In the media landscape, change is everywhere you look. 

Channel 4’s CEO, Alex Mahon, recently joined us at Salesforce: Innovate Together. We had an insightful conversation, discussing the seismic shifts in viewing habits accelerated by pandemic lockdowns, and the evolution of a decade of explosive growth in video streaming. 

Today, the average UK viewer now watches 150 minutes of television and a further 120 minutes of video on their devices each day. As Alex says, “they watch content wherever they want, on whatever device they want, and ideally, they don't want to pay for it.”

So how do you lead ambitious transformation that puts your customer at the heart of decision making, diversifying new revenue streams and prioritising digital growth?

Well, it starts with learning more about the things people want.

Moving to digital involves a paradigm shift from being product-focused to putting people first.

By analysing data and uncovering trigger points, companies can: make their customer central to programme-making, unify and automate decision making, diversify revenue streams and prioritise digital growth.

Transforming quickly, as viewing habits demand, means accelerating digitisation, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of brand values. Increasing resilience, agility and efficiency is a balance. Because data also tells us that the consumer demand for trust has risen in recent times. People need to believe that their needs are understood implicitly, in the here and now – they’re seeking a more meaningful way to connect, as well as finding a connection.

Indeed, ‘meaningful’ wins the battle for audience engagement.

Take Jamie Oliver cooking every night from home; it worked because like him and his family, we all felt trapped with the pressure of having to cook again. Britain was united and this was partly why Channel 4 improved its share of the market. 

Meaningful works for marketers too. It’s imperative to know what’s working and why. Content is king, but data rules by minimising risk. Underpinning media strategy, with a mix of data, hypothesis, opinions and insights means every decision has a qualitative base. And this is doubly important as more and more media companies expand to take on new revenue ideas.

How to maximise the potential of new digital-first revenue streams. 

5G now offers seamless connectivity, monetising the value chain as new streaming opportunities come into creation. So it’s crucial to be able to scale with the pace of digital opportunity. 

These are actually exciting times for exploring new revenue generators. Creativity can supercharge business models, and as Alex says, “if you’re experimenting, tell your employees you’re experimenting, so everyone can input and learn. Then celebrate the successful experiments.”

Hiring and empowering digitally savvy staff adds fresh thinking, agility and speed to the business cycle.

Salesforce Media Cloud promises to take you from mass media to ‘my’ media, gleaning audience insights that drive revenue across subscription advertising. In short, friction-free personalised engagement in one agile platform.

New insights from data will add momentum to increasingly bold ideas. As the old adage goes, there’s more to come. And if you like this, you may also like what’s next.

Watch the full session and others from Salesforce: Innovate Together here.