I’m painfully aware that what follows would not stand up to the plain-speaking, no-bull test of the layman – or real person, if you must. But today’s media scene is moving so fast, and embracing so many shifting paradigms, that the chance to take a holistic view should be seized.
It is no accident that we have more clients speaking than in previous years – if they do not understand how media is evolving to improve their businesses, we’re all whistling in the wind.
Many clients are grappling with big issues, while many media owners are battling with reinvention, relevancy and, ultimately, survival. We’re going to hear a lot about big data. We’re also going to hear about how clients are putting consumers at the heart of everything they do.
This year’s chair of Media360, Tracy De Groose, the chief executive of Carat, calls this a "criticaltime and an inflection point in media", sensing that the business is becoming very different to what it once was.
'The chair of Media360, Tracy De Groose, calls this a 'critical time and an inflection point in media'
Thinkbox will launch its eagerly anticipated follow-up to Screen Life: The View From The Sofa research on multiscreening. Having provided strong evidence that connected viewers represent good news for commercial TV, Screen Life: TV In Demand reveals the new ways people watch TV.
The body identifies six core drivers for why we watch TV: for comfort, to unwind, to connect, to experience, to escape and to indulge. "If TV is our daily food, video on demand is a box of chocolates," Thinkbox’s research director, Neil Mortensen, says. "And live TV continues to thrive because man cannot live by VoD alone."
A reminder, perhaps, that sometimes the more things change, the more things stay the same – at least, that’s the view from those with the most to lose.