It's about that time of year: CES 2016 is almost upon us. From January 6 through 9, worldwide leaders in technology and marketing will converge on Las Vegas to celebrate the latest in consumer electronics and look forward upcoming industry trends. And again, a number of keynote addresses will serve to enlighten the audience about larger issues at hand, from cyber security to the future of media.
One of these keynote addresses should be particularly interesting for digital marketers, as YouTube's Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl will address members of the Entertainment Matters hub designed to engage the entertainment and content community on Thursday, January 7 in the Westgate Theater. His presentation will focus on the future of entertainment during the convergence of traditional and digital media, which should be especially relevant to businesses who are moving from traditional media into their digital counterparts.
“YouTube’s success in the realm of digital content has created a platform with the goal of allowing communities to share content in a whole new way” Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA, told us, “We are thrilled to welcome such a unique, innovative and powerful company to the keynote stage as CES continues to expand our Entertainment Matters Program and develop new hubs like C Space – the CES experience for creative communicators, brand marketers, advertising agencies, digital publishers and social networks. We look forward to hearing Robert’s views on the role of YouTube in the content world.”
Content Marketing Will Be Featured At CES 2016
Content marketing, of course, will be a major topic throughout January's CES. During his keynote address, we also expect Kyncl to address YouTube's decision-making process behind its new “Red” subscription service, which the platform introduced in late October with two key functionality points: an ad-free viewing experience, and downloadable content.
The first, of course, is one of YouTube's best selling points in marketing the service. As this year's ad blocking hysteria has shown, Internet users are becoming increasingly wary of and annoyed by ads that in their mind handicap the digital experience. That, in turn, has led to an increased necessity by marketers to move away from paid ad and into the content marketing realm, producing original and organic content that users want to consume. The introduction of a YouTube subscription service means Red users will in fact only see this type of organic content, with may necessitate a change in digital marketing strategy.
Download That YouTube Video For Later
Downloadable content, on the other hand, is a feature many YouTube users have requested for a long time, enabling them to save data by viewing videos even without an Internet connection. The process is simple: you download the content while connected to WiFi, then watch it when on the road. It's too early to judge consumer behavior using this new functionality, but it's not a leap to suggest that downloadable video could lead to a return to long-form video that goes beyond the increasingly necessary 15 and 30 second time limitation for maximum user attention. If a user is willing to download a video to their phone, they're more likely to invest in the time necessary to watch the entire thing.
Considering that Kyncl, who was vice president of content at Netflix before taking on a new challenge at YouTube, will present to an audience of entertainers and digital marketers alike, the topic of subscription services and their value in digital content creation and distribution will likely be a major topic. Either way, we're excited to hear what he says about digital content creation and the increased convergence of traditional and digital media.
Do you use video in your digital marketing repertoire? Do you have a strategy in place to account for the above-mentioned convergence and the changing audience needs of subscription services? Contact us to start the discussion about effective content marketing.
