What is Salesforce’s Media Cloud
Keeping up in the media industry has never been more difficult. Like many other industries, customers expect so much from media companies. These days, media companies need to know everything about their customers and, in that light, provide a personalised experience in the ever-changing market. But how do media companies strike the right balance between appeasing the masses and designing the right solutions to appease individual consumers? The secret sauce is Salesforce’s Media Cloud. In this post, we will present some of the challenges media companies face and discuss how Media Cloud addresses those concerns.
Paradox of Choice
The paradox of choice refers to the phenomenon where having too many options can lead to feelings of anxiety, decision fatigue, and dissatisfaction with the chosen option. This, coupled with customer’s limited time and attention, can cause many issues. In the media industry, this paradox is particularly relevant as consumers are faced with an overwhelming number of choices when it comes to consuming content. With the rise of streaming services, social media, and other digital platforms, there are more TV shows, movies, music, podcasts, and other forms of media available than ever before.
Having access to so much content may seem positive, but it can be overwhelming for consumers who struggle to choose what to watch or listen to. This can lead to a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and a feeling that no matter what they choose, they are missing out on something better. The paradox of choice in the media industry highlights the importance of curation and recommendation systems to help consumers navigate the vast landscape of available content.
Salesforce's Media Cloud can help with the paradox of choice in several ways. Media Cloud is a platform designed to help media companies manage and distribute their content across various channels, such as digital, social, and broadcast media. By using Media Cloud, media companies can create personalised content experiences for their audience, which can help reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of available content.
Another issue with the paradox of choice has to do with data integration. Media Cloud offers advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities that allow media companies to analyse their content and audience data to identify trends and preferences. This data can be used to create more targeted and personalised content recommendations for individual viewers. By providing viewers with personalised recommendations that are based on their previous viewing behaviour, Media Cloud can help reduce decision fatigue and the anxiety associated with choosing from a vast array of options.
It offers collaboration tools that enable content creators to build and launch personalised media experiences and bundles quickly and effectively. It also works to shorten release cycles and intelligently guide consumers to relevant products and offers. By streamlining content creation and distribution, Media Cloud can help media companies deliver high-quality, personalised content to their audience, making it easier for viewers to find and consume the content they are most interested in.
Complex and Siloed Systems
Many legacy systems were developed when technology was less advanced and business needs differed. As a result, legacy systems can be cumbersome and difficult to use, often requiring specialised knowledge to navigate it. Additionally, they may be limited in functionality, making integration with other, newer systems or adding new features almost impossible.
A common downside to legacy systems is siloed data. This means that data is stored in different departments or databases and is not easily accessible to those who need it. This can cause major issues requiring manual intervention to move data between databases. A second, arguably more important, issue with siloed data is the fact that it hinders decision-making activities.
Making the right, informed decision is key in the media industry, and many legacy systems need help to keep up. This is where Media Cloud comes in. Media Cloud and Salesforce give you a single source of truth for your consumers, business accounts, and partners, and you get a complete view of your business relationships.
Limited visibility to customer data
This leads us to our final point for this post–legacy systems give your business a limited view of the data that is so important. This limited visibility makes it more difficult to make informed decisions about audience and marketing efforts. This leads to several issues:
- Failure to keep up with the trends
While legacy systems may have been functional at one point, with technology and audiences rapidly changing, they need to catch up trend-wise. The limited visibility can make it difficult to stay up-to-date with trends in the ever-changing marker. A comprehensive view of customer data is necessary to identify patterns and make accurate decisions. This leads to missed opportunities and potentially a loss in market share.
- Privacy concerns
Another issue with legacy systems is the potential for privacy concerns. With many systems not designed to handle the sensitive data that is now commonplace in modern business, there's a risk of data breaches and leaks. This can damage a business's reputation and result in legal and financial consequences.
- Bad data quality
The final issue relates to data quality. Legacy systems may have outdated data structures and inconsistent data entries, leading to data that is of low quality. This results in potentially inaccurate data analysis and decision-making–running the risk of costly mistakes.
One way Salesforce Media Cloud addresses limited visibility of customer data is by providing a centralised platform that integrates data from multiple sources, such as social media, advertising platforms, and email campaigns. This allows businesses to get a complete view of their customers' interactions across various channels and touchpoints, which in turn helps them make more informed decisions about their marketing efforts.
Additionally, Salesforce Media Cloud includes powerful analytics and reporting tools that allow businesses to analyse customer data in real-time. This enables businesses to identify trends and patterns quickly, allowing them to adjust their marketing strategies accordingly.
Salesforce Media Cloud also addresses the issue of bad quality data by providing tools for data cleaning, standardisation, and enrichment. The platform automatically identifies and corrects data inconsistencies and errors, ensuring that businesses have accurate and reliable data to work with. This is particularly important when dealing with large volumes of data from different sources, where it can be challenging to ensure data quality and consistency.
