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A new deal for membership bodies - time to rethink supplier partnerships

Lisa Collins — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 05:00:00 GMT

After working with countless associations on their digital transformation journeys, I’ve reached a clear conclusion - it’s time for a reset.

Too many associations are being let down, not by technology itself, but by a fragmented system of poor supplier relationships, limited training and onboarding, underused tools, and internal teams who’ve lost confidence in their digital infrastructure.

Across every project I’ve undertaken, the story is the same. The systems are there, the data exists, and the potential is real, yet organisations are bogged down by manual processes, inconsistent data, and suppliers who prioritise invoices over impact.

If we want the membership sector to thrive, not just survive, we need a new deal, one built on partnership, accountability, and empowerment.

The tools aren’t broken, the approach is

Most membership organisations already have the right systems in place, strong CRMs, capable websites, and tools for marketing, events, and finance. But in far too many cases, these platforms are underused, poorly integrated, or simply misunderstood.

For those who don't yet have systems in place, there’s often a perception that digital transformation is costly, complex, and resource-heavy, a belief usually fuelled by poor advice and misinformation. In reality, the right technology, implemented strategically and supported by the right partner, can save time, reduce cost, and create lasting impact.

And for those with great systems already in place, there’s another issue entirely. they have no idea just how powerful these tools could be in their everyday operations.
Features that could automate tasks, drive insight, and strengthen member experience often sit idle, simply because no one has shown teams what’s possible.

The issue isn’t the platform, it’s the lack of confidence, training, and ownership within organisations.

Digital transformation doesn’t fail because of bad technology. It fails because the people using it were never set up to succeed.

Teams are still exporting spreadsheets, sending manual renewal reminders, and building workarounds instead of workflows. Meanwhile, the technology sits there with automation features that could eliminate half that work.

Supplier relationships need a new rulebook

Let’s be honest, many industry suppliers are letting membership bodies down.

Too many vendors are focused on closing deals, not building partnerships. Once the project is sold, the relationship often fades, leaving membership bodies to fend for themselves with little onboarding or support. (though it’s important to say that there are many excellent suppliers who are getting this right, and it’s those examples we should be learning from and celebrating).

Supplier relationships should be treated like marriages, built on trust, honesty, and two-way accountability. Both sides need to show up.

Suppliers should be asking: “How do we help this organisation thrive long-term?” not “How do we maximise the contract value?”

Is it time for an industry-wide code of conduct, one that sets out what good partnership looks like and holds both sides to account?

Data chaos is undermining member trust

Data in most membership bodies is messy, fragmented, and under-managed. Duplicates, outdated fields, disconnected systems, all of this erodes confidence.

When data isn’t clean, reports can’t be trusted. When reports aren’t trusted, decision-making becomes guesswork. And when that happens, it’s impossible to prove value to members or boards.

Before any membership body invests in new tech or existing tech development, it must start with a data audit, governance model, and ownership plan. Data confidence is the bedrock of digital maturity. Without it, transformation is just a buzzword.

Automation isn’t about cutting people - it’s about freeing them

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen membership teams spend hours on repetitive admin, renewals, exports, reminders, manual updates, that could easily be automated.

Automation isn’t a threat to jobs. It’s a route to creativity

When we automate the mundane, we free up people to focus on engagement, storytelling, innovation, and growth, the things members actually feel.

Associations facing budget pressure and renewal scrutiny should be asking -“What can we automate today, so our teams can deliver more value tomorrow?”

A consultants diagnosis

After multiple discovery projects across the membership world, I often feel like a spin doctor, walking in, diagnosing the same issues, prescribing the same remedies.

The patterns are identical.
The outcomes could be transformative.
But the sector keeps treating symptoms instead of causes.

It’s not another CRM that’s needed, it’s cultural change. Membership bodies must invest in capability, governance, and supplier alignment before investing in new technology.

Until that happens, digital transformation will remain a cycle of frustration and waste.

