UPDATE: All the presentations and a full video of the event are available here
We will go through at least another decade of change in the way we communicate, consumers demand ever more personalised engagements, however there is no silver bullet to how companies can capitalise on the situation.
This was just one of the messages that emerged from the Bite UK event yesterday. With speakers from broadcasting regular Ofcom, production company Edemol and a leading professor in the socialisation of technology, the event was stimulating and thought provoking.
Steve Getting, head of broadcast market intelligence at Ofcom kicked us off with some statistics from the organisation’s latest communications market report. The over-riding message was not simply that digital technology is more pervasive than ever, but that it’s now so ubiquitous that people are almost taking it for granted. For example, Ofcom statistics showed that people in the UK would rather forgo holidays and nights out rather than cut back on their communications tools such as mobile phone and internet connection. Digital comms are, according to Getting, taking on utility characteristics – meaning that people simply expect them to be there and to work – much like electricity or water.
And, Getting said, it seems appetites for higher quality, richer media are insatiable – HDTV in the UK grew 175 percent in the past 12 months, digital video recorders are up 35 percent, 3G mobile are up 22 per cent, and even markets that seemed saturated, such as broadband take up are up 17 percent.
Unsurprisingly, people are now using technology the way they want to; the Ofcom report for example, showed that TV viewing figures have stayed constant, despite the doomsayers believing that people will increasingly turn to watching TV on the internet. This is mostly because on the rise in consumers viewing TV on PVRs and using service such as Sky Plus that allow viewers to set their own TV schedules.
Getting was followed by Peter Cowley, head of digital at production company Endemol. Cowley said production companies have woken up to the fact that they can no longer simply produce shows, deliver them to the networks and wait for the cheque to arrive. Endemol is now looking increasingly at linking shows with social media and online gaming. For example, the company is launching an online game to accompany its absurdly popular game show Deal or No Deal. The makers of Big Brother are also looking to technology to provide them with some ideas – much like technology was the backbone of Big Brother when it launched 10 years ago – Endelmol is now seeking Big Brother 2.0.
Professor Michael Hulme rounded us off with an absorbing chat about the personalisation of technology and how companies must shrug off their traditional marketing structures and look to personalise their contact with consumers.
The professor, who is director of the institute of advanced studies at Lancaster University, told the audience of mostly media, PR and marketing professionals that because people are demanding the technology they want, when they want it, where they want it, presented to them in their preferred format, people are becoming used to shaping their own experiences, and this is driving a fundamental change in the way companies need to communicate with their customers and potential customers. Currently most companies mass broadcast information to their customers. But, as people increasingly expect to shape their own experiences with brands, companies must look to be “facilitators of discovery or engagements”.
Hulme was quick to point out that there is no silver bullet solution to this challenge and, in the discussions after his presentation, he said that he believes there aren’t many, if any, companies who have got this personalised brand engagement right currently. And, according to the professor, we are likely to be in this period of change for at least another decade – which at least gives us all the chance to hopefully understand and adapt to the changing environment, but conversely, the challenges are likely to morph into something else before any of us have a chance to get to grips with it. But at least by listening to people such as the speakers at our event, we can be forewarned, even if we are not quite sure what to forearm ourselves with.
All the presentations and a full video of the event are available here
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