• World Screen, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 11:15 AM

A new study from IBM says there's a "growing rift" between advertisers, consumers and content owners, fueled by media companies' struggle with new digital demands from users and advertisers. As such, report author Saul Berman, IBM's global leader for strategy and change consulting services, is calling on content owners to "fundamentally" change the way information is delivered to audiences.

He writes: "To succeed -- especially in the current economic environment -- media companies will need to develop a new set of capabilities to support the industry's evolving demands which include micro targeting, real-time ROI measurement and cross-platform integration." Berman cites consumers' adoption of new platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook as being particularly disruptive to the media business. Some figures: between 2007 and 2008, consumer adoption of social networking tools soared to 60% from 33%; the penetration of mobile Internet data plans nearly tripled to 41% from 15%, and access to mobile music and video quadrupled to 35% from 7%.

These are huge changes, so how can advertisers benefit? According to Bill Battino, co-author of the IBM study, "consumers are willing to trade knowledge about their usage and preferences for content and associated targeted marketing offers. Companies that excel in permission-based advertising will take share of marketing dollars."

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