The Future of Emerging Digital Media and Its Impact on Marketing

The Future of Emerging Digital Media and Its Impact on Marketing

Innovation in information technologies has thrust humankind into an era of democratic media in which almost everyone can have immediate access to news and information, and become creators and contributors in the journalistic enterprise. As a result, news now moves in unconventional ways with unpredictable consequences.

In the dawn of Web 2.0, viral marketing is presenting a new medium for brand exposure and a new definition of marketing. Recent advancements in technology in general are driving and facilitating changes in consumer/business behavior; RSS is simply one manifestation of that.

• The shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and corresponding availability of new applications such as blogging, podcasting, wikis, RSS, microsites, etc. is emerging.

• All of these technologies are experiencing phenomenal growth. There have already been 5 million podcasts in 2005, which is up 500 percent vs. 2004 . Flickr currently has 19.5 million photos online - an 80 percent increase over June of 2005. Wikipedia is now "hit wise" the number one reference site on the Web.

• They all map to the "whatever, whenever" model: customers want - and expect - personalized, culturally appropriate information at their finger tips at any time.

The strategic environment in the current years has been the decline of broadcasting models and the rise of narrowcasting models. With the advent of cable television, catering to small group's specialized audiences have emerged from seasoned networks like wild life, 24 hour news channels, and home shopping channels. The TV industry is frantically trying to figure out how to combine broadcasts, internet movies and home videos all into one package. T...

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...ing way to Web 3.0. The effort is in its infancy, and the very idea has given rise to skeptics who have called it an unobtainable vision. But the underlying technologies are rapidly gaining adherents, at big companies like I.B.M. and Google as well as small ones. Their projects often center on simple, practical uses, from producing vacation recommendations to predicting the next hit song.

The future of media and entertainment is increasingly uncertain as the methods by which content is created, distributed, monetized and consumed are changing before our eyes. Over the next decade, powerful and disruptive forces, including the ubiquity of broadband Internet connectivity, novel technologies and devices that empower consumers with content control and portability, and the digitization of content and entertainment will forever change the media and entertainment landscape.