(openPR) - As the number of social networking websites continues to explode, traditional media companies often find themselves reacting slowly to market changes and trends. As part of a recent qualitative study, the music channel MTV was closely analyzed and compared to the current market leader, MySpace.
Although MySpace boasts thousands of new worldwide registrations per day, MTV has been unable to develop a sustainable international community model for its target social networking market. Despite its high potential, MTV is losing on two fronts. “Young people between the ages of 16-24 are spending a majority of their free time in social networking communities, consuming the entertainment being offered by their peers”, says Dr. Nils Andres, Managing Director of the Komjuniti Agency. “This leads to a mid-term shift in the spending of MTV’s typical customer base,” explains the expert. “On the other hand, although MTV’s content is elaborately produced, they are unable to use this as effectively as MySpace, which specializes in the exchange of musically oriented content and makes connections to music stars possible,” Andres adds.
Previous attempts made by MTV to enter into the market - like MTV Flux or MTV Overdrive – have failed because, according to the experts, these attempts did not represent a significant change and were static in their functionality. “Community members are quite attached to their social networks,” Andres explains. “In order to motivate a target group in this highly competitive market to change to a MTV community model, MTV would need to be two steps ahead of the market to even receive their consideration.”
The Komjuniti Agency also believes that MySpace, based on the ownership structure of the News Corp. and its strong membership base, has the potential and the ability to enter the traditional TV market and dethrone MTV from its current position. “When you take a closer look at the development, it becomes clearer that MySpace stands for a totally new youth movement – similar to what MTV did in the 80s and 90s,” notes Andres. “However, contrary to MTV, MySpace has understood how to integrate its members into the value chain and how their increased involvement ultimately allow MySpace to produce content at substantially lower costs.”
About Komjuniti:
Komjuniti is a spin-off agency of the Brand Science Institute (BSI), specialising in the construction, strategic development and ongoing management of brand communities for its customers. Komjuniti combines on- and offline elements and uses special tools to measure the success of brand communities.
Contact:
Anna Jac
Komjuniti – We are building and managing brand communities
Grosser Grasbrook 15, 20457 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 40-410 98 56-0
Fax: +49 40-410 98 56-9
E-mail: jac@b-s-i.org
Internet: www.komjuniti.com
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