In the face of rising operational costs and an onslaught of competition on the digital front, traditional media companies that move fast to embrace and monetise digital channels stand to win back their audiences and their advertising revenue.
So says Shane Radford, media and entertainment industry leader for IBM, adding that IBM's media and entertainment division is observing a slow but steady return of audiences to trusted news providers in the global context.
According to Radford, while the introduction of "digital" everything has enabled choice for media consumers and created distractions away from traditional media, there will always be a place for good quality content that can be trusted.
He points out that trusted media providers who have understood and leveraged their strengths in high-quality content and segmented their customers to deliver relevant content across traditional and digital platforms, have quickly re-gained dominance over providers who are merely focused on distributing content using digital channels.
"Many media and entertainment companies in South Africa have been too slow to optimise the new channels available to them," says Radford. "As a result, they are losing ground to non-traditional media to players like telecommunication companies, marketers and individuals, who are producing rich, interactive and targeted content that is eroding traditional players' advertising revenue."
Radford is of the view that the shift in consumption from traditional media to digital, the ever increasing wealth of real-time data available and new, smarter analytics are fundamental to obtaining customer and market insights that will enable traditional media providers to satisfy their customers and ultimately gain profit if they embrace the digital channels.
He adds that media providers need smarter marketing and commerce platforms that solicit and incorporate consumer inputs into relevant, contextual and socially embedded campaigns that facilitate the monetisation of content and generation of new revenue models.
"With multiple new entrants into the local market, threats from global media, over the top providers and competition from adjacent industries such as telcos, it is imperative that local media companies drive towards being able to offer differentiated customer experiences underpinned by an agile and flexible digital supply chain in order to remain relevant and competitive."
Radford notes that traditional media players need to adopt a comprehensive digital strategy across the entire enterprise and find new technologies to help them maximise the value of their Internet protocol, improve processes and better target their audiences and move faster.
Media providers need to understand their audience and tailor content accordingly to deliver innovative personalised content, allowing them to innovate with revenue models and realise the true value of the digital dollar," he concludes.
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