2021 Technology, Media and Entertainment (TME) Trends Report charts the pandemic’s impact on how people are consuming digital content. We’ve gathered insights from top-performing companies and shared their strategies for the year ahead.
Download the full report to see all trends and insights.
Key insights for media, entertainment and telecom companies.
Connecting to new opportunities.
56% of the media, entertainment and telecoms companies we surveyed reported unusual growth in the second half of 2020. But companies must overcome challenges such as legacy systems and gathering first-party data to increase revenue and capitalise on 5G. Download the 2021 TME Trends Report for insights to help you plan for success.
New opportunities in a changed world.
Two trends have emerged throughout the pandemic: lockdowns and restricted socialising have impacted consumer behaviour, and advances in technology have created new possibilities for digital content. At the start of the pandemic last March, Verizon reported that gaming data usage increased by 75%, web traffic was up 20% and video bandwidth usage jumped 12%. This supports Adobe’s findings in the 2021 TME Trends Report. More than half the media, entertainment and telecoms companies we surveyed reported unusual growth in new prospects over the second half of last year. 5G is further fuelling this growth through much faster broadband speeds that unlock more immersive experiences, especially on mobile. It’s now clear that 2021 will bring huge opportunities for companies that are ready to make the right investment decisions.
Our top recommendation for 2021:
Companies should avoid cutting corners when investing in 5G. Having a robust technological infrastructure in place will help them to thrive as consumer behaviour continues to evolve.
Immersive content will drive revenue growth.
If recent lockdowns triggered new demand for content, 5G will be responsible for keeping up the momentum. The higher speeds allow instant delivery of 4k-quality content on the move. As 5G’s infrastructure continues to roll out, there’s huge scope for both new and established companies in the media, entertainment and telecommunications sector to capitalise. The 2021 TME Trends Report revealed that 47% of respondents benefitted from enhanced mobile broadband services and 44% benefitted from new business models due to 5G. Few areas are this impact felt more than in the video gaming and eSports industries. A third of the companies we surveyed said that immersive content experiences are already being realised. However, telecoms companies will also benefit from this trend – recent research outlined a $150bn incremental opportunity in cloud gaming for carriers offering 5G.
Our top recommendation for 2021:
When we surveyed the best-performing companies from last year, 23% are investing in automated delivery of content and 27% in cloud collaboration tools as a strategy to improve customer experience.
The answers to 2021 are waiting for you here.
Enter the 2021 Digital Trends Experience and immerse yourself in a new world of opportunities. This is where trends come to life.
The importance of the single customer view.
The ability to deliver a joined-up customer experience is becoming increasingly crucial for decreasing costs and reducing churn. Across the media, entertainment and telecoms sector as a whole, top-performing companies are using data and analytics to gain a single customer view. This allows them to deliver compelling marketing messages along with more relevant products and services. 35% of companies said this is one of their top two strategies for 2021. But to do this requires building a relationship with customers and gathering first-party data. Only around 20% of companies we spoke to regard themselves as ‘highly effective’ at gathering first-party data to deliver strong experiences. Fewer still felt they communicated the value and benefits that customers get in exchange for opting in. For organisations to succeed, they need to recognise that their own customer data can provide an enormous competitive advantage.
Our top recommendation for 2021:
As the world becomes more privacy-conscious, companies must build trust and communicate value to customers. First-party data and consumer content are becoming critical to success.
Legacy systems are creating complications.
While younger streaming services like Netflix are pushing the boundaries of data science, mature organisations are struggling to adapt to modern consumer demands. 42% of companies we spoke to reported being held back by legacy systems. Even for companies with deep pockets, it’s a monumental challenge to transform themselves. The sheer volume of data and lack of integrations restricts the movement of data (for example, a lack of connection between adtech and martech systems), making it difficult to gain a unified and real-time view of the customer. These outdated systems hold many companies back when it comes to predictive targeting and creating more personalised customer experiences. It’s no surprise that 24% of companies surveyed in the 2021 TME Trends Report plan to invest in bridging the gap between offline and online experiences this year.
Our top recommendation for 2021:
Media and entertainment companies will struggle to succeed unless they can align themselves around the customer journey and unite the silos that have built up around traditional business functions.
Cultural challenges are a barrier to innovation.
2020 was a hard year for companies that were unable to adapt quickly. Businesses with rigid workplace cultures and siloed processes struggled to seize on opportunities to push new offerings. On the other hand, innovative brands used real-time customer insights to diversify away from physical events and instead focus on digital content, virtual events and ecommerce. While many media companies were making cutbacks due to lost advertising revenues, brands like Men’s Health, Good Housekeeping and Cosmo reported triple-digit increases in e-commerce. This year’s report shows one clear trend: that success in 2021 correlates with a culture of innovation and agility. In fact, top performers were less than half as likely as their mainstream competitors to describe their businesses as traditional working environments with an emphasis on stability.
Our top recommendation for 2021:
Companies must nurture and reward innovation and collaborative behaviour. Unless businesses are investing in technological change, they risk getting left behind by more agile competitors.
How industry leaders compare with the mainstream.
of top-performing companies in 2020 rated their customer experience as ‘very advanced’ compared with only 13% of their competitors.
of industry leaders strongly agree that they can keep pace with technology trends such as 5G and AI compared with only 21% of their competitors.
said they have already benefited from 5G and were twice as likely as competitors to say that 5G has led to new digital services and increased revenues.