Katrien Berte

User-driven innovation? Challenges of user involvement in future technology analysis

The shift from the traditional push towards more user-driven innovation strategies in the information and communications technologies domain has urged companies to place the user at the core of their innovation process in a more systematic way. In this paper we reflect on the implications of this new innovation context for traditional product development processes. Given these implications, two challenges are discussed that are crucial to true user-driven innovation, i.e. the challenge of continuously involving the user and the need for tools to facilitate the integration of knowledge into the increasingly interdisciplinary development process. Drawing on our own experiences in the interdisciplinary Research On Mobile Applications and Services (ROMAS) project, which focused on future mobile applications in a living lab setting, we illustrate how the two challenges can be tackled. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

NEWSPAPERS GO FOR ADVERTISING!: Challenges and opportunities in a changing media environment

Traditional advertising and media markets are experiencing radical change. The advances in digital media entail an increase in the number of advertising channels as well as sweeping shifts in marketing budgets. Interactive advertising channels such as the Internet, iDTV, mobile technologies… are gaining importance at the expense of traditional media whose existence depends largely on advertising investments. Newspapers are considered to be financially healthy when 40–70 per cent of their income is derived from advertising revenues. This paper identifies the challenges for newspapers in a changing media environment such as the growing amount of advertising channels, the shift in investments from advertising above-the-line to advertising below-the-line, the migration of classifieds towards the Internet and the competition of new competitors. Other problems can be found in changing advertising legislations. More and more advertising bans menace the media advertisement market. Not only tobacco but also alcohol (in many countries) and recently in the United Kingdom in childrens programmes, advertising for products containing high fat, sugar and salt is banned. However, new digital technologies can offer a wide range of opportunities for newspapers. New strategies can be developed for advertisers when combining the paper and the online version of a newspaper: newspapers are fighting back to keep classified advertising online and interactive opportunities of online advertisement can counter the increasing success of below-the-line advertisement. Newspapers can also apply several new formats in the printed version in order to “break through the clutter”.

A software tool to relate technical performance to user experience in a mobile context

Users in todaypsilas mobile ICT environment are confronted with more and more innovations and an ever increasing technical quality, which makes them more demanding and harder to please. It is often hard to measure and to predict the user experience during service consumption. This is nevertheless a very important dimension that should be taken into account while developing applications or frameworks. In this paper we demonstrate a software tool that is integrated in a wireless living lab environment in order to validate and quantify actual user experience. The methodology to assess the user experience combines both technological and social assets. User experience of a Wineguide application on a PDA is related to signal strength, monitored during usage of the applications. Higher signal strengths correspond with a better experience (e.g. speed). Finally, difference in the experience among users will be discussed.

Opportunities of interactive formats for innovative advertising on digital television

The arrival of new technologies destabilizes the traditional television advertising markets. This evolution is fairly problematic as most broadcasters nowadays are only financed by advertising revenues. As the investments in TV advertising are declining, broadcasters pursue new business models and additional revenue streams. Looking into the different applications of interactive digital television, we discover several opportunities for branding and direct marketing purposes which could revive the classical 30 second spot. Despite these opportunities, the use of interactive advertising formats on television remains fairly limited. During our research, the available interactive advertising formats were evaluated by broadcasters, advertisers, media and advertising agencies. Results show that all interactive advertising formats offer interesting opportunities, but several thresholds such as e.g. the lack of accurate measurement tools should be eliminated in order to convince advertisers to invest in these innovative formats.

Challenges of Digital Innovations: A Set-Top Box Based Approach

Partly thanks to the massive breakthrough of broadband internet as a distribution highway, the convergence of telecommunications, information technology and media has brought us to radical changes of media markets: challenging services are launched, traditional value chains are broken, new value constellations arise and innovative — but often unproven — business models are explored. Compared to other mass media, (commercial) television broadcasting is most affected by these mainly technology-driven developments due to its high dependence on advertising revenues (Doyle, 2002). As new media services — especially online and mobile — allow for personalized and direct response advertising, they are grasping a growing share of advertising resources. In broadcasting, the rise of digital television platforms should be mentioned, as well as the ever-growing success of ad-supported online video services such as YouTube and Hulu. This enduring pressure on advertising revenues has moved broadcasters to rethink strategies for connecting with viewers, which results in multi-screen distribution and a shift towards subscription-based revenue models (Evens, 2010). If advertising is to remain the major funding source for private (as well as for some public) broadcasters in the near future, there is a need for a better understanding of viewer behaviour and innovation in television audience measurement techniques.

Adoption versus use diffusion of iDTV in flanders - personalized television content as a tool to cross the chasm?

Digital television was introduced to the Belgian market in 2005, which is fairly late compared to other European countries. By 2010, in Flanders the 50p penetration threshold of digital television households was surpassed. Considering previous research into the adoption of digital television in Belgium, it can be stated that the “majority segments” have embraced iDTV. However, research suggests that this has not necessarily induced a change in their viewing habits and that interactive applications such as video on demand, time-shifted viewing, voting, email, etc., have remained “underused.” Therefore, the user adoption rate of 50p for iDTV does not automatically imply a 50p use diffusion rate of interactive services. Within the iDTV industry, an important challenge will be to convince the remaining 50p of analog viewers to make the switch to digital television. A review of the literature on the adoption and diffusion processes of technologies shows that these later adopters (laggards and late majority) base their decision on the behavior of peers who have already acquired the technology. As they are the least innovative market segment, they will require some compelling arguments to adopt iDTV. These selling arguments could be related to the added value of interactive services which are currently not being used to their full potential by iDTV subscribers. One of the ideas that is currently explored is personalized television content, recommended to television viewers based on their viewing behavior. This article discusses three important research questions based on quantitative empirical data. Firstly, what is the current state-of-the-art in Flanders regarding the adoption and use diffusion of digital television in Flandersq Secondly, what is the interest in a personalization and recommendation tool for iDTV in Flandersq Thirdly, how would an introduction of this tool affect the adoption and use diffusion of iDTV in Flandersq Based on the results presented in this article, it seems that the implementation of a personalization and recommendation tool might stimulate the adoption as well as the use diffusion of digital TV in Flanders.