by Matt Manning
This year’s Business Information Media Summit took a broad look at the evolving role of business-to-business media (news services, events, databases) in a time of enormous technological change. Media industry trends highlighted at the conference included:
- Sky-high valuations of trade show properties
- Strong demand for “buying intent” indicators
- Large, emerging market for the hard-to-find data required for data analyses
- Popularity/usage data for articles driving reporting priorities and new product development
Underscoring the market need for b-to-b information services were all of the emerging content areas being covered by media firms including:
- Mining in space
- Micro labor
- Robo-trading
- Driverless truck fleet management
- Surgically implanted technology
- Corporate annual event management
- Effective social marketing
We were the most interested in the BIMS “data content” track and this program, curated by the redoubtable Russell Perkins, highlighted some of more exciting developments in the information industry.
New types of information services:
- Once “confidential” data services: brand licensing payments, value of private businesses, contractual terms of commercial leases, lawsuit settlement values
- Regulatory compliance services
- Calculating the economic impact of specific industries and employers
- Cooperative data models where users/readers contribute data to get data
New “off-label” uses of b-to-b data:
- Financial analysts calculating market share
- HR offices identifying passive job candidates
- Ad-serving middlemen targeting ads to very specific groups of execs
- Big-box retailers using aerial imagery to identify customers for pool supplies and lawn care services
New approaches to marketing services:
- Turning subscribers into “advocates” (referrals close 75% faster)
- Understanding the goals of an erstwhile advertiser/exhibitor vs. selling them “space”
- Offering pre-packaged competitive intelligence data
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