It was hard to escape the news that Prince died a week ago. From the moment I woke up every conversation I had and media channel I engaged with, TV, radio, podcasts, blogs, news channels, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, even chalkboards in pubs, was flooded with Prince, purple heart emoji and related content. It’s still the case a week later.
It was a moment in culture that touched everyone, be they a fan or not. So how is it then, that a friend of a friend who took some extra days off over the Anzac weekend, managed to get back to work on Wednesday (that’s five full days after the event) and be blissfully unaware. Radio stations played nothing but Prince. Social media was littered with tributes. TV stations and news sites continue to cover the story as it develops. It’s mind-boggling that anyone could make it five days without that piece of news (or any major global event) reaching their ears and eyeballs through some form of media or word of mouth.
And while she may well be the only unreachable person (literally) that wasn’t bombarded by media around Prince’s passing, it illustrated something that I know is true. We, in the media and advertising industry, exist in a bubble that is quite different to the world a lot of normal (I mean non-media, non-advertising) people live in. It can be easy to forget that not everyone consumes media like we do. That said, how and where ‘normal’ people are consuming media is ever evolving and so is how to reach them. Snapchat is becoming harder to ignore as part of that.
It’s almost as difficult to go a day without reading headlines about Snapchat as it was to avoid Prince-related content. Unlike it’s picture messages, Snapchat isn’t going away, so it would be naïve to dismiss its huge potential as a media and communications channel. Our cover feature on page 10 dives in. There’s a lot to grapple with in media, no one knows this more than you. Making sense of the changing dynamics that make this industry so frustrating and fascinating at the same time, underpins our Media Summit on 19 May. We want to help make media make sense. Who knows, it might even reveal how to reach the unreachable consumer.
There’s still time to buy tickets although they are selling fast, and last year we hit capacity. Panel sessions include ‘The digital reality check’ to get under the hood of what’s really happening, ‘The Investment Landscape’ will look at where the smart money is going in media and our keynote speaker Dr Karen Nelson-Field will delve into the role of artificial intelligence in the future of media. Check out the event page for more detail.