New Media Outlook for 2008 (and probably beyond)
AlwaysOn – The popular ‘insider’s network’ on anything even remotely associated with technology, recently undertook a survey along with KPMG to assess the mood in the Social Media space for the year ahead. The results are quite interesting – economic turmoil or not. The survey sample consisted of around 300 VCs, CEOs and other insiders in the media industry.
Some interesting inferences that we can potentially draw from this survey are -
1. A unanimous opinion that this year will see further shifts in advertising dollars to new media avenues.
2. The two opposing forces of commitment and confusion that seems to currently reign in the advertising industry, especially pertaining to social networking and the advertising opportunities and challenges that it has created. The industry seems to recognize the importance of social media and community platforms. But it comes with the challenges of how to actually take advantage of the opportunities offered by them.
3. For the question – “Who should we blame when ad personalization goes too far and violates privacy”, a majority of them responded “The Portals”. Hmm… now that came as a surprise. Maybe a populist vote here, but I was thinking that the sample will vote towards either consumers being more responsible of what information they give away or the government for increasing regulations that govern online privacy.
4. For the question – “Have advertisers figured out how social networking figures in their marketing mix”, a whopping 91% felt that advertisers have no clue whatsoever!
5. The reasons stated for including social networks into the marketing mix came as no surprise.
6. Last but not the least, VC focus seems to be on the mobile and content space for the next few months (probably a combination of both).
Here are the survey results – courtesy – AlwaysOn
