At a recent discussion about the future of media being cross boundary, one of the speakers raised the idea that for a business to succeed the boundary that they needed to cross was the boundary that is drawn by most people between work and life outside work.
She talked about the immense enthusiasm and energy that she, and people she knew, put into their personal projects outside work – creative projects, DIY, coaching kids teams, gardening etc. Her theory is that company’s need to gain that level of enthusiasm for the work that people do for which they earn their salaries.
This is undoubtedly true on two levels. First business is tough and if your workforce doesn’t genuinely buy into your culture and put real enthusiasm into their day to day tasks then you will probably be beaten by a competitor’s workforce who do manage it. Secondly you spend too much time at work to be doing a job that you cannot be passionate about. So if you can’t engage your passion during your day job, you’re probably in the wrong day job.
What I was less sure about was the level of energy that the speaker and her friends seemed to be expending on an ordinary weekend. My weekend plans were more about chilling and hanging out than creating or coaching. Momentarily feeling inadequate I then quickly decided that she was probably painting an exaggerated picture to make a point. According to a survey by Travelodge (reported in the Sunday Times) this is not at all unusual as many of us are rather creative in our reports about our weekend activities. Their poll of 5,000 adults suggested that 27% lie about what they’ve been up to. 20% felt others were having more fun than them and 41% yearned for more excitement. “Weekendvy” leads us to pretend we are painting the town red when in fact we’re catching up on sleep.
Perhaps because we’ve been so energetic in the office?
We need new measurement systems for TV content and we need them fast.
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011http://www.clipartguide.com
I was locked into a TV studio overlooking the Thames last week with Gerhard Zeiler, CEO of RTL Group and Charlie Crowe, CEO of C Squared. Charlie was grilling us on the future of TV for a MediaCom webcast.
We had a lot to talk about as we obviously live in interesting times as far as TV goes. On the one hand the power of television content is unquestionable – Saturday night still generates huge audiences on ITV. TV programmes are still water cooler discussion points. Social media (against many pundits predictions) has proved a way of strengthening live TV viewing not detracting from it. The use of smart phones and laptops whilst watching TV turns TV ads into a new point of sale.
On the other hand new generations are growing into the mass market with different ways of watching TV. The supremacy of traditional channels may come to be challenged by younger audiences who don’t revere the top 5 channels in the way the adult mass market has been brought up to do. And while it is true that whilst some programmes (such as X Factor) drive live viewing, other types of programme (for instance Skins) are more likely to be watched on laptops, mobiles and through catch up.
Gerhard Zeiler acknowledged that changes in how people choose to consume content are inevitable. He said last week “”We have to deliver our brands to wherever people want to watch them…. we need a measurement system that will cover every way of consuming content in every country.”
The development of a measurement system fit for this purpose will only enhance our ability to put commercials in front of the consumer at the right time for the right price. How long will we have to wait for it?
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