Media + Entertainment
JPMorgan predicts that online advertising will grow from $22 Billion to $50 Billion over the next three years. With so many dollars at stake, the online media, entertainment, and ad delivery networks are constantly designing new ways to monetize unique visitors. However, the challenge is how to increase CPMs for media properties. John Battelle, noted author and one of the original Editors for WIRED Magazine, summarizes:
...more than 80 percent of the advertising inventory on the Web today is sold for less than a $1 CPM. Compare that to the average sold CPM in the magazine business or on television - reports vary, but it's anywhere from six to 40 times higher. That delta, to my mind, has everything to do with engagement.
Here are three areas where Enablus can assist media and entertainment product teams to improve their innovation delivery:
- Coordinate product development with market dynamics
- Leverage Web 2.0 technologies
- Create “branded” experiences
Coordinate product development with market dynamics
The market shifts constantly as topics rise and fall in popularity. Gone are the days when a product team has 9-12 months to launch a new offering. What really happens is that halfway through the development cycle, some market shift will occur that invalidates part of the original business case or re-prioritizes what should be built. How can media and entertainment companies ensure that their product development process is nimble enough to respond to these market dynamics?
How we can help
Enablus has instilled the Scrum methodology as the philosophy for how we organize our client work, regardless of whether it is app dev, UX, or business modeling. Our focus is to continuously deliver value-added work products at the end of each two-week iteration, based on the latest market dynamics. Through our collaboration, clients begin to adopt the Scrum mindset, even amongst their non-technical team members. The end result is a Product Development team (not just the software engineers) that is attuned to the philosophy of delivering value-added output every two weeks.
Leverage Web 2.0 technologies
The online media and entertainment sector has been at the forefront of adopting innovative technologies. The end result - a virtual arms race to adopt the latest shiny bauble of Web 2.0 technology. Sometimes, it is not quite clear how a new piece of technology will drive CPMs or unique visitors.
How we can help
Our Product Strategy Consultants will help you sort the confusing maze of social networking, mash-ups, content delivery, and service-oriented architectures to arrive at a product concept that meets your business objectives and audience needs.
Create “branded” experiences
Google Maps, Ebay’s Merchant Console, the Nike+ site and Scrybe are examples of “branded” experiences - web-based and desktop applications which offer unique functionality that, when used, create a high level of engagement between the target user and the brand. For example, although scrolling and panning had been used in prior mapping applications, it was the launch of Google Maps which delivered this interaction paradigm to web applications on a mass scale, and “branded” Google Maps in such as way that it quickly eclipsed MaqQuest and Yahoo!Maps. Likewise, the online Nike+ site and iPod integration reinforces the offline emotional connection between a runner and his/her decision to invest in Nike+ shoes.
How we can help
Many branded applications rely on the heavy use of Flex, Silverlight, AJAX, or AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) technologies, which multiplies the expressiveness and interactivity of your product. Our User Experience team can assist you to wade through the options for interaction design, graphic design and information architecture to create a compelling branded application.