The new deal for 2026 and beyond

Here’s what a more sustainable digital future for membership bodies looks like:

Start with people, not platforms. Build internal confidence, structure, and digital literacy.
Treat suppliers as partners. Expect transparency, shared accountability, and long-term collaboration.
Make data governance non-negotiable. Clean data underpins every strategic decision.
Automate for efficiency. Let technology handle the routine so teams can focus on impact.
Embed digital thinking everywhere. From board strategy to member services, it’s not a project, it’s a culture.

At Dovetail Creative Ltd , we have seen how quickly organisations can transform when they stop blaming systems and start empowering people.

The tools are ready. The insights are there. What’s missing is the collective will to reset the rules

Time to Rethink Membership Engagement: Tools, Training and Tailored Support

Lisa Collins — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

As May draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the membership-focused projects and events Dovetail has supported this month. From CRM discovery workshops to strategic reviews and deep dives into data, one theme keeps surfacing:

Many associations have the right tools, but not the training, time, or strategy to make them work.

Whether it’s Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, or a bespoke AMS, associations have invested in platforms designed to unlock smarter member engagement. But when used in isolation, without segmentation, planning, or content tailored to members’ real needs, even the most advanced systems can become just another underused database.

It’s Not About Doing More, It’s About Doing It Differently

If engagement is flatlining or members feel disconnected, it’s rarely because you’re not communicating enough. It’s usually because your message isn’t landing in the right way or with the right people.

In today’s digital-first world, a monthly newsletter or batch-and-blast email just isn’t enough. Why?

Because there’s simply too much content out there. Members are overwhelmed by inbox noise, social feeds, and information fatigue. Generic, untargeted communications get ignored or worse, they train your audience to tune you out.

Relevance is the new frequency. Your members will engage when they feel seen, valued, and understood.

Here at Dovetail, we’ve been working closely with associations to move beyond one-size-fits-all communications and build smarter, more meaningful membership engagement strategies that actually work.

Here's How We Are Helping:

Re-engaging lapsed members with timely, relevant outreach
Developing meaningful segmentation strategies based on real data
Mapping the full member journey with value-based touchpoints
Transforming CRM systems into daily-use tools (not data silos)
Creating lead magnets and content that attract new members
Designing data-driven campaigns that grow and retain membership

Associations Aren’t Selling a Product – You’re Building a Community

Membership marketing is about relationships, not transactions. It’s about showing up consistently, delivering value at every stage, and creating spaces where members feel a sense of belonging. But that takes time, skill, and strategy, and most association teams are already juggling events, training, publications, and stakeholder demands, often on limited budgets and short timelines. That’s why it’s time to simplify, segment, and systemise wherever you can.

Four Ways to Start Rethinking Your Engagement Strategy:

Understand Your Members: You can’t engage who you don’t understand. What do different member segments value networking, learning, advocacy, community? Gather feedback, audit your data, and build a segmentation framework that actually reflects their priorities.
Communicate Real Value: It’s not just about benefits, it’s about reinforcing your Member Value Proposition (MVP) throughout the year in meaningful ways. Make your comms relevant, timely, and member-centric.
Attract New Audiences: Don’t rely on retention alone. Think downloadable tools, expert-led webinars, and collaborations with sector partners that introduce you to fresh audiences.
Optimise, Always: Your tools should be working for you. Is your CRM enabling segmentation? Are your automations saving time? Are your teams trained to get the best out of what you’ve bought? Optimisation is never a one-time task but it’s always worth it.

I started Dovetail to share what works not just in theory, but in practice. That’s why this summer, we’re offering complimentary 60-minute online discovery workshops for associations ready to refresh their approach.

We Can Explore:

Your CRM and data strategy
A simple segmentation plan with actionable next steps
A mapped-out member journey highlighting gaps and opportunities
Tips on how to get more out of tools like Microsoft Dynamics

No pressure. No pitch. Just practical, experienced support from a team that knows how hard it is – and how powerful it can be when you get it right.

Unlocking Membership Engagement: Strategies, Metrics, and Practical Insights

Lisa Collins — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In an era where associations navigate the ever-shifting landscape of member engagement, the pursuit of meaningful interactions has become both an art and a science. From deciphering the nuances of digital engagement to understanding evolving member expectations, organisations grapple with multifaceted challenges in their quest to optimise engagement. Let's delve deeper into these challenges and explore strategies to overcome them.

