Abey Mokgwatsane‚ the CEO of Ogilvy‚ said there was a need to give readers an opportunity to choose and customise what they wanted to read rather than offer them generic news. He said the perfect way to do this was to take advantage of the increase in the use of mobile phones.
"They (newspapers) would generate the content they normally do. But they should send to me the articles that I'm interested in‚" Mokgwatsane said on the sidelines of the Adnext Conference hosted by BDFM‚ the publisher of Business Day‚ Financial Mail and Summit TV.
Mokgwatsane said digital radio was already giving listeners the opportunity to listen to songs and artists that they wanted rather than listening to everything.
He added that in customising the content for the reader‚ on a one-on-one basis‚ news outlets had the power to converge specific stories from a number of sources like wire services. He pointed out that journalists who generated 'amazing' content needed to be hired in order to be able to engage the reader personally.
"The customer is the last competitive advantage. If you are to learn my behaviour‚ you will learn what the customer wants and you will be able to engage them in a much more better way‚" Mokgwatsane said.
Understanding the customer's needs also helps in deciding what to sell to the customer.
The increased move by people to digital platforms is an opportunity for media outlets and other businesses to find ways to cater for the customer's needs online.
Jon Ratcliffe‚ agency relationship manager at Google South Africa‚ said research had shown that there over 2 billion people globally online and over the next five years it was estimated that 4 billion people would be online.
Ratcliffe said this was because prices of smartphones would decline going forward‚ creating opportunities for many to be online.
Ratcliffe said there were about 10m people online in SA and it was expected that more than 20 million new people would be online by the end of 2014.
The Adnext conference has brought together a number of thought leaders to advise on how businesses can cater for their clients through the digital platforms.
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