In the early days of the internet, anything marketers did to promote their brands online was exciting and virtually guaranteed to garner attention due to sheer novelty.
But the honeymoon phase is over, particularly in the entertainment industry. Users' sophistication with interactive media has undoubtedly increased -- in fact, most professionals admit that the public's abilities have far outpaced the industry's own growth in terms of tech adoption, innovation and creativity. And this means it's time for marketers to become more precise in their content development, and more strategic in their use of technological delivery.
On the cusp
So what lies in store for entertainment marketers as they move into the accountability phase of the digital industry? According to Shelly Palmer, managing director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC, we are on the cusp of some ground-shaking moves.
Palmer, who moderated a panel at this week's iMedia Entertainment Marketing Summit on the future of entertainment marketing, started his discussion with a bold statement: "I don't know what the future of entertainment is -- and I'm not sure any of us need to know. Anyone who says they have a long-term answer is either lying or is delusional."
While a definitive solution may currently be out of reach, Palmer outlined two events that will certainly play a large part in the industry's next move forward: television's transition to a digital signal on Feb. 15, 2009 -- which he refers to as the real Y2K -- and the resulting auction of the analog space.
"Within 12 months, we will live in a broadband cloud environment," he said. "Devices won't work how we're used to them working…this fundamentally changes the way we think about getting and sending content."
Preparation can't be siloed
So how can the entertainment industry -- and all industries, for that matter -- prepare for this seismic shift in content consumption and marketer response? Explaining that today's marketers have powerful digital tools at their disposal to gauge audience attention and execute on distribution strategies, Palmer said, "We don't have to guess, we just have to do our data mining, do our data crunching and then act."
So far, Palmer's data crunching has revealed that entertainment is not alone in its challenges, and won't be able to act alone in reaching a solution. Palmer shared a story of being in the purchase funnel for a Bluetooth application for his mobile phone, but he was unable to take action because his state-of-the-art device wasn't compatible with the necessary file formatting.
This disconnect may be key to understanding content usage patterns and the acceptance of content on new platforms. "If consumers are coming from a touchpoint that a brand is not able to deal with, you will lose out to someone that can."
David Wertheimer agreed that the answer to entertainment's digital advancement lies in usability. The executive director of the USC Entertainment Technology Center said during the panel discussion, that consumers are ecstatic that they can consume media anytime, anywhere. "But the opportunity to really reach them lies in providing tools they can easily use to accomplish their goals. Young consumers are driven, creative and increasingly technical. So you either give them what they want and reach them where they are, or they will figure out ways to take it. And you will be left out."
Jim Moloshok, executive chairman of GoFish Corporation, continued in this vein, stating that, "The world is changing, and it's important we change with it, including our careers and what we're focused on."
Moloshok said that since there is no native programming yet to take advantage of the interactive environment, people are using content-rich devices, but they aren't finding an easy, direct path to what they want to view, buy or otherwise interact with. This is a fundamental barrier to anything digital marketers are looking to accomplish.
Rob Schonfeld, VP of interactive media for Disney-ABC Domestic Television, felt that this was an important indicator of potential future growth and success in interactive.
"The real value is in finding a way to grow the buy rate from 2 percent to 5 percent, and the biggest part of accomplishing this is in education; in making it intuitive to buy a movie on iTunes, and move it to the television, seamlessly and simply, which takes cooperation of the entire digital industry," Schonfeld said. "Let's work at growing the entire space; then we can worry about what the [content] will be."
Palmer summarized the consumer issue thusly: "'We we we' is about 'now now now' on the 'thing thing thing' that I own. It's all about what consumers can afford to 'we we we' on," he said.
Moloshok ended the discussion by asserting that it is the media planners', buyers' and sellers' responsibility to decide what will be supported by their infrastructures. "This will be what causes the change. I urge you to be more aggressive internally to push ideas up through the system."
Jodi Harris is managing editor at iMedia Connection.
