I am not going to make any predictions for the industry this time. Last year, same time, media and entertainment industry across the world, made a few predictions for 2023. And totally missed the target on the emerging influence of AI. The same thing happened the year before that as well. There was so much talk about the disruption Metaverse is going to bring to our industry and within a year, the industry wrote its obituary as well. So, I thought, I should dig deep into what went wrong. How did we go so “off the mark”?
These are totally my learnings only and I am sharing the same. I am sure each one of us will be able to find many different reasons but find we must. How did we miss the emerging influence of AI, just 52 weeks ago?
In my view, this all comes down to the choices. Humans cannot get past the choices we cannot make. Our ability to predict the future is totally dependent on the choices we make. We use our past experiences to project the future potential of these choices and make predictions. If we restrict our ability to make our choices to our own industry, obviously, we will miss the potential of AI. Ditto with Metaverse. And in fact, if we stretch it further, our ability to make predictions in the media and entertainment industry is diminishing significantly. Thanks to digital disruption. It is because, digital disruption is not limited to media and entertainment industry alone, but it influences our industry so so significantly.
So how can we increase our chances of making right predictions? By expanding the aperture of our view of the industry. This can be done by collaborating with at least two adjacent industries. IT Services in the form of system integrators. Financial Services in the form FinTech. Some of the best practices from IT and FinTech offers us significant ideas and an opportunity to expand our choices. And here are three few provocations:
Why can’t the industry collaborate with NASSCOM in disrupting the 250 Bn technology industry in India? Ad industry can join their 3200 members, 9000+ startups and 30+ policy representatives in joining healthcare, banking, insurance, supply chain, telecom and internet. After all, advertising is the one that is funding the internet, and this only enhances this.
Why can’t the industry collaborate with an organization like Sehamati towards empowering the Indian consumers with their data for not just a better financial future, but also for all their social interactions online? By embracing a similar account aggregator framework, advertising agencies can play a much more critical role with PDPA, 2023.
Why can’t the industry embrace decentralization? Recently, Flipkart announced their partnership with Polygon in experimenting with a new age rewards program, FireDrops. A rewards program that that helps brands engage with their customers directly through gamified experiences. FinTech is lot more open and comfortable with adopting decentralized technologies, why can’t our industry.
Such collaboration for the industry brings in significant benefits to the media and entertainment industry. First and foremost, it offers huge opportunities and options for a larger talent pool to dip into. At an average, all advertising agencies are perennially working with 70% talent and the same talent keep circulating amongst the industry. Fresh infusion from adjacent industry at scale, helps open the aperture to make some more meaningful choices.
Secondly, it provides our industry a seat the table to play a critical and significant role in enabling responsible use of consumer data. Our industry needs another hand to clap. Brand building cannot be decoupled from Commerce and therefore a strategic partnership with FinTech players. Transparency and Consent Framework is not limited to one industry. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Most importantly, as digital advertising accelerates, we are facing with the challenge of big tech platforms building their own concrete jungles on the back of privacy to grab their share of the pie. There will come a time, when ad spends will end up across 8 to 10 concrete jungles without any means to measure their ROI on common metrics. What can we learn from other industries in fostering better collaboration?
We cannot see past our choices we cannot make. Perhaps such collaboration helps the industry widen the aperture to help make meaningful choices. And of course, predict better. And prepare better.
And here is wishing the industry a cookie free, AI enabled future in 2024.
Gowthaman Ragothaman is a 30-year media, advertising and marketing professional and CEO of Aqilliz, a blockchain solutions company for the marketing industry.