2020 - The Streaming Twenties

A lot has changed in 100 years, so what will the '20's bring for this decade?

When I think of the '20's, I immediately think of the 1920's or the Roaring Twenties, it was the decade my grandparents were born in and fondly referred to it throughout their lives. It saw Art Deco at its peak and Jazz as the hottest new trend. It was a decade of decadence and conversely in 1929, the start to the greatest depression in history.

Arguably, the decade was the greatest triumph in human history, from the introduction of cars to telephones and household electricity, it was the era of large scale industry adoption for many industries. Movies really took off in the 1920's, Warner Brothers released the first movie with an actual soundtrack and then they released the first Talkie (a movie with actual spoken words)! Loggie Baird invented the first working mechanical television and Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean. It was the era of celebrities and victory; sports heroes, superheroes and movie stars.

The 2020's is shaping up to be even greater than its 20's predecessor (if that is at all possible). New technologies like AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) will result in machines being able to learn any new task, collectively. This is incredibly momentous, as it will be the small everyday things that you will just not need to worry about any longer.

Technology growth, of course, will go beyond AGI, it will be the decade of "wet" technologies, the rise & expansion of the biotech industry. By decade's end, it is predicted much of our technologies will have some biotech integration, perhaps not quite an optical nerve inserted microchip, but at the very least wearable technology that detects the life signs of the wearer. Maybe not quite a Startrek inspired life suit, but certainly in your car, on your wrist or in your pocket.

Movies in the 1920's went through one of the greatest changes, from starting the decade as Silent movies to those called Talkies, movies that you no longer needed to read the titles as the actors spoke the words. This was a huge technological leap at the time, in comparison to today, it would be similar to beaming Movies & TV programming directly in to your brain.

In 2020, of course, all our movies are Talkies, we take it for granted, so what changes will the entertainment industry make in this decade? Can we expect similar technological advancements as they did in the 2020's, will we see a change to our Television viewing habits on the same scale as those in the 1920's experienced? If 2019 is anything to go by, the success of OTT (streaming services) such as Disney+, HBO Max (tba), Netflix and others, it certainly looks that way.

Streaming video, or OTT as it is now commonly known, is forecast to completely transform the television viewing habits of all of us and revolutionize what TV actually means. Engagement with brands and services will have to make a complete shift to attract the consumer, TV advertisements will not have the same appeal for marketers when the consumer can bypass them or flick to the next TV show or Movie.

Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) predicts OTT to double in size and value by 2023, eventually overtaking traditional Cable TV/Pay TV media segment by the following year and possibly removing the segment altogether by the decade's end.

So if traditional TV advertising is lost, what will take its place? It will mean a different approach. Brands will develop their messages differently, entering the influencer more actively and telling more compelling and entertaining stories. This is why the 2020's will be the year of video content.

At the end of the day, highly produced video content is no longer just available to the large movie & TV studios. Standard equipment is now very high in quality and most people have access to quite good video production software that was either acquired complementary with the computer or inexpensive enough for the standard person to buy.

Traditionally in an advertising sense, the main expense always came in the distribution of the production, but even now this is relatively inexpensive if you consider Social Media and other platforms, of which can be even more cost-effective and targeted if done right.

The 20's will see Brands & services own their own distribution channels or use new platforms, as an OTT platform, to deliver its message to the consumer in the most cost-effective way. By Brands owning their own distribution channels, like their own Netflix or Disney+ own their broadcast platforms, the cost to engage the audience/consumer is dramatically reduced...

I'm excited for 2020, let's see what tomorrow brings.