From VCR to Avatar, why stories and not devices rule the world

Guest column: the communication industry needs to stop masquerading technology development as consumer demand and pay more attention to the humans operating the technology.

I’m looking forward to seeing the outcome of Sunday’s 2014 Oscars. I enjoy a great a movie as much as the next person and often take my cues for what to see from which films win the highest accolade the movie industry can offer.

I found myself wondering: what is it that makes a great film – one you find yourself watching over and over again?

I came to the conclusion that it’s a combination of many things such as actor performance, director and producer skill, lighting and camera work – and most important of all, a great story. It’s the story that draws us in and keeps us hooked until the end. Nowhere in my list of reasons was technology. Obviously technology has changed the way films are made and it has helped filmmakers achieve what once might have been impossible. However, the end product is still a film in a format that someone from the 1940s would recognise.

It is not technology that makes things popular; in fact, many trends have happened in spite of the technology around them. Take the Betamax versus VHS war. This was back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, so some readers might not know what I’m referring to here.

I myself don’t even remember Betamax, it having lost the war to VHS before I was old enough to know the difference.

Sony’s Betamax and JVC’s VHS were versions of the videocassette recorder (VCR). Betamax came out first, quickly followed by VHS. Betamax was regarded in the public domain as the technologically superior machine. However, Sony failed to take account of consumer demand. It became clear that what consumers wanted was an affordable VCR, not a technologically better model, and hence VHS with its lower prices won the battle.

Let's look at another example. 3D was launched amid Avatar-fuelled hype back in 2009 and the declarations made by the industry were that 3D was the future of television and film. Predictions were made that all new television sets bought would be 3D and that this would be the new way to watch TV at home.

Fast forward five years and current market research suggests that 3D TV sets have so far accounted for only 20 to 30 per cent of total TV sales. Even then, there are no statistics to show whether the 3D element of the TVs are actually being used, or if they are just a redundant feature.

The last time I went to see a movie I opted for the 2D version as I don’t like watching in 3D – the glasses are cumbersome and distracting. The 2D screening was totally full and this was some time after the film had been released. The fact so many people still opted for the 2D version suggests that many consumers aren’t convinced by the 3D option being pushed by the industry. Just because a technology is available doesn’t mean people want it.

The communications industry is often guilty of the same behaviour as Betamax and those pushing 3D. By backing the more technologically advanced trends and trumpeting them as the future, the industry ignores the end user. What we should be doing is focusing on consumers and what they actually want. A recent post on a marketing website predicted that 2014 would be the year of SoMoVi, which stands for Social Mobile Video. The article stated that because of advances in mobile uploads and Google indexing, there would be a surge in the use of mobile video. This is akin to stating that because Spinneys has more apples available on its shelves, consumers will buy more of them.

Too much is said about what will allow a shift in consumer behaviour and not enough about what is the motivation for the shift. Commentators on emerging trends have a tendency to lapse into charting the evolution of technology rather than the evolution of people. As an industry we need to stop masquerading technology development as consumer demand and pay more attention to the humans operating the technology.

Krysia McKechnie is the PR and marketing manager at MediaCom Mena, a Dubai-based media buying and planning agency

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