Blockchain in media: More than a one-hit wonder
August 23, 2018
August 23, 2018
Blockchain is not about just financial services anymore. Media and platform companies—which include traditional players and leading platform-enabled companies—are among the other industries taking notice of its potential. In fact, 55 percent of the media and platform executives Accenture Strategy surveyed think blockchain is a top-five priority for their company. And 83 percent plan to increase investments in the next three years.
Despite this interest and investment, media and platform companies are still in the very early stages of seizing blockchain’s potential to reinvent their core businesses. These companies have the opportunity to harness blockchain to optimize value chains, facilitate ecosystem-wide efficiencies and support innovative business models. All this while boosting competitiveness and making the most of three major industry trends.
55%
of media and platform executives think blockchain is a top-five priority for their company
83%
of executives plan to increase blockchain investments in the next three years
The first of these industry trends is strategic co-opetition, which is mutually-beneficial collaboration among competitors. Driven by consumers’ insatiable appetite for content, media and platform companies are increasingly collaborating and sharing tangible assets like content and software, and intangible assets like data and customer relationships.
Most industry players know how important strategic co-opetition has become—44 percent of executives see it as the market trend that will have the highest impact on their business in the next three to five years. Nevertheless, cumbersome processes, financial transaction opacity, piracy and trust gaps make collaboration difficult. But blockchain can change this. There are many ways it can apply in media and platform ecosystems—from the creation of blockchain consortia to applications in mergers and acquisitions.
Companies can either embrace the blockchain ecosystem or be disrupted by the competition.
Creating new value for consumers is the second media and platform industry trend that blockchain can address. As the media and platform industry scrambles to meet evolving consumer demands, segment-of-one targeting has become critical for competitiveness. Only 44 percent of consumers believe that online entertainment is tailored to their needs, indicating that traditional targeting methods based solely on consumer demographics are no longer cutting it. Today’s consumers want hyper-personalized experiences that few companies can provide effectively.
However, the granular, validated data that can be captured with blockchain will help media and platform companies form another level of personalized engagement—understanding consumers at a psychographic versus just a demographic level. Companies can also improve insights for key business decisions, such as optimizing campaign investments and improving attribution models.
Finally, blockchain technology can help media and platform companies improve data security. The hard truth is that media and platform companies have nothing if they cannot protect data and grant access only to those who need it. The industry must improve in this area. Just 49 percent of consumers trust their online entertainment providers.
Blockchain technology is poised to be a game-changer here. It creates an auditable and tamper-evident history of an asset whether it is a device or content. No one owns this history, which creates a new level of visibility and transparency. Already today, 52 percent of the media and platform companies we surveyed think that security is the most important benefit of blockchain.
Companies can use blockchain to drive both revenue growth and cost reduction— the holy grail for most C-suite executives. Here’s how to get started:
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