PREFACE
Over the years, it is assumed that evolution is the right way forward
and it is the way, nature choses a path to move forward after many
permutations of trial and error.
One such evolution going strongly, is the one that we are witnessing
upfront and its progress is so fast that it has become a revolution.
The thing in question is the digital revolution. Effect of digital
revolution on media and as a whole on the advertising.
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PROLOGUE
USER CENTRICITY is a term given to the growing power of populace
in general. Today in advertising world, ad agencies are facing an
uphill task of convincing clients. Clients which are well versed and
well equipped in use of tools of trade like Photoshop and
CorelDraw etc.
One should be wary of the invisible giant in the room and that’s
exactly what is happening in the advertising world today. Focusing
on the agency part first, advertising agency are finding it
increasingly hard to convince clients on the aptness of the
campaign, media plans or the general print ads they create as
because the client now feels that the digital creation of the
aforementioned is not as hard or as costly as it was assumed by them
beforehand as everyone now has access to internet and the bar has
been set higher by other agencies, so on and so forth.
Power to the user takes a whole new term here as unlike other
professions, power to the user on the contrary means that the power
is being taken away from somebody, which in this case is the hapless
agency, who is sandwiched between client and consumer.
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INTRODUCTION
User Centricity is a term given to the growing power of Users.
In the digital front, it defines the growing-
Acceptance
Customizations
Familiarity
It also stakes to the endorsement of digital society and its
Tools
Mechanisms
Working
Modus-operandi by the Common Man
Any user of today’s Digital services, is far more evolved than the
average
user a decade back.
Concordantly, this research attempts to discover -
Points of Conflict
Approval
Degree of Acceptance
Causality
Conclusion
of the fight between the ever-evolving powers of both,
“The Digital Marketer” and “The Digital User”.
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PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
One of the foremost areas of research is identifying the focal point of
study to be undertaken and the reason for which it has proved itself
necessary.
A digital user is now that evolved entity which has shown and proven
its worth in changing the market perception and product acceptance.
He / she is now more evolved and more connected with more say in
the things at hand be it social, cultural or economical. A digital user is
now more aware has better perception and ingenuity, and is heavily
dependent on the social sphere and digital biome.
Digital is now much bigger than IT or Telecom, digital has now
encompassed all the other subsets of connectivity. Thus us a digital
user is not merely limited to social presence or online persona, it’s a
manifestation of all evolving spheres of life which have been altered
by the advent of digital uni-sense in the singularity.
The digital marketer has come into existence for the sole reason that
business exists in the realm of the digital and the potential hiding the
digital user.
On a digital platform, the attributes are evened out, the big is not
bigger and the small is not smaller. On an even playing field, there only
can be so much scope of exposure or creativity to take effect.
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Failingly, the effect that has happened is saturation. The digital user
has now seen and accepted most of the tricks of the trade and is now
highly suspicious although still naïve, but the collective conscience is
growing alarmingly. With more and more power available to the
digital user, the digital marketer finds itself at a point where it can no
longer hold an elevated position to those the marketing is intended.
Hence the process of convincing or otherwise is severely hampered
even transparent. Thus cutting profit margins and naturally scope to
visualize creatively.
The age of specialization is passed, the age of convergence is here. The
underlying current of “to be better at everything”, has forced the
digital user to experiment, evolve and accept almost all of the digital
biome into its own personal laboratory.
An average user is not a worry to the biome. Hardly, not all digital
users are equal. The contention comes in when a singular user rises
above the collective powers of digital user and digital marketer subset.
When this happens, the issue of security, livelihood, economy and trust
between the user and marketer is shaken. Which results in even more
saturation of interest on the part of digital user.
User centricity is now being understood as good thing, almost a
promotion of sorts for applications, tools, software’s etc.
The mere concept of having an enlightened user is appealing to the
business as a connected digital user is easier to connect. However the
growing disparity begins with the increase in the canonical sense of
apathy on the part of digital user that hails every good thing as
extraordinary and every mediocre product or service as failure.
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This high strung arena where the performance index is measured in
the polarity of utter success or utter failure, user centricity is only
raising the bar higher and higher into the unknown.
