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Netflix started out as a DVD rental business roughly two decades ago.

This past Sunday, the tech company was nominated for 14 Oscars.
They took home four.

Reminder: Netflix has been in original content for a mere six years.

_{(Photo from Mirror)}

Their original film, Roma, was edged out by Green Book for Best Picture.
The loss was likely met with cheers from legacy studio heads and traditional media elite.
But the nomination speaks volumes for Netflix’s surging influence on the industry.
An influence that is only growing by the day.

Roma has Hollywood shaking in its suits.
A foreign black-and-white film, not likely to be greenlit by the major studios.
In theatres for just a few weeks before Netflix made it available for streaming online.
Much shorter than the 90-day exclusive window used by the old guard.

Roma had an A-list director in Alfonso Cuarón.
Putting Netflix’s power to secure Hollywood’s top talent on full display.
He would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Director.

Roma proved what many already knew to be true.
Netflix doesn’t just belong.
Netflix is the future, and it’s completely flipping the entertainment industry on its head.

Like a true challenger, they did it their own way.
The way of the master change agent.

With a direct-to-consumer business model, the user is the customer and the focus.
Not pleasing middlemen distributors or networks.

This model holds them accountable.
Cancelling a subscription is just one-click away.

Netflix knew the where was global.
Netflix knew the when was on-demand.

Netflix knew it was a membership-economy.
Which meant community and creating the right change for the people who care – their customers.

Netflix knew that content was king.
Lots of it.

Netflix knew that technology would bring these engaging stories to their audience.
And they knew the audience was everywhere – in their living rooms, on their laptops, or on their phones.

Netflix understood behavioral science.
Ease beats motivation.
Faster is better.

Netflix knew the power of experience and intervention design.
And revolutionized the way consumers watch television.
Giving them the freedom and control to binge entire seasons or watch at their convenience.

Netflix invented their own advantages.
By moving fast, and experimenting without the constraints of a legacy system.

Netflix is the reason Disney, WarnerMedia, CBS, and almost all of the other traditional media titans are now introducing their own direct-to-consumer business models, which will be costly.

For these Goliaths, the time is now, and the stakes are high.
Each of them will have to grow a new business.
While managing the decline of their traditional business.

But these mega corporations are now playing in a different marketplace.
One in which Netflix is the standard of greatness.

With smart data, savvy marketing, and 139 million strong.
Netflix has more than a head start.
The rest will play catch-up.

That little DVD rental business with nothing but a challenger mindset and an inspiring idea.
Is now both “what works” and “what’s great.”
An iconic brand that is defining an era.

That’s #inspiringaction.