Member Engagement and Retention:

Member engagement and retention stand as the cornerstone of any successful association. However, in today's fast-paced world, capturing and maintaining members' attention presents a significant challenge. Associations must adopt innovative approaches to keep members actively involved and committed to the organisation's mission.

The Membership Journey:

A good place to start is by mapping the member journey. This resembles walking in the shoes of each member, seeking to understand their experiences, preferences, and pain points to personalise communications, content, and offers effectively. Customer journey mapping, in the context of an association, offers a visual representation of the member's experience from the initial awareness of the association to becoming dedicated volunteers and advocates. Through this mapping process, associations gain valuable insights into how members perceive the association, their interactions with it, and the barriers that may prevent them from fully engaging or renewing their membership.

The primary objectives of member journey mapping are multifaceted. Firstly, it aims to deepen the associations understanding of its members and their diverse experiences. By identifying and addressing pain points along the journey, associations can enhance member satisfaction and loyalty. Importantly, member journey mapping shifts the focus from the association's perspective to a user-centred viewpoint, allowing associations to better align their strategies with member needs and preferences. Furthermore, it facilitates the segmentation of members based on their journey stage, enabling personalised communication and content tailored to specific needs and interests.

Creating a member journey map entails a systematic approach, starting with the collection of qualitative and quantitative data on the audience. This data serves as the foundation for building member personas, which represent different segments of the membership base. Next, associations should identify all touchpoints across the member journey, from initial awareness to ongoing engagement and renewal. By delineating the different stages of the journey, associations can design interventions and initiatives tailored to each stage's unique requirements. Finally, the process involves testing, validating, and iterating the journey map to ensure its accuracy and effectiveness in guiding strategic decision-making and member engagement efforts.

Member Benefits:

Crafting a package of benefits for members that demonstrates real value is essential for associations aiming to attract and retain members effectively. By curating a diverse array of offerings tailored to meet the varied needs and interests of members, associations can showcase the tangible benefits of membership and reinforce the value proposition.

This package may include exclusive access to industry events and networking opportunities, specialised training and professional development resources, discounts on products and services from strategic partners, and access to curated content and thought leadership materials.

Avoid creating overly complex names for your benefits offerings. Instead, opt for straightforward and descriptive labels that clearly communicate the essence of each benefit. This approach ensures that your members can easily understand and relate to the value provided by each offering.

By highlighting the concrete advantages and practical benefits that members stand to gain, organisations can demonstrate the ROI of membership and create a compelling incentive for individuals to join and engage actively with the association.

Regularly assessing and updating the package of benefits based on member feedback and evolving market trends ensures that the offerings remain relevant, impactful, and reflective of the organisation's commitment to serving its members' needs effectively.

Tracking Engagement:

Tracking members' engagement with benefits throughout the year serves as a strategic imperative for associations, offering valuable insights that inform renewal campaigns and enhance member retention efforts.

By systematically monitoring which benefits members utilise and their corresponding activity levels, associations can tailor renewal communications to highlight both transactional and emotional benefits.

Transactional benefits, such as discounts on products or access to exclusive events, provide tangible value and are often easier to track quantitatively. However, emotional benefits, such as a sense of belonging or professional development opportunities, are equally crucial for fostering long-term loyalty and satisfaction.

By understanding and tracking both types of benefits, associations can create renewal campaigns that resonate with members on a deeper level, reinforcing the emotional connection to the association while also demonstrating the tangible ROI of membership.

Leveraging sophisticated IT systems enables associations to generate comprehensive member benefit statements that not only quantify the financial worth of transactional benefits but also articulate the intangible value derived from emotional benefits. This holistic approach not only strengthens member engagement and loyalty but also empowers associations to optimise resource allocation and refine benefit offerings based on member feedback and usage patterns.