Digital users who identify themselves to the digitally affiliated class, are prone to blatant manipulation by the digital economy itself. There seems to be emerging a pattern which suggests that the large part of the user base is extremely trustworthy to a part of the digital society but extremely averse to the other parts of the same society. The user doesn’t seem to demarcate applications or services based on their developers or providers. It is interesting to note that only 15 of the respondents have agreed that they are paranoid by their action being logged for whatever reason, almost 30 of them agreed to the fact that they are aware although they see no need to exercise restraint or clean their digital footprint. 30 A huge part of the recruited respondents show belief in technology and its effect but are oblivious in its actual progress and diversity. Most do not agree with the notion on unintended vs. intended usage of technology. Like a premeditated offering with a stereotype set cast, most only seem to believe a digital product will only have the use for what it is being marketed as of now. Future premeditation is absent. 31 There is a severe bias, almost a polarity of thoughts when it comes to UGC vs MGC debate. The user agrees to being saturated but maintains hope of encountering creative ideas from the UGC class owing to better technology developments. Although the same user shows a loss of interest in MGC, who are using the same technology and better specialization to bring out more creative output. Hilariously, the notion, “Content is Junk, Container is King”, is being proved here to some extent. Point to note and ponder is the user expects the digital marketer to bring forth more creative methods to satiate its digital hunger and consumption but is not ready to accept technological advancements, thereby severly limiting any future progressive value of the biome. A vast majority of respondents who believe that the photographers of today are better due to access to better technology, arises a set of respondents from the former respondents who believe that the 32 disconnect is growing between media owner, media houses and ad agencies. It’s a clear indication to the fact that digital revolution is aiding user centricity to such an extent that corporate houses are finding it hard to prove their mettle amongst the barrage of onslaught from all sides, namely – its corporate rivals and from its own intended user base that is now becoming a case of friendly fire. 33 CONCLUSION The Digital User is very skeptic at first, although once broken-in with a new technology quickly maintains a balance with the same. The Digital User believes in Technological advancement, but doesn’t believe in the Notion, "it will happen so quickly". The Digital User is at a severe paradox with itself. It’s an exploring but non-discovering entity. The user seems to explore all available options only in the boundaries of its known and often preset digital hangouts. The power to the digital user comes from the spoon-feeding of the user from a subset of much more advance users, with the ratio heavily skewed but propagation is fast and relentless. Although the information and power through it, is spreading fast. It doesn’t hold true for ethic, culture and control of that information to follow the same dissemination speed and reach. User centricity has the power to influence social, cultural and business paradigm. There seems a tie on the effect of User Centricity on the relationship between a Media house, Media Owner and an Adv. Agency, which is entirely assumed, as a close assemblage would have pointed that the Digital User understands User Centricity which is simply not the case. Causality of ‘more promotion’ is ‘more saturation’ and ‘more saturation’ prompts even more ‘promotion’. Digital Users agree that they prefer UGC to MGC. 34 APPENDIX ADSENSE “Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google, and they can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis.” ADWORDS “Google AdWords is Google's main advertising product and main source of revenue. AdWords offers pay-per-click, that is, cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, cost-per-thousand-impressions or cost-per-mille (CPM) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads.” DIGITAL BIOME “An online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects” DIGITAL FOOTPRINT “A digital footprint is the data trail left by the interactions in a digital environment; including the use of TV, mobile phone, the World Wide Web, the internet and other connected devices and sensors. Digital Footprints provide data on what has been performed in the digital environment and the data can be used in behavioral targeting, behavioral economics, personalization, targeted marketing, and digital 35 reputation, social Influence and other social media or social graphing services.” DIGITAL MARKETER “Someone who makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, cellphones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers and other business partners. Internet Marketing is a major component of digital marketing.” DIGITAL SERVICES “An online service provider that sells access to digital library of content such as films, software, games, images, literature, etc. While no transfer of property is made, a nearly perfect duplicate of the data is made on a customer's computer.” DIGITAL SOCIETY “A smaller subset of the Digital Biome” DIGITAL USER “A person who understands the value of digital technology and uses this to seek out opportunities for implementing it with a view to make an impact.” FACEBOOK “Facebook is an online social networking service.” 36 FUSION TABLE API “Or simply Fusion Tables is a Web service provided by Google for data management. Data is stored in multiple tables that Internet users can view and download.” KISSMETRICS “A customer analytics platform designed for small and mid-sized companies” KLOUT “Klout is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank its users according to online social influence via the Klout Score”.
