WarpShare™

It All Depends On The Context

Mass media and the advertising that pays its bills is about to get spanked by consumers audience members drunk on choice. A decade ago, audience members sacrificed scheduling freedom on the altar of TV Guide so they could spend Thursday evenings watching the latest episode of Friends and ER. Thankfully, Tivo started a revolution the Internet will finish: Entertainment on the terms of the customer — the audience.

Today’s audience is inundated with choice. They choose content, content format, content delivery, content player, content schedule, content presentation, and even content price. With all this choice how does a content provider get noticed enough to win an audience? Without mass slavery consumption attracting massive ad fees, how does a content provider make money? Context baby, context.

Internet audiences rely on context to help them discover, enjoy, recommend, organize and re-mix content. Tags, playlists, ratings, artist, title, length, genre, cast, director, ranking, etc. adorn content with meaning and relevance. Without the context, the content is just another archive in someone’s library.

Context can also inform the advertising industry. Obviously, context reveals the interests of audience members but a more powerful opportunity exists — allow advertising to become part of the context. Sponsor and endorse content, artists, actors, DJs, bloggers, re-mixers, sys-admins, search, delivery, etc. Associate brands with critical components in the discovery, delivery, and presentation of entertainment. Interact directly with audience members and their networks. Give the audience what it wants and it may give advertising what it needs — attention.

Categories: Industry Thoughts