Mark Chaves, general manager, innovation and strategy, at Carat Malaysia, suggests five areas for the industry to improve in the light of convergence.

Yes, ‘CNY’ could mean Chinese New Year, especially in this part of the world. And I am two weeks early to share my thoughts for the coming New Year (or two weeks late if we follow the calendar year). It’s a matter of perspective – regardless, I think 2016 will give us another 12 months of exciting stuff.

In December, the influx of “look out for”, “predictions”, “trends” list is overwhelming as it is each year. I have some favourites mainly because (a) they serve as my barometer as to how well-informed or updated I am with the goings-on in the industry, (b) they distil the most relevant information for you, and (c) you’ll know how to chart your course to become different and better from the rest.

Besides, we all love lists. They neatly form a structure around things of divergence or convergence.

Alas, convergence.

That’s the whole point of this “It’s CNY”. Another cool new year, another creative new year. But it’s also 2016, hence, let’s challenge ourselves more – let’s call it a Convergence New Year, and commit to it. (That’s a lot of c’s there, if you didn’t notice.).

Why convergence? Because media is more important than ever before. We’ve seen revolution in consumer behaviour resulting from technology, and it’s happening at consumer speed—which can be as fast as he/she decides, thinks, clicks, or switch. The industry has to adapt to that. Media has become more complex that every engagement and transaction has become more valuable.

To add to the influx of “what’s next”, I would like to see five things become stronger or jumpstart in 2016 through the lens of convergence:

1 – Believing in content and context

Internet connectivity is improving, and the consumer experience is, too. Content alone, however, is irrelevant without context. And I believe devices used to access Internet can provide the most robust context.

2 – Translating insight-to-idea-to-innovation

Especially in new business pitches, the battleground outside costs and fees appears to be in these areas. A couple of blogs past, I stressed on the importance of qualitative-quantitative approach to media storytelling. Let’s continue to do this with the excitement of innovation.

3 – Convivial collaboration

Creativity in media is getting understood. The key is to execute item (b) the best way possible, and when these three bodies commit – media agencies, creative agencies, and partner vendors – the works are even more brilliant. Nothing new you may say, however, it’s not always realised.

4 – Ubiquitous hardware

There are greater options to connect and interact with people through various technologies. At this point, no one media fits all, unfortunately. Not even the ubiquitous television or the over-indexing mobile phone. Could this “ubi-tech” or “ubi-media” be possibly developed in 2016?

5 – Mother of all measurements

Media KPIs are changing shape, size and form. Multiple media ROI remains the Holy Grail in measurement. While media planning tools are getting more sophisticated like Carat’s Consumer Connection System (CCS), hopefully more partner APIs will be made available for holistic post-campaign performance analyses. We’ve got to do this together.

That’s a lot to look forward to. Cliché, but it’s another exciting year ahead! (Don’t we say this at the start of every year?)

For a change, let me say, “I can’t wait for 2017 to see how well we navigated through our own predictions.” Have fun charting another year – oh, there’s another c.