This week two Sloanies and I attended The Economist’s Media Convergence Forum in New York City. The purpose of this forum is understand the ongoing convergence between media, marketing, and technology. The panelists ranged from the founder of Twitter to the President of Sony Music. The topics ranged from media consumption trends among 12 year olds, to an excellent Oxford-style debate with Jeff Jarvis (What Would Google Do) on privacy and his prostate.
Here are the insights I found especially compelling:
On convergence in the music industry
– While digital distribution is killing off certain functions of the music industry (e.g. producing and distributing CDs), the industry itself continues to be viable. There will always be a need for an aggregator (i.e. major music label) that has the scale to help artists to negotiate favorable terms with large retailers (e.g. Apple’s iTunes store) and to launch synchronized global marketing campaigns.
Thomas Hesse, President, Sony Music Entertainment Global Digital Business
On convergence in the journalism industry
– While consumers care less about where they get their news from (established news-houses such as NYT vs. internet newcomers such as Politico.com), they care more than ever that their news sources are trustworthy. “Trust is the new black.”
Craig Newmark, Chairman, Craiglist
On convergence in the cable TV industry
– Misconception: A television show watched online will garner the same demographic as the same show on television. Reality: Putting a show online creates an entirely new audience. The average viewer of the News Hour on PBS is over 55. On the internet? Under 35 (and has never watched the show on TV).
Paula Kerger, President, PBS
On a business model for Twitter
– Twitter’s goals are twofold: to increase revenue and to maintain or better the user experience. Most of the time, these goals oppose each other: for example, banner ads increase revenue, but they diminish the user experience. Twitter wants to emulate Google’s approach to monetization: Be patient, and develop an innovative, game-changing model (e.g. Adwords) that increases revenue while maintaining or improving the user experience.
Jack Dorsey, Chairman, Twitter
On the future of the gaming industry
– Traditionally, great graphics have been the key differentiators for great games. Today, the quality of the game’s story is equally important. EA employs several academy-award winning screenwriters to create the storylines for their titles.
– It’s hard for to stay that modern kids have shorter attention spans, when they can focus for upwards of 100 hours on one game.
Elizabeth Harz, Vice President, Electronic Arts
– There is a rise in “pass-back” applications, or applications on expensive smartphones that a parent loads on to the device and passes it to their kid in the backseat of the car.
Michael Bellavia, President, Animax Entertainment
On the future of targeted advertising
– DEMO: YCD showed off their adscreens, which deliver an ad based on the gender and age of the person viewing it, as extrapolated from a snapshot of their face.
– DEMO: DecisionLab showed off a product which delivers an ad based on the emotional state of the person viewing it, as perceived through their visual expressions.
Finally, here is the Economist’s teaser video, chock-full with great factoids on media convergence: