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Will The New Media Move Towards Building Solutions Than Conversations?
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So Amul is on the way to setup it’s presence on Second Life. While it is certainly not the first to do so (that is a claim that VR1 and Wipro, it seems, are fighting on), the news certainly opens up talks on the scalability of new media from a platform for communication and conversation to a platform for solutions.
Like in the case of Amul, their objective to setup an SL avtar, is in their own words, “..to demonstrate its functioning to the consumers, and experiment with any change in the production or distribution system virtually before executing it in the real world.” As a significant piece of new media platforms, second life is providing much more than a presence and sufficing as a medium for lab testing and planning. And unlike an isolated laboratory it can easily involve it’s most valuable asset (consumers) in the whole process.
While the idea itself is not revolutionary, I think it does set a path for what can be the trend for other mediums to follow. The onus then falls on the developers to work on creating communication media that can grow into solution platforms.
An excellent example for this would be Western Union providing the location of its centers in a certain locality or area when you message them from that particular area. In this case mobile is used as a medium to facilitate the customer. It wasn’t advertising, it wasn’t promotion, it was a facility, a solution to a problem of finding a money transfer center.
I don’t know how corny or wrong it would be to say Media As A Service, MaaS is the future of media. Of course it is an uninspired name on the lines of SaaS, but I wonder if the idea is as defining as how SaaS was for Web 2.0.
My question is will media gear itself towards being a Service or will companies continue to find uses for it as a service while it remains in essence a communication tool.
I wonder though if this idea that I talk about is not really new, or if I am jumping the gun and declaring it a trend too soon.
Shāyon adds : I always admire Amul as a brand. It’s not too often one might come across an Amul ad, be it on the print or billboards, but one shall always find them on top of latest issues, whenever they are up. I find this trait very valuable because Amul’s advertisements never fail to have an impact on you. You can check out the picture above to realise what I am talking about. Of course this has nothing to do with what Maneesh spoke about .. but you know I am the editor and stuff 
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hmm, i think i get the drift… but let me clarify… on the mobile platform, a ‘media’ like (say) yulop can be used by western union, the brand to provide a customised solution to its well, customers… so the media in this case is bankrolled by such brands, and regular joes can use it for free… a sort of enterprise solution in a way…
the possible snag i see in this is that customers flock to a medium for communication/sharing reasons.. if the media were created and therefore designed with a definite set of usages in mind that are more a service to brands than the end consumer’s primary needs, will the mass go there in the first place? even if it were like taking something generic as say, geo tagging and getting diff kinds of brands on board?
also, in this case, the onus then gets on to the brands/products to keep finding diff value adds for its end customers that can be satisfied by media, which is kinda contrarian to the current stance of geeks building a product and the brand guy saying ‘the peeps are there. lets do something that makes them interested in our brand’… not that its a problem, but stil….
a very thought provoking post
@Shayon lol.. eminently contextual
HeHe…yes, I know. Did you happen to come across an Amul ad that had a pic of Khali Singh with the caption, “The Great Indian Thali”? It was hilarious and at the same time, very impactful.
@manuscripts
Of course that’s a very valid point you make about whether such things will go mass scale in the first place.. it is therefore essential that a strong brand is backing up such endeavors..
I mean on an accepted scale of how companies grow and function my idea was about ow media can also scale as a solution provider out of the regular platforms people use.. now this is needed only for a company or a brand that is looking to take its service offerings to the next level.. but to go to the next level you already need to have an established base because of your brand…
so yeah this is something that existing brand power can leverage on.. but the point of the post was can the media build itself into something that can make this possible even if it is only for those who have a base to pull…
because once that happens.. then people will get used to it MaaS…and then even smaller brands can jump the bandwagon later..