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Earlier this week, Niel Kielar posted an article on his Blog, Agency Babylon- http://agencybabylon.com entitled "Content the king is dead; make way for content as a commodity". Go have a read.

He makes the point that as content is becoming a commodity that perhaps it is no longer king. As in, “Content is King”, the mantra too often recited in the DOOH industry. He notes that "value" may be the new king. I agree that value measured in terms of customer engagement, loyalty, etc. are important elements but in the end, I believe content is what brings value to any digital media platform.

With that in mind, I focused my contribution to his discussion on how the DOOH industry could navigate a world where content and creativity are becoming commodities. I was happy to see Niel's post as I have seen very little editorial commentary on the business aspects of content in the DOOH industry.

Here are my thoughts.

Content is still the key. Regardless of the technology platform, the goal of digital media distribution is to communicate or engage with someone, somewhere, for some reason. We now live in a world where the quality of the content experience is a must not an option. Add creativity, and you give yourself a better chance to connect with your chosen audience. So how do you feed the machine with creative, quality content in a world where everything is a commodity…even creativity?

My team and I have been on this path for a while now and part of the answer is to leverage advance technology to semi-automate the creative process. This is only part of the equation. The other is to find like-minded creative professionals who have also seen the writing on the wall. There is no use holding on to a broken model (refer to music industry) and hope for the best.

We’ve taken steps to find the balance between lowering the cost of creative production while respecting the talents of creative professionals we work with. This will be an on-going juggling act as price pressures continue to affect the creative industry but so far it’s working for us. Again, the music industry provides somewhat of a road map. We are in the new world of $0.99 songs versus the old world of $15 albums. Produce and sell me what I want versus selling me what you want me to need.

Creative designers/producers all over the world are looking to maximize their production capacity to ensure a steady flow of revenues while balancing their creative desires to work on interesting / impactful projects. Many are looking to do so as independent producers who choose where they work, how they work, and remain flexible to ever changing pricing models. The new media economy enables this reality given the right production, workflow, and communication set-up.


Traditional ad agencies (again, think big music companies) are finding it difficult to adapt to this nimble creative/business model. For them it's like herding cats.

On the one hand, agencies need to promote the fact that their creative professionals are worth (in terms of talent) the same if they produce a $1millon dollar TV ad or a .15sec digital signage spot costing $3K. From a creative standpoint I believe they can easily make the case on talent, but its clear that from an economic standpoint this model doesn’t work for the DOOH industry.

Can an agency bill $400/hr for creative to produce a .15 sec digital signage spot for use on a digital signage network? It’s clear that the majority of DOOH deployments do not have the revenue base to support such expensive ad agency production fees. If TV production type revenues are not available in the DOOH industry, how will agencies that venture into this space support their traditional business models?

It will be interesting to see how agencies and independent production studios adapt to the new “commodity” reality in the DOOH industry and beyond.

What we need are creative business models that will allow all stakeholders to extract value from producing, reselling, distributing, and consuming content.

I expect we’re not the only creative people on this track of thinking.

Thanks for joining the conversation with this thoughtful post.

Although I've spent a handful of years in DOOH debating with those who put platform above – far above – content in value, I've arrived at a detente. Turns out that content and platform and context together create the user/audience engagement that is really king. Platform actually does matter because the right viewing environment effects how well content is experienced. Environment includes screen type and placement, software to power programming in the most appropriate way, and even mobile as a companion platform to make the content experience less passive and more engaging.

You are correct that downward price pressure can take a toll on the quality of content, ergo engagement level. Network operators need to embrace content as co-ruler of DOOH and accord it the respect it deserves. Without content, there is no DOOH network.

Neal Kielar
http://agencybabylon.com
@AgencyBabylon

Hey Stephen. nice blog on content vs platform vs. creative mix. speaking from experience of selling services commercially, I can add that Content is King, until you ask the customer to pay for it - then content becomes a lowly pawn in the discussion. with suppliers now offering straight music services for less than $15 per mth including equipment you get the sense customers are more often interested in `sound` not music. Significant investments will be held back in the digital music and signage world for many years to come as you simply will not have the income, cash flow, etc., to support additional research or ways to hone the craft.

There are those few exceptions of customers willing to pay a higher price for quality, custom content, etc., but it will be sometime before it hits mainstream at anythign approaching custom.

Its just a bit worrying that networks will invest millions in hardware and infrastructure but baulk at paying for what will really bring their screens to life - quality content ! Companies will happily spend a fortune on TV spots yet expect the same production values on their digital screens for peanuts.
Yes, they all want the best, but in a way, like music, its perceived value is low.

One of the reasons that we exist is to try to bridge the gap between what the video material that we supply is worth and what the end-customer is actually prepared to pay for it. As an aggregator, we can work out a really cheap per screen price and if we can rustle uo enough screens, pay the rights owner a total fee decent enough for him to want to play and let us use his material.
Not a perfect solution perhaps for a creative agency keen to show its best work, but perhaps by integrating some such material with your custom material, you could bring a project in on budget but still preserve a decent overall quality?

Another point that I would raise is the diffrenece between 'content' and 'content'.
By content, I uinderstand 'editorial content' - i.e. stuff that is interesting and that the consumer wants to see. Whereas I get the impression that ad agencies think that ad-spots are 'content' - which of course, in a way , they are...

Great perspective in this article. DOOH could in fact become the great leveler in the creative arena. As media dollars sway toward the digital signage sector I agree that many of the high dollar ad agencies will have to reevaluate their model.

great post, stephen. like everything else these days in digital media, the answer to your question, "is content still king?", has to be viewed through the lens of changing user experiences and technologies. i think the answer is still yes - but there are a lot more kings and queens these days than there used to be. you still need just the right image, song, design as the client - that part hasn't changed - but if you are smart, you can find the right content and implement it digitally for less money and less turnaround time than ever before.