The Sentient World - SIIA Content VIA Platforms Speech

To those who attended today’s Content via Platforms closing keynote at the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) event in San Francisco, I hope the time proved valuable. The theme of the “sentient world” is one that you’ll hear Altimeter talking a lot about over the coming year. Sentient world is a journey that transforms our definition of content, and builds on the trends of mobility and relies upon the emergence of mobile strategists inside of organizations. I’ve brought together a brief glimpse of the future in my presentation below.

As the world around us begins to interact with more of the technology we live with and carry every day, the impact on media and content providers is huge, but so is the opportunity. This presentation focused on the three main items that should be on the radar of content executives:

• Customers are ready and competition won’t wait: Customers are relying on mobile for more and more of their daily routines, from shopping and getting directions to interacting with their social graph and, increasingly, their environment. In addition, companies that have traditionally been partners – such as agencies – are getting smart about how to serve this mobile use case. That expertise being apply for fast-moving competitors makes these partners “frenemies.” To add complexity the age of user-generated content is upon us with mobile driving this trend ever faster. Embracing mobile, developing an understanding of what a cross-brand or cross-company mobile strategy looks like is job 1.
• Everyone and nobody is driving: So, we realize the race is on and everyone wants to get in on doing mobile, but which direction to rush into? build an app? It’s costly and not always the tool for the job but conversely can be a high-profile endeavor with great returns. What about mobile advertising and evolving the content marketing to take on mobile? Participating in the mobile layer of content that is evolving as our physical world is more connected? All tempting and all potentially successful endeavors but only if there is a central person or department to vet mobile strategies and coordinate the many moving parts internally and externally. It’s time for a mobile strategist.
• What comes next? The sentient world: We’re racing toward a future where the devices we carry, the cars in our driveway and the world around us will all start to interact using the bevvy of sensors and radios they already carry. To date, our “cutting edge” mobile tools from 2D barcodes, to NFC to Augmented Reality have all been reactive tech. The user needs to do something in order to initiate the experience. This will begin to change as natural and autonomous interaction between human and machine improve. We’re already seeing this with the growth in touch and voice-activated technology, we’ll continue to see it with gesture and activity sensing technology a la the Microsoft Kinect for Windows. This world will require its content to be new and different and will rely on the knowledge of a mobile market and a strategy headed by the mobile strategist to get there. Get ready, the exciting ride is just about to begin.

Feel free to download and share the presentation from my keynote embedded below. I’ll be posting video of the actual speech as it’s available.

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