It is an interesting that year after year we are faced with yet another discussion on media’s future, when each year the same things invariably happen. The future of media will always be the same, and I daresay has been the same since the days of Pharaoh Snefru. The future is about embracing whatever new technology exists and having a compelling message to drive through that technology. Like Snefru did with the great pyramid, delivering an impactful message will have lasting dividends.
Using architecture, illuminated books, minstrels, painters, poets, composers, the printing press or the latest cell phone is all the same act. When too much emphasis is placed on the carriers or pipeline mechanisms, the message they are meant to carry suffers, but typically after marveling at a test pattern in the first days of TV or watching a video on your phone for the first time, the novelty wears off and content and message become once again the most important part of the equation.
Even as predictive algorithms and increasingly accurate metrics tell us what is happening in real time, we need to take a step back and understand that despite knowing all of the musical notes on every instrument it won’t make us Mozart. Today relying too much on metrics and feedback might result in a committee telling Mozart what to compose. This is a potential problem where the analytics come to play in the creative sandbox.
Increasingly I see numbers oriented companies dazzle us with, well… numbers, and most have some sort of major client or two to impress how effective their system of tools really is. We hear that TV works, we hear that this banner works and there are still those that use the word ‘viral’ in every other sentence, when in reality all of these things can happen but they really only happen some of the time. The sad truth is that no one knows what will work, all we can do is ensure that the messages we launch do not sink prematurely by using the best tools at our disposal. Tools are not a substitute for a compelling message and I fear that increasingly the message has taken second place to the pipes that carry it, or the manner in which it is displayed.
Paid vs earned in the digital age is changing the game. The synergistic relationship between the many moving parts of a complex campaign can work very well and create some sort of verifiable bottom line. The metrics do not cover this yet but they will. Digital has also reduced the value of art, anyone can take a photo or make music today. But my prediction is that this will only work so far, as the market matures, great art will be needed to make any sort of impact. For now, we are drowning in content most of it forgettable or sub par. The age old concern that content/art is getting worse than in previous time frames is legitimate, will the public accept bad content and label it as good? With repetition and censorship anything is possible, the new normal can be terrible content, not a pleasant thought but a danger nonetheless to be aware of.
Media’s future will be to present content the people will want in whatever way they are willing to consume it. It will be monetized in new and revolutionary ways, but in the end it will come down to solid content and solid audience engagement however those definitions are arrived at.
Copyright Jean Renard 2012, All rights reserved
Jean Renard's thoughts on stuff 