Vision+Media exists to help grow the digital and creative industry in England's Northwest

In collaboration with the Indie Training fund (ITF), Vision+Media had the pleasure of hosting  a Monetising digital platforms & right workshop last week.  A half-day introductory session to help production companies, interactive agencies and sole traders understand how to monetise content on digital platforms, and to exploit the content rights in the UK & overseas.

Lead by experts in their field Peter Cowley and Justin Judd. Peter is the founder & CEO of Spirit digital media. Prior to Spirit, Peter was MD of Digital Media at Endemol UK. Justin founded i-Rights in December 2004 to focus on the management, distribution and exploitation of IPR and content on digital and interactive media and emerging platforms. It became part of the Digital Rights Group in June 2007. Together they brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the workshop whilst keeping the session interactive.

The audience was extremely varied, from producers, charities and journalists to marketeers and economists.  However, the majority had a similar question that needed answering.. ‘how do I make money from digital platforms?’

The session kicked off with the main elements of digital. Digital is..

• Economically ‘Efficient’- easily replicable, easily distributed- very little resource required
• Massively expands choice (and reduces scarcity)- content becomes commodified, high visibility
• Deflationary- Fewer people, lower cost margins and harder to make money
• Decentralises control- highly fragmented

These points may paint a bleak picture of the digital world and the difficulty in making money from it but this is not the intention. These points are emphasizing the importance of completely understanding digital before trying to make money out of it. If understood, there could be a wealth of opportunity ahead.  The example that we were given was that of John Locke, an author who published directly through Amazon using the digital platform of Kindle. He went directly to market with the digital version of his book, selling 1 million copies in the first 5 months, bypassing the publisher and any marketing. He understood the elements and reaped the rewards.

In addition to understanding digital, the payment models also needs to be considered. The following 3 models were presented to us:

I pay- putting your hand in your own pocket. Not ideal and always a risk but unfortunately when just starting up this is sometime the only option.
You pay- The consumer pays eg subscriptions
Someone else pays-  Sometimes funded by advertising or sponsorship. Usually indicating the service you provide is free to the consumer but paid for by the bigger brands.
 

When considering the payment models it is also worth considering the A,B, C, D of revenue streams: 
Key trends will also play a huge part in the success of your product/ service, there is a need to understand:

Technological Change
• Broadband, powerful devices, open platforms, frictionless payments
Audience Behaviour Change
• Increase in on-line & mobile consumption of content; co-viewing
Business Models
• Rise of on-line advertising & consumer transactions, product
integration & placement etc.
Democratisation of production
• Bedrooms producers can compete with international production cos

By understanding the technology and audience behaviour, the business model can then be learnt very quickly. Products that can be adapted swiftly in response to technology and consumer feedback are usually the most successful.

Success stories

• Hulu-  Online US video service, funded through targeted advertising- users pay nothing. £0.5 billion turnover in the first 3 years and still growing.
• 2nd Screen Apps- Co-viewing, social TV and sharing clips.  Game shows work well, offering an additional online experience to the viewer. Such as online tours, play along online etc. Million Pound Drop achieved co-viewing  share of up to 5% of the TVaudience
• Social Games- For example, leading developer Zynga. Games free to play but have to pay for extras within the game.

Peter and Justin’s workshop was captivating. Sadly, this blog doesn’t cover half of the interesting points that were made, not to mention the excellent project ideas that the delegates had to offer. Hopefully, they are now in a better position to take their projects forward and monetise.