Gates Predicts A Converged Future For Online Advertising
Access to media will be revolutionised over the next few years, according to Microsoft boss Bill Gates, who told yesterday’s Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Engage conference that consumers will soon tailor every aspect of media consumption thanks to massively advanced technology.
In the near future, the debate between online and offline advertising will be obsolete according to Gates, who claims that all media channels will soon be powered by the internet.
As the boundaries between media such as the web, TV and radio blur advertisers will have no choice but to turn their back on conventional, physical media he explained: “The future of advertising is the internet.”
Speaking alongside Sir Martin Sorrell and Lord Puttnam, Gates told the IAB conference that physical media such as DVDs and CDs will soon become obsolete, as consumers switch to single handheld devices to meet all their needs, accessing media from a centralised local source within the home.
The technology mogul also predicts that consumers will soon be able to manipulate media beyond recognition, requesting programmes such as sports highlights not just at a time that suits them, but in a format and duration that they can handle. For example, football highlights could be accessed via on-demand TV, but automatically edited on a personal basis to fit each viewer’s amount of free-time.
Technology such as voice activation will become the norm in the near future, according to Gates, with personal technology “disappearing into the environment as we are all connected to the internet.”
However, the march of technology must be matched by quality content explained Lord Puttnam, who stated that “technology can only serve as a bridge – never as a destination.”
Elsewhere Jon Ghazi of BT, warned advertisers that the increased choice offered by technology means they must work harder to engage with consumers, predicting that successful marketing activity will be forced to “depart from making statements” in order to create dialogue through new media channels.
Ghazi went on to explain that, faced with increased choice, consumers will turn their back on interruptive advertising, regardless of the channel used to deliver it, forcing advertisers to generate meaningful relationships between themselves and consumers.
IAB: 020 8683 955 www.iabuk.net