Transformation to all things digital is a prominent force in the world of marketing. Its move to mainstream represents major shifts in consumer behaviors as well as necessary shifts on the enterprise side in order to continue to engage consumers. It is perhaps the most pronounced in the media and entertainment industry, where all content, every audience segment, and every device plays a key role in the quest to make something not just good but great or even epic. While organizations like to portray a veneer of confidence when it comes to digital capability, many are still figuring out what they need to do to adapt to this rapid pace of digital change. To better understand what media industry executives are experiencing in the wake of these tectonic shifts, we created the State of Digital in Media Industry survey with Econsultancy.
The survey included over 200 notable global media companies, such as Fox, Disney, and TIME Warner. It consolidates the perspectives of chief information officers, chief digital officers, chief marketing officers, and the content and product managers of digital editorial to deliver a glimpse of how the industry is thinking about digital change, where the trends are moving the industry, and what key priorities media companies are undertaking in the next 12 months in order to stay ahead of the digital tidal wave.
The survey focused on the following seven areas:
- the media and entertainment industry and the new digital organization,
- the adoption of digital marketing technologies,
- ways to establish a culture of testing and learning,
- the effect of organizational siloes on customer experience and performance,
- ways to creating state-of-the-art digital content,
- how to obtain holistic views of your audience, and
- a look at what’s next (12 months).
The most critical finding of our survey was that our respondents overwhelmingly reported (97 percent) that digital technologies have disrupted their sector. Additionally, as digital consumption channels and content choices on every device continue to evolve, five recommendations were identified to help organizations adapt and thrive in this changing landscape:
- Implement technologies to support revenue growth.
- Integrate organizational silos to streamline marketing.
- Create a culture of learning and testing.
- Help IT keep up with the rapid pace of innovation and technical change.
- Create a holistic view of your audiences across touch points.
Surprisingly, none of our respondents had all five characteristics in place.
