotionally, or spark epiphanies, or make your world make a little more sense, then there is no quaverity. At least not for you.

Franchises have quaverity. But so do viral videos. So does Eric Clapton’s Layla. It’s a quality we often ascribe to cult leaders and their followers: bizarre from the outside, but when you’re on the inside it grips you, if you’re the right person.

And here’s the thing: quality isn’t required. B-movies and William Hung have strong followings as well.

If the information age was ruled by quality, then the intelligence age is ruled by quaverity.

If you don’t have quaverity, then no amount of quality or quantity is going to help you.