There are various tools and methods available to effectively track member engagement throughout the year. CRM systems serve as foundational tools, capturing member data and interactions across multiple touchpoints. These systems allow associations to monitor member activity, track engagement metrics, and segment members based on their behaviours and preferences.

Website analytics platforms provide valuable insights into member behaviour online, tracking website visits, content consumption, and interaction patterns.

Email marketing software enables organisations to monitor open rates, click-through rates, and conversion metrics, allowing for targeted communication based on member interests.

Social media monitoring tools offer real-time insights into member sentiment and engagement on social platforms, facilitating proactive outreach and community management.

Surveys, polls, and feedback forms provide direct feedback from members, enabling associations to gauge satisfaction levels and identify areas for improvement.

By leveraging these tools and methods in tandem, associations can gain a comprehensive understanding of member engagement and tailor their strategies accordingly to drive long-term success.

Create a Sense of Belonging:

Creating a sense of belonging is integral to fostering strong connections and engagement within associations.

Beyond simply offering benefits, associations must convey a genuine sense of community and inclusivity through their messaging and marketing efforts. This entails crafting personalised messages that resonate with members on a deeper level, acknowledging their unique backgrounds, interests, and aspirations. By segmenting communications based on factors such as job function, location, and interests, associations can deliver targeted content and resources that speak directly to the individual needs and preferences of each member.

Utilising imagery that reflects diversity and inclusivity reinforces the associations commitment to creating a welcoming environment where all members feel valued and respected. Additionally, facilitating networking events and online communities tailored to specific interests or demographics provides opportunities for members to connect with like-minded peers, share insights, and forge meaningful relationships.

Adapting to Changing Member Needs:

Staying attuned to changing member needs is paramount for an associations relevance and effectiveness. This requires a proactive approach to gathering member feedback and implementing strategies to address evolving priorities. Regular reassessment of member needs ensures that associations remain responsive to shifting dynamics and can adapt their offerings accordingly.

Associations should regularly examine their membership model to ensure it aligns with the evolving needs and preferences of their members. While many associations adhere to the traditional renewal-on-January-1st model, it's important to recognise that members' budgets and renewal cycles may vary throughout the year. Therefore, associations could consider offering alternative renewal options to accommodate diverse financial circumstances and preferences. This could include staggered renewal dates or flexible payment plans to better suit members' individual needs.

Associations could explore different pricing models beyond organisation size or member location, such as introducing specialised categories for students or retired professionals. These tailored membership tiers can provide targeted benefits and pricing structures to specific demographic segments, enhancing inclusivity and engagement within the association. You may consider incorporating tiered membership levels with varying benefits and price points to cater to different member needs and interests. By regularly evaluating and refining their membership model, associations can ensure it remains relevant, accessible, and attractive to current and prospective members alike.

Effective Gathering and Implementation of Member Feedback:

Engaging members in meaningful dialogue and soliciting their feedback is critical for success. Leveraging surveys, focus groups, and online forums can provide valuable insights into member preferences and pain points, guiding strategic decision-making and program development. Implementing changes based on member feedback demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement and fosters a sense of ownership among members.

Innovative Marketing Strategies and Branding:

Effective marketing strategies are essential for attracting and retaining members. Embracing new approaches, such as influencer partnerships, targeted digital advertising, and experiential marketing events, can help associations stand out in a crowded marketplace and resonate with their target audience.

Technology Integration and Digital Transformation:

Embracing digital transformation is imperative for associations looking to remain competitive in today's fast-paced environment. Leveraging technology to streamline operations, enhance member experiences, and expand reach can drive association growth and sustainability. Associations should invest in robust digital infrastructure and prioritise user-friendly platforms to facilitate seamless member interactions.

The Right Team to Deliver:

Building a talented and dedicated internal team or relationships with association experts is essential for executing association strategies and driving success. Recruiting individuals with diverse skill sets and fostering a collaborative work environment can empower teams to overcome challenges and achieve collective goals. Associations must prioritise professional development and provide ongoing support to ensure that their team are equipped to meet evolving demands and deliver exceptional value to members.

