JAA Senior Account Managers, Abbey Dare and Mike Craggs, headed to Sky Media’s ‘Innovation Sprint’. Here’s their report of an action packed two days.
What do you call a group of media innovation enthusiasts?
An A.I.rmy. A connection. A meta-mob… well whatever collective noun you choose, a group of us met at Sky’s HQ. The Sky Media Innovation Sprint event was hosted by Sarah Jones, Director of Planning and invited the media industry to collaborate to build the next generation of advertising innovations.
The two-day event championed Sky Media’s passion for innovation as they position themselves as the market leaders in the field. For them innovation isn’t an option, it’s imperative.
We learnt about how the Sky Media team collaborate with their Sky Labs colleagues to develop ideas ahead of bringing them to market. Their laser focus is on products that have four main characteristics:
- desirability
- usability
- feasibility
- viability
What did we learn?
First up, a UK home has an average of 25 connected devices and an average of 1.6 VoD subscriptions which doubled between 2020 and 2022. With the volume of choice accessible to viewers, Sky are really trying to innovate to be at the forefront.
Secondly, a brilliant panel discussion with Dan Cohen, Director of Product & Innovation at Sky Media, and Thomas Bremond, International SVP & Chief Revenue Officer at FreeWheel, talked about the future of TV advertising. Throughout this hot topic they spoke about the need for better attribution and bringing planning capabilities under one platform.
Thirdly, it was really interesting to hear from a host of AdTech start-ups who are all pitching the next big thing. For us the idea of actionable audio ads which adds a new CTA to the mix, and adds AR/AI to the user experience really stood out.
And Finally…
The second day we honed Sky’s process for product innovation. The 1,2,4, ALL method involved us pitching and picking the best ideas – firstly from two individuals, and then joining with another pair, and then another group, until finally one winning idea remained. Well done to Mike who was on the winning team!
Watch out for more media innovations coming from Sky Media soon!
