Are you loving E4’s new hit American import, Glee?
However you feel about the show (and I quite like it – in a totally manly way, of course), business-wise, they’ve got it sussed. All songs are available straightaway on iTunes and the E4 website for sale. I can see them charting, even though they’re saccharin covers (I love them though).
Very soon, much of TV will go this way. Immediate purchase of items advertised will be commonplace. Sky TV/Broadband and Virginmedia customers will soon have shopping accounts, where you simply click your remote to add items advertised to your shopping list. I think Sky already have to capability to set a reminder for a TV show while it’s being advertised on screen – “Click the red button to set record for this program”. This is the future of TV advertising revenue. Profile mapping will also ensure that customised adverts are delivered to you, according to your watching preferences, in the same way Google already does, and Amazon recommends products based on your shopping and browsing history. Amazon, for example, keep track of your browsing, and know how many times you’ve looked at that crappy Adam Sandler DVD, but haven’t purchased it. They’ll keep suggesting, until you buy.
It’s not everywhere yet, but increasingly we’re seeing that a very large proportion of products sold online can be paid for by Paypal. A rival to that service is Google Checkout. The time will come soon, when any product viewed online, will have a hovering “Purchase this item via Paypal/Google Checkout” floating above every image.
So how will this affect the recruitment sector? When I was young, my dad used to tell me “Son, if you are the best at what you do, then you won’t ever have to look for work; work will coming looking for you”. Imagine every mention of an employer online, when hovered over, offered the option to “View all vacancies available with this employer”? It won’t be easy, but we have already seen that most things are technically possible online. All it takes is the will to implement, and the public appetite for such developments.
