Turn the TV on son…

I attended an excellent event hosted by Michael Taylor and his Insider team this week on the business of media.

Not only was it enlightening to see first hand the enormous progress and potential of MediaCityUK, but the session threw up a number of talking points, most notably changes in what media we use to consume information. We all have different views on this, backed up by conflicting stats.

Speaker Ed Shedd (great name) from Deloitte surprised the audience with extracts from his research which confirmed TV and print still dominant in terms of media use compared to its digital counterparts.

He also revealed that fewer than one per cent of Twitter’s registered users tweet. You could almost hear the iPhones being clunked down in disbelief. Tweets at the ready.

It was almost heartening to hear that traditional channels are still very much in demand. Only this week we gained a double page spread in a regional newspaper for a client. On message, they were delighted. Are we dinosaurs in denial?

I think not. The truth is that people still want to read print, while their opinions on the general election were largely influenced by TV. Traditional media is still strong. Nevertheless, digital is now playing a much more significant role in all our lives and will only get bigger. This for me highlights the need for organisations to integrate their comms strategies across multiple media platforms.

The stats at the business of media event also revealed that different mediums are more popular for certain audiences. Of course this is a truism, yet it warrants consideration. For example, my old man, (Big Mike) 75, won’t be using his iPhone to read Gardener’s World. This brings me back onto the subject of relevance – making sure the channel is pertinent to the audience.

It’s all about making connections. It always will be. The big difference now is that we live in an instant world. And in an era where consumers have easy access to thousands of channels, opinion, research, consideration and intelligence have never been as important for us communications professionals.

My final thought is about the growing trend of using multiple media platforms. For me, this has been in vogue for as long as I can remember. As a child, if I had a pound for every time my dad said ‘turn the TV on son and pass me the paper’…

Some great speakers on show, thanks to Insider for a top event.