Where Will Consumers Find the Time to Watch, Read and Take Advantage of All Their Media Options? Ten Opportunities Based Upon Current Trends - Steve Blacker - MediaBizBloggers

1. The average U.S. household has access to 119 TV channels but only watches 16 of them on a regular basis! Contrary to what many believe, 88% of the people who own a DVR do not shift all of their TV viewing to it. Compelling content and advertising still works.

2. There are over 30,000 magazines still published in the U.S. today! Highly portable devices like the Apple iPhone, G1, Ford's Sync and Blackberry allow more and more consumers to be literally 'always-on'. Those magazines that creatively link branded content to these new applications will thrive.

3. The success of Twitter creates a near term future where media access is unbridled and consumer attention is highly fragmented. A larger share of consumer time will be spent creating, receiving, searching for, and sharing information and entertainment for both work and leisure. Those media companies and major advertisers that create high value consumer experiences will have unlimited opportunities.

4. As user generated content becomes more commonplace big media brands relationships with consumers will deteriorate unless they create new interactive platforms.

5. Those media brands that provide customization that allow consumers to express their personal style will come out ahead with the millennial generation (16-24-year-olds). 59% of them say they 'like to customize products to express their personal style.'

6. Strategic partnerships between advertisers, distributors and implementers - with big-name and no-name match-ups that produce high and low connections will prevail. This aggregation of assets will become a key growth strategy to best serve consumer needs.

7. Media companies must look to new sources for distribution such as the new consumer portals and develop relationships with them. Additional services and utilities must be offered and charged appropriately for. The 'mantra' for the future is to build relationships with different partners to access different consumer groups in a multitude of meaningful ways.

8. The increasingly fragmented nature of media today has made it more difficult to target consumers en masse. The proliferation of digital communications and social applications has dramatically changed the relationship that consumers have with media. As digital devices become more powerful their range of functionality becomes even greater. Traditional media companies will need to greatly enhance their digital capabilities.

9. The traditional Editor-in-Chief or TV Producer who has been highly successful in the past may lack the digital skills required for today. The challenge is to attract the type of people who have 'new age' and entrepreneurial digital skills sets to traditional media companies.

10. Given unlimited options, consumers still tend to use a limited number of media and digital outlets. The key to gaining consumer acceptance today and tomorrow is only achieved by earning the consumers trust.

Steve's new book You Can't Fall Off The Floor - The Insiders' Guide to Re-Inventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King, Cathie Black, Chuck Townsend and 28 others; Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt & Blacker Solutions, LLC. His web site is blacker-reinventions.com and e-mail address is blackersolutions@aol.com

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