Kool Kids and Gadgeters shall inherit television

[by Todd]

This is the beginning of “the end of television as we know it” and the future will only favor those who prepare today.

So sayeth IBM in The end of TV as we know it, A future industry perspective, a paper it's media and entertainment consulting group recently released. Odds are if you are reading this site, then the picture painted by the study is pretty familiar. It notes a growing division among consumers based on their media habits.

The audience of traditional consumers, those who just "lean back" and use TV for appointment viewing are called Massive Passives. Those who demand control over their experience are divided among Kool Kids and Gadgeters. For the moment the passives dominate the market. But by 2012, six years for those who are counting, the groups will unite in their control.

For companies of every stripe this is the real digital divide, one that will make marketers lives hell for the next decade.

While one consumer segment remains passive in the living room, the other will force radical change in business models in a search for anytime, anywhere content through multiple channels.

Agencies and marketing department need to be committing reports like this to memory. I know I  risk sounding like a kook on the the street shouting "The end is near," but the need for change, big meaningful change, is standing in the middle of the road waving like mad.

Sadly far too many companies, and their agencies, are asleep at the wheel.

(Via MIT Advertising Lab)