Digital – Does it Compliment or Supplement your media offering?
Lets hear the good news for 2012. Digital is here to stay. And increasingly its getting grained into every possible form of media. From print to electronic, digital is taking over. Social TV is expected to be the thing to watch out for in 2012.
The ingraining of digital is also opening numerous new opportunities for media service providers to add a new revenue stream to their existing business model. Advertising agencies are taking forward digital branding into the social media world. Traditional digital agencies are moving beyond digital development & campaign management to delivering social media campaigns , albeit not with the same success rate as traditional media campaigns. PR agencies are staking their claim on social media by dishing constant reminders that they are the true owners of client conversations.
But the question that begs attention in the above context- Is Digital substituting or complementing your media offering to the clients? Depending on how you choose to answer the question will define your business & revenue model.
If digital media is substituting traditional form of media, the focus would be on building capabilities around the digital media ecosystems. If you offer a mix of traditional & digital media, the existing capabilities that you have in traditional media ecosystem will get transferred to digital media eco system, thus building a strong foundation . In such a scenario, your revenue stream can see either see a split between traditional & digital media. Or if digital is positioned independently, it may lead to a substantial increase in revenue from new avenues. Of course there will be competition from many similar media providers who are themselves keen to get a share of pie that additional revenues from digital will generate.
If digital media is complimenting your media offering, the focus is on building incremental capabilities within the team, rather than building new capabilities, or shifting capabilities from the existing team. You would look at augmenting your traditional media offering & digital media offering to the client. This may not lead to a substantial increase in revenue but would position you as a media service provider who understands the evolving dynamics of ecosystem. The end result will be a marginal increase in revenue. However, this may help you beat the competition since your offering is more holistic & at a better price point.
The final decision will be based on two things- 1. Do you want to evolve your media offering 2.Do you have the ability to invest in the new media & resources.