HIGHLIGHTS
- Captive audience has huge value
- Automation is a game-changer
- Increase ROI
We need to give great kudos to the IFEC hardware manufacturers for all of the great work they have done in the past five years. It seems like the rate at which they have defined and released new features has been faster than ever before. There are many factors that have driven innovation including consumer electronics, market competition, airline demand, and general content consumption trends. Traditionally in the in the IFEC market, the key value
proposition of an onboard system included a media catalog for passengers that was very common across multiple airlines. Now airlines have many new opportunities to turn their systems into revenue generating machines, and differentiate their branded experience with more targeted media experiences for their passengers.
An audience like no other.
Serving the best interest of the passenger has become more important than ever. There is no other audience that is so captive, over such long periods of time. On the ground, the consumer’s attention is being pulled in many directions, which is not the case in the cabin. It is a perfect opportunity to engage passengers with an airline’s brand and communicate the airlines values. Onboard technology is now enabling airlines to effectively synchronize their overall brand strategy with their social, web, app, and custom content. The ability to quantify and track passenger reach and uptake, gives airlines and advertisers new ways to align global marketing strategies, and focus on putting a smile on the passengers face when they arrive at their destination.
Technology is the enabler.
There are many technical factors that have recently been addressed that enable airlines to do much more with IFEC. The way in which the passenger graphical user interfaces and system loading software have been architected give us the ability to update content without contingencies on other content. Automation in the content management supply chain has introduced new opportunities for content distributors to publish media to the aircraft, in faster ways than ever before. Expanding the available content catalog to include time-sensitive titles, such as time-shifted television, on-demand sports, on-demand news, trending web video, and advertising by using automation, provides options to increase the airline’s ROI. As our industry continues to adopt technical standards from the mainstream M&E market, OPEX costs will be minimized, and we can better capitalize on economies of scale.
Expanding the available content catalog to include time-sensitive
titles, such as time-shifted television, on-demand sports,
on-demand news, trending web video,and advertising by using
automation, provides options to increase the airline’s ROI.
Where does the revenue come from?
By having a user experience that is more targeted, eventually for each individual passenger, we will have the ability to curate passenger-specific content offerings and increase the value of advertising. With the introduction of connectivity, for the purposes of loading content and point-of-sale transactions, we are better aligning our business models with OTT portals such as Hulu and Netflix. DRM will introduce more capabilities for content licensing models such as electronic sell-through. Generating revenue from targeted advertising that can be packaged and loaded on an hourly basis is a game changer for how IFEC systems are monetized. Advertising agencies can now be more creative with how they define campaigns, and can effectively span campaigns across multiple platforms, with IFEC tightly woven into the strategy.
The IFEC manufactures have given us a new canvas to work with to change the traditional entertainment systems into infotainment systems that opens the doors for distinct airline-specific experiences, and turns the cabin into a lucrative media channel.
John Jezowski is the Managing Director of Cloudcast and leads strategic business development efforts in the Inflight Entertainment Industry. He has a degree in Film and Television from Chapman University and has been distributing content to aircraft for over eighteen years. If you have any questions, please contact John at [email protected].
