The interactive industry, as every marketer is aware, still faces uncertainty in the future. Not even the big players are complacent, and many are fretting about what unforeseen developments and new innovations could mean for their businesses.
News Corp. is no exception, confessed Jonathan Miller, chief digital officer, chairman, and CEO of News Corp.'s digital media group. In a wide-ranging Q&A session with ad:tech advisory board chairman Drew Ianni at ad:tech New York, Miller discussed how the free versus paid dynamic, mobile, and the future of display keep him up at night.
Free versus paid
The Wall Street Journal, one of News Corp.'s biggest media properties, made headlines earlier this year by announcing it would start charging for access to its mobile content. Not everyone can charge for content on the web, but those who offer a strong value proposition will have an easier time than others, according to Miller.
"If you look back a few years on the net, there wasn't that much difference between experiences, and you could substitute one for the other," he said. "Now you're seeing a rise in premium experiences. Take Hulu. It can charge a high CPM because it offers a premium experience."
Hulu may be free to consumers, but the experience it offers is unique. Mobile also represents a great opportunity for premium content because of its portability and convenience, and consumers are willing to pay for those two factors. Miller pictures all news content being consumed via mobile devices in the future.
Mobile
Of course, mobile has yet to totally take over in the U.S. for a number of factors. One of the biggest hurdles is that no one has figured out exactly what mobile is, Miller said. It could be an extension of the web, or it could be a new thing unto itself.
"Apps are not in the browser, apps are a mobile thing," Miller said. "I'm in the camp that thinks this may be a new medium, but what does that mean?"
Another hurdle mobile will need to overcome is its U.S.-centric focus right now. For example, mobile has massive penetration in Asian markets such as China and Japan, where consumers can watch live TV on their devices. "Here we talk about mobile as a growing thing," Miller said. "There, it is the thing."
Display
Nearly every industry show has offered a panel bemoaning the "death of display," but the medium is still very much alive, and it holds a very important role in the future of digital, in Miller's opinion. There are three different markets in display: premium, targeted, and long tail. The money -- and opportunity -- lies in premium and targeted advertising.
The industry has shied away from premium display opportunities recently, a reaction to the dismal economy. What the industry needs to do is go after the dollars in premium display opportunities again, Miller said. At the same time, targeted display needs to take a big step forward.
Miller echoed the sentiments of fellow ad:tech keynoter Sir Martin Sorrell and stressed the importance of consumer insight going forward. News Corp. owns the Fox Audience Network, one of the five largest publisher networks, reaching 158 million users, and just announced a partnership with Sorrell's WPP this week to add more audience insight to its display capabilities, hopefully increasing the value of its inventory. Whether or not this will result in an influx of revenue remains to be seen.
"The question is, can you take a huge amount of inventory that is targeted and make it more valuable?" Miller asked. "I think that is going to be the next huge dollar shift."
Audience insight is essentially the key to digital's pending success. In the past, creatives dominated the agency structure, pulling in big clients with flashy meetings and achieving rock star-like status.
"They're the names you know, but 10 meetings later, you meet the actual gremlins who are supposed to buy the media, and they give you the stats," Miller said. "You say, 'Get away with the stats, I want to see the nice pictures.'"
That's all changing now, as the paradigm is flipping, and the so-called "gremlins" are becoming -- or need to become -- the stars of the agency world.
"Media buying and planning has become the fundamental thing that's going to make decisions of what agency to work with," Miller said. "You have to have audience insight to decide what creative to do."
Rich Cherecwich is deputy editor, iMedia Connection.
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