Digital users who identify themselves to the digitally affiliated class, are prone to blatant manipulation by the digital economy itself. There seems to be emerging a pattern which suggests that the large part of the user base is extremely trustworthy to a part of the digital society but extremely averse to the other parts of the same society. The user doesn’t seem to demarcate applications or services based on their developers or providers. It is interesting to note that only 15 of the respondents have agreed that they are paranoid by their action being logged for whatever reason, almost 30 of them agreed to the fact that they are aware although they see no need to exercise restraint or clean their digital footprint. 30 A huge part of the recruited respondents show belief in technology and its effect but are oblivious in its actual progress and diversity. Most do not agree with the notion on unintended vs. intended usage of technology. Like a premeditated offering with a stereotype set cast, most only seem to believe a digital product will only have the use for what it is being marketed as of now. Future premeditation is absent. 31 There is a severe bias, almost a polarity of thoughts when it comes to UGC vs MGC debate. The user agrees to being saturated but maintains hope of encountering creative ideas from the UGC class owing to better technology developments. Although the same user shows a loss of interest in MGC, who are using the same technology and better specialization to bring out more creative output. Hilariously, the notion, “Content is Junk, Container is King”, is being proved here to some extent. Point to note and ponder is the user expects the digital marketer to bring forth more creative methods to satiate its digital hunger and consumption but is not ready to accept technological advancements, thereby severly limiting any future progressive value of the biome. A vast majority of respondents who believe that the photographers of today are better due to access to better technology, arises a set of respondents from the former respondents who believe that the 32 disconnect is growing between media owner, media houses and ad agencies. It’s a clear indication to the fact that digital revolution is aiding user centricity to such an extent that corporate houses are finding it hard to prove their mettle amongst the barrage of onslaught from all sides, namely – its corporate rivals and from its own intended user base that is now becoming a case of friendly fire. 33 CONCLUSION The Digital User is very skeptic at first, although once broken-in with a new technology quickly maintains a balance with the same. The Digital User believes in Technological advancement, but doesn’t believe in the Notion, "it will happen so quickly". The Digital User is at a severe paradox with itself. It’s an exploring but non-discovering entity. The user seems to explore all available options only in the boundaries of its known and often preset digital hangouts. The power to the digital user comes from the spoon-feeding of the user from a subset of much more advance users, with the ratio heavily skewed but propagation is fast and relentless. Although the information and power through it, is spreading fast. It doesn’t hold true for ethic, culture and control of that information to follow the same dissemination speed and reach. User centricity has the power to influence social, cultural and business paradigm. There seems a tie on the effect of User Centricity on the relationship between a Media house, Media Owner and an Adv. Agency, which is entirely assumed, as a close assemblage would have pointed that the Digital User understands User Centricity which is simply not the case. Causality of ‘more promotion’ is ‘more saturation’ and ‘more saturation’ prompts even more ‘promotion’. Digital Users agree that they prefer UGC to MGC. 34 APPENDIX ADSENSE “Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google, and they can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis.” ADWORDS “Google AdWords is Google's main advertising product and main source of revenue. AdWords offers pay-per-click, that is, cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, cost-per-thousand-impressions or cost-per-mille (CPM) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads.” DIGITAL BIOME “An online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects” DIGITAL FOOTPRINT “A digital footprint is the data trail left by the interactions in a digital environment; including the use of TV, mobile phone, the World Wide Web, the internet and other connected devices and sensors. Digital Footprints provide data on what has been performed in the digital environment and the data can be used in behavioral targeting, behavioral economics, personalization, targeted marketing, and digital 35 reputation, social Influence and other social media or social graphing services.” DIGITAL MARKETER “Someone who makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, cellphones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers and other business partners. Internet Marketing is a major component of digital marketing.” DIGITAL SERVICES “An online service provider that sells access to digital library of content such as films, software, games, images, literature, etc. While no transfer of property is made, a nearly perfect duplicate of the data is made on a customer's computer.” DIGITAL SOCIETY “A smaller subset of the Digital Biome” DIGITAL USER “A person who understands the value of digital technology and uses this to seek out opportunities for implementing it with a view to make an impact.” FACEBOOK “Facebook is an online social networking service.” 36 FUSION TABLE API “Or simply Fusion Tables is a Web service provided by Google for data management. Data is stored in multiple tables that Internet users can view and download.” KISSMETRICS “A customer analytics platform designed for small and mid-sized companies” KLOUT “Klout is a website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank its users according to online social influence via the Klout Score”.
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