Turning ‘Digital’ Media into a Sustainable Business
Over the last couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to meet a number of entertainment “digital officers” – that new-breed of executives media companies have turned to rationalize their online content strategy and somehow turn that “digital” thing into a growth engine for the company.
Talk about a tough job.
Yes, online revenues are growing fast (still waiting for my copy of the PwC’s just published report to see how fast), but it’s nowhere near the volume of the old, analog revenue streams. Those brave digital officers are the ones trying to figure out how not to steer multi-billion dollar franchises into any wrong turns – and BTW, there are no maps or GPS to guide them.
Based on our interactions over the years we created a mash-up of digital officers in “Jack,” one of the Cisco Eos web videos we released this week.
1) He’s spending too much on his technology platform relative to the revenue he’s able to generate from it. In general, the digital officers I’ve talked to estimate their organization is spending 75%-125% of their online revenue on supporting their technology platform – and that’s excluding the cost of content development. If they had to carry the bulk of the content creation cost (instead of just repackaging paid for by other parts of the organization), almost no one would have a profitable online division.
2) He needs technology that is flexible enough to deliver highly customized/glossy experiences across his portfolio of content brands (and their corresponding audiences). He knows that tailored, compelling experiences for audiences drives revenue opportunities, but he also knows they tend to drive up those technology costs.
You combine these internal issues with the increasing expectations of the technologically-empowered consumer, and you can see why I don’t envy the digital officers.
Truth is: technology CAN be a solution to these problems. But like any other tool, if you don’t have the right tool, or you use it incorrectly, you can make the situation worse.
While it won’t be perfect for every situation, the Eos software platform was purpose built as a tool for media companies facing the scalability and flexibility dilemma “Jack” is. Check to see if Eos is the right tool to help you turn your online content strategy into a more sustainable business: http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/cmsg/platform.html”> http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/cmsg/platform.html
Posted by Scott Brown at 08:41AM PST
Cisco Around the Web