Abundance Of Choices Puts Consumers In The Driver’s Seat In Shaping Content & Experience.

Human attention is moving from the status of a commodity to that of a scarce economic resource, according to the latest report from the Entertainment and Media practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the entertainment and media sectors especially, attention is evolving as a dynamic economic driver, giving the consumer more power to exercise not just choice, but taste, say authors Saul Berman and Bennett McClellan.

“As the proliferation of choices continues to subdivide and fragment the marketplace, content developers and executives who try to maintain a more traditional approach will always be behind and playing catch up,” said Berman. “While the good news is there will be more ways to reach the consumer, it will be harder to reach them — and harder to create a mass market. Companies have to target many smaller segments, and their approaches will need to be much more focused.”

The report offers information on the central role attention will play in the future of entertainment and media, along with projections for industry trends through 2005. In addition, Berman and McClellan provide meaningful actions that companies can take to survive in the attention-driven economy over the next five years.

According to McClellan, “Consumers will continue to embrace multiple new devices and efficient ways to use them to accomplish more. But multi-tasking has invisible limits; in fact, people don’t actually multi-task — they ‘packet-switch’ from one task to another dividing attention in smaller and smaller increments.”

In an environment saturated with choices but pressed for time, Berman and McClellan believe companies will compete harder than ever at all “touchpoints” between the brand and consumer. These efforts for attention will be focused on not just market share, but for influence. The competition for consumer’s attention becomes even greater with every wave of new content, new formats and user options, and new modes of connecting. Likewise this trend is evident in the increasingly ‘entertainment-oriented’ business communications arena as well.

In addition to providing insights on the state of the industry, the “Vying For Attention” report includes detailed information on the:

— central role attention will play in the future of entertainment and media;

– key ways attention will drive industry trends through 2005;

— actions companies can take to survive in the attention-driven economy over the next five years.

For more information at http://www.pwcglobal.com.