Swiss believe in free Internet for all
Under the brand "OMG Trend Talk", the Omnicom Media Group launched a series of lectures that took place for the first time last week. Based on the "Mediamap 2015-2020" study, Swiss media trends were highlighted and discussed.
Why has Facebook been able to grow so explosively? When will the free Internet come for everyone? What media will be consumed in the future? Are you a digital forerunner or a mainstream entertainer after all? How do media users perceive the industry-standard media genres? Questions like these were answered at the first "OMG Trend Talk" with the help of the agency's own study "Mediamap 2015-2020" and discussed between clients and agency employees. The future study was placed in the Swiss context by means of a survey of 400 consumers, which, according to the press release, was carried out in advance especially for the study.
Free Internet and dying print media
The majority of the population can be classified as "mainstream entertainers" - media are consumed for entertainment. Only very few are "digital forerunners" who immediately pick up on the latest communication trends and use technologies accordingly before anyone else. And yet, a large proportion of the Swiss are concerned with the current issues in the communications industry: 85 percent would like to see free Internet for the entire population, and 70 percent believe that this scenario will come to pass. Only 19 percent would like to see the printed daily newspaper disappear, but 40 percent believe this will happen before 2020. In addition, media users have a flexible way of thinking ahead of the communications industry: Media consumers think independently of genre; for them, categorization into content (moving image, audio, image/text) is more plausible.
Two future scenarios
Overall, media consumption will grow. However, developments in the media landscape seem completely unpredictable in view of the accelerated fragmentation of media. Reliable forecasts are therefore needed as to how brand advertising can succeed at the most diverse touchpoints in the future. Similar to a navigation system, the "OMD Media Map" provides clear pointers and reliable forecasts for the future. Here, companies can find out which trends will determine the media landscape, the allocation of advertising media and the advertising dialog with consumers today and in the coming years. The future study bases its reliable forecasts on a multi-method approach consisting of expert interviews, trend monitoring and consumer surveys. For their realistic view of the future, the OMD researchers use two scenarios that limit possible developments in the media and advertising industry:
The conservative scenario assumes that trends that have already been observed in the past will continue. This means that the majority of consumers will continue to use primarily the established key media and adapt new channels only slowly. Digital technologies continue to develop, but at a rate of growth that does not overwhelm people. The scenario describes a "smoothed" extrapolation of the developments discernible to date.
The digital-progressive scenario describes a future in which digital channels occupy a central space in consumers' media use. Economic and social trends such as increasing mobility and flexibility mean that technical innovation cycles are becoming ever shorter. Access to media content via the Internet, mobile devices or extended options of networked smart TV devices is essentially free of charge for users. Digital media and forms of communication are replacing traditional ones as they offer cost and service advantages. The scenario includes self-reinforcing effects that further accelerate the change.
A free abstract of the study "Media Map 2015-2020" (without Swiss context) can be downloaded from here be requested.
