{"id":103356,"date":"2015-05-11T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/10-content-predictions-bill-gates-got-right-in-1996-2\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:41:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:41:46","slug":"10-content-predictions-bill-gates-got-right-in-1996-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/10-content-predictions-bill-gates-got-right-in-1996-2\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Content Predictions Bill Gates Got Right in 1996"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty years or one score ago \u2014 during the dawn of email, Yahoo\u2019s first IPO offering and Sandra Bullock\u2019s magnum opus The Net \u2014 Bill Gates penned the 1996 essay \u201cContent is King\u201d<\/a>. An ambitious forecast on the future of the internet, both Yahoo and even Microsoft have failed to capitalize on the Gates prophecy, but that\u2019s not to say the \u201cContent is King\u201d mantra isn\u2019t alive and well. In fact, his words may be more relevant now than ever\u2026<\/p>\n

1. Television as a footprint<\/h2>\n

\u201cContent is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting,\u201d opens Gates\u2019 essay as he compares the early days of the internet to that of the 1950s era of broadcast TV. It was during this time that TV became a cornerstone of advertising plans<\/a> <\/span>\u2014 as well as a Mad Men subplot \u2014 boosting commercial spending to historical highs as the reach provided by that glowing box exceeded any other medium. And consumer consumption was more than willing to keep up with the hard sell, growing household spending more than tenfold from $12.3 million in 1949 to $128 million in 1951.<\/p>\n

The historical TV numbers sound eerily familiar as today advertisers ramp up their paid media efforts to jockey for position among competitors. By 2019 it\u2019s estimated that digital will account for 38 percent of global ad outlays<\/a>,<\/span> a proportion as large as TV, which has still clung to the biggest share of spending for more than a decade. \u201cBut what about that ROI?\u201d you\u2019ll cry. In 2014, US consumers spent $278 billion online and\u00a0that number just keeps on growing<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

2. The definition of content is wide<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to an interactive network such as the Internet, the definition of \u2018content\u2019 becomes very wide,\u201d says Bill Gates, and he\u2019s not wrong. Web content encompasses anything that is textual, visual or even aural in nature. That Snapchat you flipped to your friend? It\u2019s content. The Instagram of your perfectly arranged latte, croissant and morning read\u2026 #BreakfastClub? It\u2019s content. The autoplay ad that forces extra loud audio through your browser? That\u2019s unfortunately content too.<\/p>\n

Social media has helped blend the boundaries between traditional text and multimedia content<\/a>, making the role of a marketing strategist all the more important in being able to wrangle each of these delivery systems, at the most appropriate time. It\u2019s up to brands to follow the audience and engage through the method they choose rather than attempt to fit their latest campaign into a square hole.<\/p>\n

3. No company is too small<\/h2>\n

\u201cBut the broad opportunities for most companies involve supplying information or entertainment. No company is too small to participate,\u201d says Bill (I feel we\u2019re on a first name basis by now). The caveat to this statement is a particularly interesting one in light of recent developments in social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 1 million SMBs [small-to-medium businesses] have posted videos and done really small ad buys around them,\u201d Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg recently said in the company\u2019s Q1 earnings call<\/a><\/span>. \u201cAnd that’s pretty cool because I don’t think there are probably One million advertisers who have bought TV ads in that same period of time.\u201d Case in point? Content marketing in the social sphere has levelled the playing field between brands. Sure we can argue that organic referral is increasingly being curtailed at the expense of paid media (here\u2019s looking at you Facebook), but still the cost of such placement is significantly lower than traditional TV\/radio\/print advertising.<\/p>\n

4. Print will diversify or die<\/h2>\n

\u201cTo be successful online, a magazine can\u2019t just take what it has in print and move it to the electronic realm. There isn\u2019t enough depth or interactivity in print content to overcome the drawbacks of the online medium,\u201d says Bill. In the past decade, no other industry has struggled as much as print in adapting to the online revolution. Newspapers and magazines have suffered dwindling subscription numbers, as well as a loss in ad revenue<\/a><\/span>, as readers turn to the internet for free news 24\/7. Even media pay walls have failed to stem the loss, while new media companies like Gawker and Buzzfeed prosper under the digital reign.<\/p>\n

5. Give them something of value<\/h2>\n

\u201cIf people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will.\u201d I\u2019m sure when Bill Gates first made this claim, he had no idea of the future dominance of tablets and smartphones allowing for constant connectivity anywhere. It\u2019s less of a chore to \u201cturn on a computer and read a screen,\u201d but still the sentiment remains that people\u2019s valuable time should only be taken up with in-depth, quality content. This is the basis for all content marketing, but often in the squeeze of 140 characters, instantaneous reaction and ever-increasing post frequency, it\u2019s easy to forget.<\/p>\n

6. International reach on a local scale<\/h2>\n

\u201cAlthough the gold rush atmosphere today is primarily confined to the United States, I expect it to sweep the world as communications costs come down and a critical mass of localised content becomes available in different countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost two decades after Bill Gates predicted the rise in global connectivity, more than 40 percent of the world\u2019s population can access the internet. Of course, this also highlights the unconnected 60 percent, but increasingly this number is shrinking thanks to philanthropic initiatives<\/span>. Critical mass will one day be achieved, leading to increased demand for localised geo-targeted content adapted to suit language, currency and culture.<\/p>\n

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