You expect a scrappy insurgent startup to talk Disruption. Hearing IBM talking “disruption” is, however, much more amusing. IBM’s last report on the media sector is entitled The End of Advertising as we Know It. The report does not pull any punches.
The next 5 years hold more disruption for the advertising industry than the previous 50 years, according to Big Blue. Apparently open advertising exchanges will replace traditional media wholesalers and agencies.
A strong concensus opinion, according to IBM’s industry poll, is that open advertising exchanges will take 30% of revenues currently won by traditional media. The figure must be in the 5% to 10% range currently. With Google’s adsense leading among exchanges with around 50% of online advertising. Yahoo and Microsoft are desparately trying to muscle in.
The big looser will apparently be the 30 second TV spot.
IBM’s solutions for traditional marketing agencies? If you cant beat them, you join them. Buy yourself a new business model and infrastructure (preferably from IBM), and hook into these open exchanges. This is not the first market that has succumbed to electronic trading.