Simple strategies – The low hanging fruit that will see immediate impact:

Prioritise Member-Centricity: Place members at the centre of all association efforts, tailoring programmes, services, and communications to meet their needs and preferences.
Embrace Innovation: Stay ahead of the curve by exploring new models, marketing channels, and technology solutions to enhance member engagement and association sustainability.
Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Encourage open communication and feedback loops to gather insights from members and stakeholders, driving iterative improvements across all aspects of the association.
Invest in Professional Development: Equip staff and volunteers with the skills and resources they need to succeed, investing in ongoing training and development opportunities to nurture talent and expertise.
Cultivate Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with industry partners, community organisations, and other stakeholders to amplify impact, share resources, and reach new audiences.
Leverage Technology Wisely: Embrace digital tools and platforms to streamline operations, enhance member experiences, and gather actionable data insights to inform decision-making.

You will be pleased to hear that all associations face these challenges they are not unique and you are certainly not alone. Here are some key pieces of advice:

Stay Agile and Adaptive:

Embrace change as a constant in today's dynamic landscape, remaining flexible and responsive to emerging trends and member needs.

Lead by Example:

Demonstrate a commitment to excellence and innovation, inspiring others to embrace new ideas and approaches to problem-solving.

Foster Collaboration and Inclusivity:

Create a culture of collaboration and inclusivity, valuing diverse perspectives and empowering teams to contribute to organisational success.

Prioritise Member Value:

Keep member value at the forefront of decision-making, ensuring that all initiatives and investments are aligned with the needs and priorities of the membership base.

Communicate Transparently:

Foster open and transparent communication channels, keeping members informed and engaged in organisational activities and decision-making processes.

Share Best Practice:

The AAE and other organisation within the association space offer exclusive platforms for association professionals to connect and exchange insights with peers from across the industry. Attend to gain valuable insights into how others are tackling similar membership engagement challenges and to share your own concerns, opening the door to receive advice and strategies from fellow professionals.

In conclusion, navigating the landscape of membership engagement requires a strategic blend of innovation, empathy, and adaptability. By prioritising member-centricity, embracing digital transformation, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, associations can unlock new opportunities for growth and sustainability.

Should you require further support or wish to delve deeper into any of the strategies discussed, don't hesitate to reach out to Dovetail Creative. Our team is here to provide tailored solutions and guidance, whether through individual consultations or complimentary workshops designed to explore your associations unique needs and goals.

Breaking through the white noise: How MediaTech marketing is transforming

Lorenzo Zanni — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines white noise as: “A constant background noise. Especially, one that drowns out other sounds.” Based on this definition, we can safely say that we live in the age of white noise. The quantity of content being produced by both humans and, more significantly, AI, is overwhelming. We struggle to keep up with it. Fear of missing out (FOMO) has become the feeling of our time as we grapple with information overload. And the messages we are seeing are becoming increasingly homogeneous as we delegate more creative agency to AI tools.

This is happening in many areas, and marketing is no exception to this trend. Since the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022, marketers have increasingly relied on AI tools to produce more content. However, marketers are also struggling to get noticed and attract leads due to this growing white noise. And, after two years of jumping on the AI bandwagon, we are witnessing a sort of reckoning. The key question marketers are asking now is: how can we change things and break through this white noise?

We believe this is a macro marketing trend that is influencing the media technology (Media Tech) industry as well. Yes, our industry is kind of special, and has its own specificities, though it is now subject to bigger shifts as well. This report aims to identify the key marketing trends in Media Tech in 2025 and beyond. These trends were researched and validated through conversations with marketing and go-to-market (GTM) leaders at NAB Show 2025, as well as through recent feedback and project work across the Media Tech ecosystem.

The business environment in MediaTech

The past few years have been particularly challenging for media businesses. Many of them have reduced headcount, scaled back technology budgets, streamlined content portfolios, and adopted a stricter and more cautious approach to investment. These pressures have inevitably trickled down to Media Tech providers as well.

Marketing, as they say, is one of the first things to come under pressure in dire times. And in those organizations that have chosen to prioritize technology innovation over other functions, marketing spend has been pressured even more as a result, as candidly reported by a Media Tech business leader we spoke to at NAB Show 2025.

