Waiting for the millennials

Visited the Medientage München.This year the central theme was 'Media Yourself – How the Internet is Transforming Media and Society'. Was there just for 2 hours - admittedly not enough time to get anything but a superficial impression. Which was that yes, as the title and the many panel discussions suggested, media and marketing companies are waking up to web2.0. But the challenges or opportunities that come with "consumer empowerment" are seen as a thing of the future. Let the experts discuss, for the sales reps at the booth its business as usual.

And maybe they are right.

"I don't believe in interactivity." - I heard from Fitness Company. The fitness club was there to present their brand new Fitcom.music TV as a marketing tool. Is it possible for users to select music? Or how about connecting an ipod to the server to transfer the favourite playlist? Blank face. The current target group does not need this. Maybe when a different age group is entering the fitness clubs.

Ever heard of Betty TV ? An interactive remote control that lets you - for instance - participate in quiz shows or order promoted products. Nice idea actually, introduced in Switzerland in 2006, celebrated as the first push worldwide into interactive TV. At that time, triple play and convergence were the next big thing - and Swisscom, which had bought Betty TV, received a lot of attention for playing to it.
Since its start in Germany this February, the clumsy Betty TV remote control found its way into 120.000 households in Germany. (Well, one more actually, provided I get round to setting up the kit I got as a gift.) But is there a Betty community? Any interaction apart from transmitting lotto numbers or responding to A-B-or-C-questions that fit into the tiny display? No. And maybe there never will be. Because the people using Betty TV are classic couch potatoes, who will prefer simple options on a simple remote control to complicated menus or interactions.
I believe in simplicity myself, but still... Just found out that Betty TV is closing down in Switzerland by end of this month because results did not meet the company's expectations. Could it be that Betty also did not meet consumer's expectations?

The stand of the Bavarian public TV channel (Bayerischer Rundfunk) highlighted the podcast download center of its website. Wow. And can I rate or comment podcasts? No. Could I export them to my blog? Ah, well, that is not as it is supposed to be. But I could definitely put a link.

Everybody seems to wait for the millennials, who will demand what the experts were guessing at in their podium discussions.

Some of the next generation were actually there, too. Had themselves photographed with mobile phones at Next ID's booth to find out how much (in %) they look like David or Victoria Beckham. The result was displayed on a big screen. Fun idea. At mi-friends a group of millennials were giving examples about what they would do with a solution like mi-friends. - Btw...an interesting, so far non-commercial project, most of my 2 hours I spent at their booth, getting a free lecture on the mi-friends pilots, the web2.0 hype and reality. Worth a separate post once I read through the material I carried home with me...