Analysts as a breed have a tendency to create new buzz words and phrases, neologisms that capture emerging trends and themes. But what we are now calling the media meltdown — where traditional media business models based on scarcity and control are fundamentally challenged by the new realities of digital media consumption — is not some abstract economist notion.
For many of our clients, including media companies that create and distribute content to users, the media meltdown is already a painful reality. Users want more and more content for free, while advertisers are struggling to engage fragmented audiences. The old business models aren’t working, and the new ones aren’t yet in place.
But while the media meltdown equates to pain for many companies, it is also creating opportunities for non-media companies — including telcos, hardware manufacturers, and FMCG brands — to increasingly use content directly to engage users. In other words, we are all media companies now — and, as such, have to embrace new ways of thinking.
You can expect to hear more about the media meltdown from me and my fellow Forrester analysts in the next couple of months. We believe this is a seismic shift that has huge implications for marketers, advertisers, content managers and product strategists across a whole range of companies. We also believe we can help our clients negotiate this challenging period.
Clients can read more about the media meltdown and the opportunities it presents for brands in particular in my latest report here. I look forward to your feedback.
