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 7 Apr 2006
In the past, I have written about the emergence of lifestyle media - the combination of a personalised media experience with a social context for participation - as a consequence of convergence. What were previously the 'ends' (content, channels or devices) of media and advertising business models are now the means for empowering consumers to organise productive, leisure and social time around converged media experiences.
In an era of virtually unlimited content choices competing for limited time and attention, lifestyle media allows for beneficial interaction between consumers, content owners, service providers and networks. This presents many opportunities for the industry to create new revenue streams, but the question remains as to how content owners, advertising agencies and media measurement companies should react. The initial key will be for content owners to understand and serve the lifestyle media needs of the consumer. This will mean that knowledge as to consumer activity, rather than exclusive ownership of the content or distribution assets, will become the basis for competition. It is important to develop strategies to own or facilitate social networks in order to gather and analyse consumer activity information.
Content owners will also need to invest in the reconceptualising of content design in order to take advantage of improved interactivity as well as the ability to test new concepts with audiences. At the same time, they will need to identify markets where existing brands and content assets can create a sustainable competitive advantage and in so doing capture and own consumer activity information.
Nevertheless, perhaps the most pressing but also the most emotional requirement for content owners is to assess the readiness of their organisations for the converged future. That means good-bye to the silos - for example, those serving different outlets (TV, mobile, PC). Developing practices in understanding, measuring and serving the consumer via direct relationships should be reconsidered and strengthened.
As more content is digitised and delivered over open IP platforms, so the risk of content piracy increases. Content owners will need to understand technology solutions and controls to manage the risk and rewards associated with assigning rights and collecting revenue from business models. This will also extend to content security policies.
Advertising agencies will need to think about the above recommendations. Specifically, they must consider investing in technologies and processes that will help understand the effectiveness of advertising and marketing in all channels. This means taking the lead in the creation of new viewing experiences that provide advertising opportunities beyond the traditional 30-second slot; developing and leveraging network communities in order to facilitate the gathering of data that will augment the surveys and focus groups that are currently relied upon; and providing assistance to content owners with sub-brand development.
I would recommend that measurement companies take the first-mover advantage by defining new measurements for the social networks described earlier - not just simple media consumption - collaborating to provide cross-platform measures and create a complete view of video consumption as it expands to non-TV devices. In short, the revolution has just begun.
This article is also featured in the 7 April 2006 edition of Media Magazine.
** This article was written by Marcel Fenez, Partner and Asia-Pacific leader for entertainment and media practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. |
