There is a media phenomenon that will have great impact on all of us marketers. Has anyone watched an entire half-hour news program recently?
How about listening to a radio show?
These are examples of the linear media, which presents its news and entertainments in a line. We were patient until the Internet came along. The Internet allows consumers to access the media they want right now.
What if the news comes on and all I really care about is the weather and sports. Do I have to sit through a half hour of “news” to see the two features I’m interested in? Probably not going to happen. I can punch it up on weather.com.
Internet Access of Traditional Media
The linear vs. 3D battle has immense implications for marketers and where they spend their money. Certainly, radio was going south before the Internet came along, but the Internet has hastened its demise. Now “Radio aggregators”–think TuneIn radio on the iPad–offer as many as 30,000 stations on a distribution service called “Shoutcast.” Instead of local stations battling it out with 12 competitors, they now have thousands of competitors which means market shares are getting smaller. Radio aggregation has been credited with saving the medium, but it will probably have something to do with killing the medium too, since it’s becoming harder to assemble an audience.
TV is suffering through the same phenomenon. Cable TV invested billions of dollars to assemble the 300 channel universe, right before media choice exploded in the 90s. In essence, TV went from being its own culture–”Thursday night must see TV” on NBC–to being a box on which anything can be played. Some think TV and the Internet can be combined, but the results are so far mixed. NBC was out of the box with Hulu, but Hulu requires a subscription fee and consumers wonder why when they are already paying for cable. Some TV manufacturers are boasting Internet ready sets, so that You Tube, for example, would be an app that comes up on your TV.
Pinpoint Marketing
It’s safe to say that TV and the Internet have not yet been successfully integrated–do the network execs who provide programming to TV want people surfing around You Tube? Probably not, but then they’re not in control anymore. The role for linear media will become that much tougher as marketers discover they’re more likely to make hay pinpointing their audience, as opposed to shining a flashlight over it.
But marketers will exert better control over their marketing dollars because the Internet makes it easier to hone in on a market.
If you require further information or have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to give a member of the GoPromotional team a call on 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today.
