Media, Marketing & Tech : 7 beliefs for 2018
Last month, I published in “La Lettre de Petit Web” our list of the 7 “convictions” or beliefs for the new year, as a way to clarify our editorial line and our topics of interest. While more and more agencies, consultants and media publish their “trends” or “predictions” every January, I quite liked the idea to take a stand, both looking back at 2017 and forward to 2018. Here is a quick summary, in English.
1/ Data, wether it is “big”, “small”, “first party”, “third party”, “personal” or “anonymized”, is a new strategic asset for companies of all size and industry categories. But most companies still need to find ways to make a valuable use of it, in a particularly complex competitive, technical and regulatory environment.
During 2017, La Lettre de Petit Web extensively covered the topic of GDPR. 2018 will be a turning point for brands, start-up and the media: even if the impact of the new regulation is still unknown, it should open new opportunities — not only for law firms — and become a chance to seize. Let’s not be defeatist. Telcos, retailers and the media will deploy new “data-driven” strategies. Alliances, at a national or international scale, will increase. Those moves will be exciting to watch and analyze.
2/ To compete with american and asian “tech giants”, creativity and innovation will make the difference. Both apply to the way companies communicate, of course, but also to how they conceive their services, products and their business models… That means new ways of working, collaborating and creating. Innovation and creativity are not the prerogative of agencies or dedicated services anymore: the should infuse at all levels of the organisations, as a new duty.
With the “Grand Prix de l’Innovation Digitale”, our conferences and our newsletter, we’ll keep celebrating success stories from entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and managers, to provide examples and inspiration for our readers and followers. It also means that we will keep telling the stories of failures and not-so-successful innovations, providing they convey valuable learnings.
3/ The so-called “digital transformation” is above all human, not a technological matter. On one side, companies have to develop a better understanding of their clients’ needs, and on the other side, those exact same companies have to onboard all their employees in the transformation process.
With the rise of flex-office, home-office or co-working, the workplace is going through profound changes. HR tools and process too. As the pace of change accelerate, companies need new organizational model, to improve talent management and keep their collaborators motivated…
4/ The future of media — and thus, democracy — is at stake, as a giant advertising duopoly is being formed before our eyes. Everyone, publishers, advertisers, agencies, ad-tech platforms, citizens… we should all put into questions our behaviors and choices.
Ad-blocking, fraud, brand safety, measurement issues, privacy… the “hot topics” of the ad-tech scene are numerous. Big advertisers are starting to get vocal about the “dirty secrets” of the advertising industry — even if they are also part of the equation and are not free from blame — and put pressure on Facebook and Google, while media companies are looking for new streams of revenues to be less dependant on a declining advertising market.
5/ Many issues will find a solution through collaboration. Between peers. Between former ennemies. Between start-up and big corporate companies. But finding balanced deals is far from easy…
Worldwide, publishers have been forging alliances for the past five years, to increase their reach, mutualize their ressources and get a better valorization of their inventories… The same move applies now to retailers and brands: under the pressure of Amazon, they start to gather their forces. Meanwhile, collaborations between big corporations and startups gain maturity, with less communication and more business and value created, for both sides.
6/ Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just the last trendy buzzword- even if the ‘hype’ will probably calm down: it’s a fundamental topic, with broad consequences for our societies in the decades to come. It shall be debated. Marketers and, more generaly, all the people working in the media and digital industry, are at the forefront of this subject: they do have a responsability.
AI and its promises are a source of both anxiety and optimism… but it’s still difficult to get a clear understanding of the impact and consequences it will have on our lives. Researchers — wether they are on the scientific or the philosophical side — , entrepreneurs and citizens need to have a voice in the debate: it’s not the “chasse gardée” of tech giants from the West Cost.
7/ In the age of algorithms, the media need to act to pull their audience out of their “filter bubble”. One of the missions of journalists is to find new angles, topics and stories, without fear of surprising their audience.
I especially like to find stories no one would have expected from us, while still being consistent with our editorial line. Last year, I wrote about a new food trend in Finland (a huge success), on brand activism at Ben&Jerry’s and I even published an interview of Douglas Coupland after meeting him at a weird product launch in Germany… I’m now looking forward to more crazy stories and unexpected encounter. Maybe during the 2018 edition of one of my favorite festivals or events?
