I’m just back from spending a week in L.A. for the 2011 Spring Digital Hollywood Conference…my first time attending the show.   So many panels, fascinating people, and great topics of conversation.  The biggest crisis that seems to be facing this industry is one of identity…when I can get content anywhere on any device any time I want it, can I still say I am in the TV business? 

Having been raised on the digital side of this equation, I found it fascinating to see what an internal struggle this issue has become.  In my mind, production of good content continues to be the real source of value.  Good content will usually rise to the top.  Technology has simply increased the number of opportunities to consume that content, as well as the number of opportunities to monetize that content.  It also has introduced measurement into the equation.  Measurement puts pressure on the content providers to prove they are delivering the audience advertisers want and need.  You also hear a lot more about how targeting is so important…why waste advertising dollars on the people who aren’t buying or will never buy your product?  Well, in my opinion, reach still matters because everyone has the opportunity to be an influencer.  Whether or not you buy my products, you can still help influence someone else who does. 

One of the biggest things I took away from the event was a quote from Adam Carolla, who noted following one panelist’s description on the state of the industry, “Do we really need ‘wild, wild west?’ Doesn’t one ‘wild’ really encapsulate everything we want to say?”  The second biggest take-away was a quote from Stan Kurnit of AdKeeper and founder of About.com -  He said, “It’s not that consumers don’t like advertising, they just don’t like how we are doing it.”  With the changes in technology and content distribution, consumers have choice. They have control.  That doesn’t mean they don’t want or even sometimes enjoy advertising…it just means we, as advertisers, need to do a better job at creating ads that add value, that entertain, and that truly inform.  It’s easy to say consumers aren’t impacted by advertising anymore, but that is far from the truth.  They just aren’t impacted by bad advertising anymore.  The expectation has been raised significantly.  There are plenty of interesting examples of companies doing it right now.  But the industry definitely continues to evolve at the intersection of content and context.