But it’s not just about smaller budgets. The current business environment is leading marketers to question how budgets are being spent. Generally, there’s increasing scrutiny on return on investment (ROI) and measurable outcomes, as well as a growing expectation for marketing to directly contribute to revenue generation.

This environment, coupled with the revolutionary impact of AI on marketing introduced earlier, is leading to some significant changes in marketing strategy at Media Tech businesses.

The elephant in the budget

Let’s start from the biggest line in most Media Tech businesses’ budgets: trade shows. Direct and indirect investment in trade shows is often the largest portion of the marketing budget for most Media Tech businesses and, in the current business environment, this has become too hard to ignore.

Trade shows have always been a cornerstone of our industry, driving technology launches, sales, roadmaps, and development. However, the declining trend in trade show attendance experienced by major events such as IBC and NAB Show after the advent of the pandemic has led marketing leaders to increasingly question their effectiveness. For example, many marketers have been recently demanding trade show organizers to provide more granular data on attendance (e.g., buyer seniority).

Figure 1 below shows the trend in IBC and NAB Show attendance from 2016 to 2025 (2025 data is available only for NAB). Note that we took these two shows as references for the Media Tech industry as they represent the two largest events for the sector (other adjacent exhibitions such as ISE exhibit a different trend). Between the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods, attendance of these shows declined significantly, particularly for NAB Show. Between its peak 2016 and its trough 2025, attendance of NAB Show has roughly halved. Looking at the change in averages between these two periods, IBC attendance declined by 26% while NAB Show’s by 39%

Figure 1: NAB Show and IBC attendance, 2016-2025

Why has trade show attendance declined and what are the implications for in-person events in our sector?

It is important to take a step back to better understand the answer to this question, as well as extract the trends that generally affect in-person events rather than being specific to each show. The pandemic was a turning point not only for trade shows, but also, more generally, it marked a fundamental shift in buying behaviour. Consumers and companies, including businesses in our industry, adapted to online research, interactions and purchases. And with AI lowering the barriers to entry for research and information availability, the B2B buying process has gradually been shifting away from trade shows.

The changing role of trade shows

However, we quickly realized that something was missing. While the transactional elements of buying and selling could move online (e.g., product research, pricing comparisons, demos), we still needed to meet in person to nurture trust, alignment, and long-term partnerships. The role of trade shows has radically changed as a result. Their capacity to directly drive sales has arguably diminished, while their value in building relationships and trust has comparatively grown.

This shift carries a first, important and obvious implication for marketers: invest in trade show activities that focus on trust building rather than solely on selling. Many marketers reported that this is a fundamental shift forcing them to rethink which elements of trade shows they bet on. This rethinking includes the size and design of trade show booths, some of which are getting smaller and more austere as budgets are re-allocated elsewhere.

And, while the booth remains the primary platform to drive new sales and customer retention, vendors are investing in other activities to engage with their followings, which increasingly include not only customers, but also partners and collaborators. At NAB Show 2025, we hosted two topical and insight-led events, a type of engagement that is increasingly being valued as companies move from transactional to trust building activities.

Changing buying patterns

Buying patterns have also been changing significantly over the last years.

The profile of buyers attending trade shows is shifting. Broadcast and media organizations are undergoing profound transformation, bringing in a new wave of diverse leadership with fresh priorities and values. Many of these decision-makers are more digitally native, more data-driven, and place greater importance on ESG commitments than their predecessors. They often arrive at the show with their buying decisions largely made, using the event not to discover, but to validate. Aligning with these evolving expectations has become essential for Media Tech businesses.

Declining attendance also means buyers’ time is more stretched, and marketing messages are increasingly diluted in a sea of noise. Yes, that’s trade show white noise. To put this into perspective: many vendors have told us that where they once had an hour to engage with buyers, they’re now lucky to get 10 minutes. Meetings are being missed, follow-up emails are going unanswered, and even scheduled conversations are getting cut short. This is leading Media Tech vendors to change the way they engage with buyers.

