The legacy television advertising media industry has been disrupted by the advance of YouTube, TikTok and social media; streaming video; procurement-led buyer/seller disintermediation; commerce media expansion by Amazon, Walmart, Kroger and other retailers; and the collapse of traditional trade communications and networking events as effective business-building tools. Demand for advertising inventory exceeded supply from its earliest days of local newspaper publishing to the heyday of network television in the 1990s. Advertising sales and marketing evolved as a relationship-dependent business, requiring minimal B2B marketing investments, and fostering a non-diverse workforce built on nepotism and requiring little ongoing education. Today, industry realities have dramatically shifted, with continuing transformation on the near and far-term horizon.
- The pockets of advertising inventory for which there is high demand are shrinking.
- Advertising buying and selling has shifted from a relationship-led to a transactional data and algorithm-led business.
- Investments in advertising supported media, especially legacy media categories, are steadily declining as budgets shift to commerce media, YouTube, streaming and CTV, and alternate video options.
- The ability of advertising supported media companies and agencies to communicate and build relationships with brand and procurement officers who now control advertising budgets has been radically disintermediated and will continue to shift influence away from media agencies and sellers.
- The growth of advertising-supported media companies is dependent on building new workforce competencies to match the changing priorities and realities of marketers and agencies.
- The success of legacy advertising sales organizations is dependent on shifting B2B marketing budgets from long-term top-of-funnel awareness and relationship building to bottom-of-funnel on-demand education and lead generation.
- The B2B marketing and education category is ripe for reinvention.
- MediaVillage Education Foundation is the leading industry investor in building SaaS tools for navigating these dynamic industry shifts.
- MediaVillage is leading the charge to reinvent B2B marketing and support the young diverse workforce, structured to support slow-to-change and budget-restricted legacy organizations.
Studies published by the Harvard Business School, Kelley School of Business and MediaVillage prove that the essential core ingredients for industry and corporate growth are investments in a diverse workforce and on-demand educational resources for both team and customer development. Recognizing their historic underperformance in education and diversity, the media industry has invested more than $20 million in MediaVillage over the past two decades to develop and integrate five educational and diversity applications into a structured and turn-key B2B marketing and workforce education platform:
- B2B content marketing and stakeholder education (MediaVillage Knowledge Exchange);
- Diverse workforce development (AdvancingDiversity.org);
- Market intelligence, performance measurement and business forecasting (The Myers Report);
- Free thought leadership and educational self-publishing (MediaVillage Thought Leaders);
- AI-based vertical advertising industry-specific search (MeetingPrep.ai).
MediaVillage has developed, organized and integrated these applications into a technology-enabled managed services platform. MediaVillage future-proofs our members' business growth by empowering companies to exert greater control, flexibility, and transparency over their B2B education and diversity efforts.
Funded through non-profit contributions and The Myers Report research subscriptions, these applications empower businesses to drive growth by more effectively and efficiently breaking down organizational silos and building connections across their rapidly changing B2B ecosystem. MediaVillage solutions have been proven successful within the media industry and are positioned for exponential growth both within the media, marketing, entertainment and advertising community and through expansion to multiple business categories.
At the May 19-22 Media Financial Management Conference, being held at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville, Sonia David of the ANA, Ashwini Karandikar of the 4As, and Matt Young of Vidmob will join moderator Jack Myers to discuss industry issues and collaboration among financial professionals across the marketing ecosystem. Learn more here.