Speaking Sensis

I was lucky enough last month to join a panel of talented digital media practitioners at the AIMIA Future of Digital summit in Sydney. With delegates arriving for insight into the future of digital advertising, the conversation on stage and audience covered key issues, views and trends emerging from our great industry.
 
Opportunities abound for folks working in the digital advertising industry to re-write the marketing rule book as digital advertising prepares for a wave of technological change not seen since the dot.com boom.

But before we get carried away with what the future holds, we need to ask ourselves whether we are we ready to take advantage of these opportunities?

It has been 16 years since the world wide web escaped the university environment in Australia with the creation of the first commercial ISPs, connect.com and Ozemail. And while this digital teenager has come a long way, its growth during the next two years will eclipse its achievements to date. By then we’ll have an 18 year old on our hands, a grown-up. But will we be ready to handle it?

In my opinion the technological cusp on which we’re perched will soon reveal exciting new areas of technology that will touch each and every one of us and I’m keen to discuss a few of these areas in my coming blogs:

•  The digital home

• Mobility

• Content

• Point of sale

Let’s touch on the ‘digital home’ as a key area to watch.

With the evolution of the digital home opening up living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms across the world, we’ll see more content and rich information accessed than ever. Obviously huge opportunities exist for advertisers to get right to the heart of it. 

What to watch out for:

• IPTV will take off which enables catch up TV, information and interaction. Basically, TV as we know it today will become just one of many applications on the jumbo-screen computer in our living rooms.

• 3DTV: The big hitter at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in LA and you won’t even need to wear those dorky 3D glasses like we all did to see Avatar and Up to experience 3D TV. Panasonic actually launched the first 3D TV this week in New York, so the wheels are definitely in motion.

• Devices like Telstra’s T-Hub will be launched. A simple flat panel touch screen that sits in your kitchen or study – wherever you have the home phone – Telstra’s T-Hub is like a smartphone in your home. Using T-Hub, you’ll be able to do things like send SMS’s, use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, manage your calendar and contacts, browse sites like BigPond or Yellow Pages, listen to Internet radio, use it as a digital photo frame all from the comfort of your own kitchen or lounge room. You’ll even be able to make phone calls.

I’ll go into mobility next month, with advances in targeting already happening today it’ll be one to watch. So watch this space.