Global Web Index has been a recurrent guest throughout past Readmagine events. At this year’s conference, Tom Morris – Senior Trends Analyst at GWI- shared a plethora of compelling data and analysis regarding trends in media content across the world.
Specifically, different perspectives of media consumption and how consumers have been shifting from one type of media to another during the past few years.
Morris focused on the following five different types of media consumption:
- Video
- Social media
- Gaming
- Reading
- Audio
The data collected by GWI shows that since the pandemic, there has been an increased competitiveness between different media platforms. This fight centres around retaining consumer attention: labelled ‘the attention economy’. Leisure time used to be dictated by one’s schedule whereas today we have a myriad of ways to spend time thus changing the media’s battleground as companies no longer compete with others of the same type of but with others too. The following excerpt from a Netflix share holder letter explains this new landscape: “We compete with Fortnite more than HBO”.
During the pandemic people spent more time online thus consuming more media than ever. Although the amount of time online could decrease after the crisis, there has nonetheless been a great change in attitude, “a quite astonishing effect in the way people see the world, because now more than the half of people prefer to spend their time online than in the real world” in the words of Morris.
This new environment means that media outlets have to strive towards being more engaging, adopting new value propositions and learning from each other. This is exactly why Readmagine was created for: to learn from other media or industries.
Regarding books Morris explains that there is “a massive interest on books, but not as many people buying them”, nevertheless books are of the leading arts, culture and media interests that people around the world seek, even more than gaming or watching sports.
You can follow this very interesting presentation by Tom Morris in this video.
Morris underlined three main ideas as a recap of his thought-provoking presentation:
- People are spending more time across the different types of media, particularly online content.
- Brands and services are branching out into new territories in order to remain competitive and attract new consumers.
- Metaverse spaces will rise in popularity as a result. Accommodating all kinds of online media in one ‘hybrid’ platform.
Tom Morris is a Senior Trends Analyst at GWI, a market research company running the world’s largest ongoing survey on the digital consumer. He analyses this rich dataset, alongside other material, in order to uncover the latest trends and insights in media and beyond.
Specialising in gaming, he regularly speaks to journalists and publications around the world about how the landscape is ever-changing – particularly after the pandemic.
Prior to joining GWI, Tom was an MA student studying English language and literature. During this time he wrote his thesis on the representation of fatherhood in US animated television, working alongside a team of PHD students to further investigate the portrayal of gender and masculinity in media.