Once a week we look back at last year’s New Media Days conference and serve you the key insights from a session. If you want the full package, webcasts and slides from all sessions can be found on the NMD main site.
Or you may take a look at Conference Crunching explained.
MTV Denmark did their presentation of present and future development at New Media Days, October 2007. Two years earlier MTV had bought it’s way into the Guitar Hero franchise. Only one year earlier the Danish branch had launched the national website. And in early 2008, Channel Manager Kenneth Kristensen told us, Denmark would see a launch of a new IM music service from MTV. To my knowledge that never happened, but Kenneth gave us a good view of some 2007 MTV user research.
If the teenagers won’t watch TV someone like MTV is looking at trouble. The international research analysis, “Circuits of Cool”, had the goal of tapping into the young customers’ needs of technology, media and networking to point a twenty-year-old media conglomerate safely into the new century.
Points of notice:
– Danish youngsters value tech functionality and ease of use more than their American or Japanese counterparts, who are more into the latest – but not necessarily greatest – gadgets.
– Friends (ie. networks) are valued more than family – at least in the Western hemisphere. In more traditionally minded cultures, such as India or Brazil, family still take the lead.
– Old media, especially print, still scored high with young people when asked where they look to discover new music.
The primary strategy for the future, Kenneth Kristensen told us, was continuing to focus on exclusive content. That will get you the eyeballs. Being a major cross-media organisation, MTV Networks International has a real advantage in that respect. With two mobile TV channels running on the Danish network in October 2007, MTV was quite well positioned. They even customised the mobile content, unlike any other Danish service provider at that time. However the mobile TV market in Denmark hadn’t at that time taken off – and actually it still hasn’t.
Post Session:
Guitar Hero III was about to be launched when MTV Denmark did their presentation. Once out it became a huge success, but MTV really didn’t have a part in it since they bought into Harmonix and thus “only” secured revenue from past versions of Heroes. Instead MTV developed the concept into Rock Band – another gaming success to show that interactive music is the right place to aim.
A brand new release from MTV is due next Monday the 15th when MTVNHD reaches its first public eyeballs. The complex abbreviation stands for MTV Network High Definition and it prides itself in being the first ever international high definition service dedicated to music and kids. To begin with it is launched in Belgium, Finland, Norway, Poland, Sweden and yes, Denmark.
More on the subject:
Computerworld: Danish article on the MTV.dk session.
Microsoft Advertising on the “Circuits of cool” research findings.