Media & Entertainment: Embracing the Digital Transformation
“Look at the customer first because they’re going to tell you what they need. They’re going to decide the experience they want. Most media companies have insights divisions but are they going far enough? Are they really gathering all the information they have about the customer?” — David Ingham, media & entertainment industry consultant.
It seems that digital transformation is on everyone’s minds these days. A myriad of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), bots, and machine learning, are disrupting every industry in a profound and irreversible manner while improving many aspects of our daily lives.
The digital transformation is moving ahead at a rapid pace, resulting in enormous changes to business operations in the world of media and entertainment. Virtually all companies agree that consumer expectations are shifting dramatically and must be met with the effective use of new technologies that allow businesses to better interact with their customers within the evolving digital landscape.
Coleman Parkes Research conducted a digital transformation survey of 1,770 global business and IT decision makers, including 151 from the media and entertainment industry, to determine the ways in which companies are handling this rapid change. And the results clearly illustrate that the majority of businesses are radically altering their operations based on the evolving ecosystem. The study found that 78% of respondents are choosing to define a new vision for a digital enterprise, 76% are embracing digital technologies to redefine how they run their businesses, and 59% believe that they are disrupting their industry through advanced digital initiatives.
The changing landscape offers excellent benefits to all industries, and perhaps none more than media and entertainment. While television, radio, and newspapers used to be almost the exclusive sources to consider, the incredible rise of mobile and digital technologies continues to alter both businesses and consumers in monumental ways. Although traditional broadcast models still represent the largest share of the industry, digital channels are proliferating. Massive changes, such as video becoming a digital-first product, will continue to transform the industry moving forward, with the expectation of further declines in the effectiveness of old business and delivery models.
The consumer desires and expectations to access global content from anywhere at any time with immediate gratification are certainly not going to decrease in the future, so media companies must reinvent their models to keep up with the times.
The overarching requirements involve three primary changes:
1. Digitization of materials to move physical media to digital storage;
2. Digital transformation to seamlessly integrate all functions of a business across digital processes and technologies;
3. Digital reinvention to fundamentally re-tool the manner in which the media industry engages with consumers.
Several new digital trends are moving to the forefront, such as the importance of providing multi-channel experiences, the incredible potential of integrating AI into creative endeavors, the growth of virtual and mixed reality, and the rapidly increasing interest in curated content.
There’s no question that the innovative application of new technologies is one of the keys to achieving success in the evolving media & entertainment industry, but it’s important to note that the greatest prosperity will come to those who execute this transformation with the expectations of the modern and future consumer firmly in mind.
Share your related digital transformation stories or concerns with me @SergeyBludov.
By Sergey Bludov,
Senior Vice President of Media and Entertainment Practice at DataArt
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/media-entertainment-embracing-digital-transformation-sergey-bludov/
