Digital platforms paving the way

The paradigm revolving the way we communicate is without a doubt changing. It doesn’t require a doctorate in anthropology or human behaviour to recognize it. If you take for a moment to consider some of the following trends of late, you’d probably find yourself pleasantly surprised by the way in which communications has dramatically altered into something far exceeding anyone’s original expectations, especially under such a short period of time in relation to the history and evolution of communications.

Authors like Isaac Asimov way back in 1942 predicted the invent of similar entities such as the internet and its psychohistorical usage by varying agencies alike to advertise and to capture data on human behaviour in vast volumes with relative ease, be it for marketing purposes and or other perhaps something a little more insidious. They also gave mention to many speculative technological delights that would go hand in hand, take mobile devices and smartphones which can be in found in literally hundreds of millions of people’s pockets each day.

The paradigm. People all around the globe amidst varying cultures and economic backgrounds are becoming more and more familiar with new interactive media and their availabilities found upon varying technological devices. The internet, what an astounding creation. It’s changed the world. Probably the greatest invention since we devised the means to calculate time. The net in recent years has immersed itself as becoming an almost essential part of the daily lives of millions of people all over the world, in many cases it unifies the world, giving us an insight to the mindset of all peoples who participate. I’m sure all of us at some stage have used the net for educative purposes, entertainment and business.

Sites such as Youtube, Facebook (having over 425 million users) and Twitter reveal the astounding phenomena where advertisers are suddenly comprehending they no longer need to spend the big bucks to get their word out there since they are discovering their audiences are doing it for them... for the most part for free. These clever companies have found the heart of people’s desire to express their thoughts and opinions. Positively unifying the globe to some degree.

These entities are seeing the value of their platform, exploiting it for business purposes. Logically they are beginning to manoeuvring numerous companies to urge their advertising campaigns away from pursuing traditional and costly mediums such a television as part of their primary advertising communication for both computers and mobile devices. They are also constantly advancing their features to be more accommodating to both consumer and advertiser. Take Facebooks recent move to allow businesses to advertise directly to their users, including mobile devices, which in the past has almost been impenetrable to advertisers, they are now capable of having their marketing messages appear in its members' news feeds -- partly an effort to establish regular revenue streams.

Take what Lions Gate Entertainment Corp Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer said recently when asked about their switch to drop $15 – 20 million from their usual television advertising budgets, focusing their efforts more towards online social media platforms during their efforts to to market the film's opening of ‘hunger games’ due to the very nature of the net and their social media streams as mentioned previously. Obviously relying on this medium could have negative results where people may destroy a product, brand or service if they started spreading negative commentary. But with the success of Lions gate, this phenomena has greatly caused fears for many TV stations who comprehend the direction and reality of where we are heading with regards to communications...

Essentially to finish up, thanks to the many technological innovators who have turned science fiction into reality, they have provided the world with constantly evolving platforms and devices in which allow us to effectively communicate on mass, changing the paradigm in which we communicate. Allowing smart brand owners the ability to explore their creative advertising and marketing campaigns, taking their audiences on journeys limited only by their imaginations whilst being able to monitor, evaluate and determine better methods for future marketing activities at costs that would have been considered foolish in the past.

This is not to say this is the end of television. But it’s a stable indication that its reliance is becoming less.

FIrst Published in Sindo Magazine - 2012