Adweek reports -- This year proved to be a tipping point of sorts, as convenience has morphed into full-blown "on-demand" entitlement. It's nothing short of a technological revolution that has enabled ordinary Americans to seize ever greater control of how, when and where they consume and create media content.
"Consumers are now in control of content: We're consuming it, retransmitting it, creating it," says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media, who credits the shift to "plummeting hardware prices, elegant software that's become easy to use and access to an incredible amount of content."
In what is still mostly a chaotic rush into the unknown, marketers remain largely on the fringe. There was a 25-year lag between when network TV reached mass consumption and when ad dollars caught up. It took 15 years for cable. After 10 years, is the same about to occur for the Internet?
The indications are good: At year's end, as forecasters cut 2005 spending estimates for traditional media, they revised upward those for the Web, which could end up reeling in more than $12 billion in ad revenue for 2005, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau - well ahead of the previous record of $9.6 billion in 2004.
"Consumers are now in control of content: We're consuming it, retransmitting it, creating it," says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media, who credits the shift to "plummeting hardware prices, elegant software that's become easy to use and access to an incredible amount of content."
In what is still mostly a chaotic rush into the unknown, marketers remain largely on the fringe. There was a 25-year lag between when network TV reached mass consumption and when ad dollars caught up. It took 15 years for cable. After 10 years, is the same about to occur for the Internet?
The indications are good: At year's end, as forecasters cut 2005 spending estimates for traditional media, they revised upward those for the Web, which could end up reeling in more than $12 billion in ad revenue for 2005, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau - well ahead of the previous record of $9.6 billion in 2004.