This is my first Mipcom and the sheer scale of the place is daunting. It is absolutely rammed. The strapline as the world’s audiovisual content market really does mean it too – it really is a market with discussions and wrangling and deals being busted every place you look. There is a crazy, exciting buzz about the place. Tomorrow I want to ferret around in the bunker downstairs and find out a bit more about some of these creative projects. Today it was challenging enough just trying to navigate up the stairs.
My first session was a super panel of heavyweights debating how to really get to grips with the audience formerly known as the audience. Much of the issues around user-generated content will be recapped, I suspect on the Thursday sessions but it’s interesting nonetheless.
GroupM Entertainment president Peter Tortorici said content providers now have to re-aggregate an audience spread across a number of platforms and experiences. “The challenge for storytellers has never been greater. But we lag behind in behaviour in terms of how we react to technology that’s already available and the way we solve that is to co-operate and work together, whether that’s a content creator, platform provider or an aggregator.”
Advertising legend John Hegarty came up with some reals gems, not least the admission that almost exactly eight years ago he dismissed the internet as a “masturbatory tool for art directors”. But we forgive him because he also reminded us that Marcel Duchamp said that “all of us are artists – it’s just that some of us shouldn’t exhibit”. In the context of UGC, where editors are more and more relevant, that is spot on. Hegarty also said that advertisers have always worked with the idea that their work has to be cross platform, but said the biggest problem is the lack of talent and no-one seemed to have a decent explanation for that. Hegarty said we don’t yet have a deep understanding of the relationship people have with new media – again, it’s a wild west. “For a communicator and creator to create programmes that really resonate and stick and make a difference, that’s the thing we have to get our heads around. Punk’s failure as a movement was that it didn’t propose – just opposed.”
MSN’s GM Greg Nelson said Microsoft defines three types of content: commodities, like flights and stock price info; premium content that help build a distinctive audience; and user content – still something of a wild card. MSN has 420 million users a month across its various platforms and wants to facilitate a ubiquitous global conversation. The business model there, he said, is in building that audience environment and interactivity “both with each other and between brands and audiences – high-scale platforms that create that conversation”. He added that in many markets the 25 and under age group spends more time online than watching TV, and that’s the multi-tasking age group that wants a community environment. He said the term ‘user-generated content’ seems reductionist and prefers ‘participatory media’. “We’ll still have gatekeepers – we’re just not sure who they are yet.” He described centres of gravity, with people moving around those areas of high quality content.
This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.

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