Growing in tandem: the diverging fortunes of entertainment and digital

[Bill Conlon (Billy_Conlon)]

In honor of our 25th anniversary, Industry perspectives @25 will, for 25 days, take a celebratory look at how Polycom has transformed industries and business functions.

These blogs are a variety of retrospective, current and visionary perspectives with the common thread of Unleashing the power of human collaboration.

Follow the hashtag #Polycom25 on Twitter for tweets about this significant anniversary in our history.

With the rise of the internet, online media, ordinary folks like you and me can become overnight media sensations through Youtube, blogging and Instagram while TV and traditional media are struggling to maintain their existing audience, let alone grow viewership.

An article by PwC titled “beyond digital” summarised the trend well - “Empowered consumers seek out tailored, inspiring content experiences that transcend platforms”. It indicated that advertising growth is primarily led by digital, driven by mobile and video. The same article also estimated that global digital advertising revenue will rise at 12.2% CAGR against just 1.2% for non-digital advertising from now to 2019.

A similar trend is shown in research by ZenithOptimedia. Traditional media usage declined from 402 to 376 minutes a day and television consumption fell by 6% between 2010 and 2014; meanwhile online media consumption jumped to 110 minutes a day, up from just 60 minutes in 2010.

This implies that traditional media, i.e. TV and radio, are no longer the commanding players in the media industry. There is an urgent need for them to find ways to compete with online and social media to revitalize the industry. D100, a Hong Kong-based radio station is doing just that. Threatened by the popularity of social media and on the verge of permanently losing its young, high-income audience, D100 adopted an innovative technology strategy and successfully transformed itself into a new media to re-engage the highly educated, affluent, young audience.

 

D100 adopted the Deltapath frSIP Engagetainment Platform, integrated with Polycom video collaboration solutions. This complete solution allowed D100 to interact directly with their audiences face-to-face and in real-time via Polycom VVX 1500 video phones and Polycom HDX at the studios, regardless of where their audiences were located.

They did this because they found that audiences nowadays live in a world of efficiency and therefore have a sense of urgency in their lives. They want everything to be fast, to be in real time. D100 also felt that real-time video can make people more engaged in news commentary talk shows or celebrity interviews they are watching because it is live and the audiences are instantly transformed from  mere viewers to ‘witnesses’. Another aspect that heightens the experience in shows is eye contact with others.

The strategy to drive engagement and interactivity through video collaboration not only revived the station but brought huge revenue (membership subscriptions and donations) with it.

By marrying the best aspects of both traditional and online media, D100 adopted real-time video collaboration via video phones to allow greater face-to-face interaction between hosts and audiences. They went even further to connect with audiences across geographical boundaries through internet radio, to build a loyal fan base with Hong Kong citizens stationed abroad.

The revival was an immense success as D100 has now become one of the hottest radio stations and media in Hong Kong. Real-time video collaboration is one of the keys to the success as it helped to remedy the deficiency of traditional media as well as differentiate traditional media from social media.

It is high time traditional media reconsiders its strategy in delivering engagement, value and entertainment to the mass audience.