It's about the journey, not the destination

Media Tech businesses are beginning to recognize that engagement does not start or end at the event itself. It’s about the journey, about how you build engagement before, during, and after trade shows. The trade show itself is simply the culmination of a much bigger and more extended marketing strategy.

For example, with the two topical, insight-driven events we hosted at NAB Show 2025, we did not just engage with attendees at the show. We also generated social engagement (and data) around the events before the show and shared an insight report with attendees afterwards (this also generated data). As you can appreciate, this goes well beyond the event at the show to deliver real value for both buyers and partners involved in the event.

To draw a parallel with our industry, this move is akin to the shift from CAPEX to OPEX: moving from large, infrequent technology investments to smaller, more frequent ones. Rather than viewing trade shows as a one-time push, modern marketing leaders are integrating them into a continuous cycle of engagement that builds over time. This requires a cultural shift, and it is no surprise many Media Tech organizations are transforming their marketing departments to achieve it.

A big part of this shift is having a clear campaign strategy well in advance of the event. That means knowing your message, aligning your content and touchpoints across all channels, and giving new products names that clearly communicate what they do. Overcomplicated, abstract messaging can be a barrier, particularly when buyers are already overwhelmed with choices.

And with buyers increasingly conducting their research online, vendors must ensure that their trade show messaging is fully aligned with what they communicate across other channels such as their website and social media. Any disconnect can undermine trust before a conversation even begins.

Moreover, with fewer buyers stretched across many vendors, Media Tech businesses can no longer rely on walk-by traffic. Yes, there may still be the occasional serendipitous encounters, but those moments are fewer than in the past. The reality is that lead generation and appointment-setting need to happen well before the event.

This move towards continuous engagement is the first big area of transformation Media Tech marketing teams are going through. Let’s look at the others.

Where's the ROI?

We have already touched on the second major area of transformation: companies are no longer investing in activities for the sake of it; they are scrutinizing ROI more closely than ever as budgets are under pressure. As one Media Tech business put it bluntly: “Where’s the ROI?” This shift to measurable outcomes has been made easier by marketing budgets increasingly moving to digital platforms that track behaviour.

For example, it’s no longer enough for a Media Tech company to simply scale press coverage hoping that someone will eventually read a publication. Now, businesses want to know how many people are reading a publication, who the readers are, and what their key characteristics are, etc. And the same applies to trade shows, as mentioned earlier.

Another example is topical content. It’s no longer effective to simply push content out and hope it lands. Instead, the focus should be on driving meaningful engagement by strategically distributing content to audiences most likely to find it relevant. From there, it’s critical to measure not just clicks or views, but what that engagement leads to, whether it’s sales, social advocacy, or other relevant indicators.

While our industry has tried to hold onto traditional marketing methods for a long time, change is now coming, and measurability is taking centre stage. This requires marketing service providers in our sector to adapt their mentality and technology to the digital age. As in the famous Hemingway quote, change may come gradually, but you might want to consider this shift before it becomes more sudden.

Less is more

The third area of transformation is a shift from quantity-driven to quality-driven strategies that prioritize relevance to end-users rather than mass reach. In recent years, Media Tech marketing strategies have focused heavily on scaling output through automation, but in a landscape saturated by AI and homogeneous content, audiences are demanding more meaningful content, experiences and engagement.

As a result, more Media Tech businesses have told us that they are planning to lead with original insight, data-driven content and authentic experiences. The topical, insight-driven events we hosted at NAB Show 2025 are just one example of this trend. As the lines between B2B and B2C marketing continue to blur, companies will also take more creative risks and experiment with new formats such as podcasts, short-form video, interactive content and gamification.

And this transformation extends well beyond content, as it is also reshaping communications. Mass marketing is becoming ineffective as buyers’ attention spans shrink due to white noise. Micro-targeting is emerging as a best practice in its place thanks to advancements in AI and data enrichment tools. Today’s Media Tech marketers are moving beyond basic firmographics, leveraging behavioural and engagement data to deliver campaigns that feel truly valuable and relevant to end-users. This change is coming too.

United we stand, divided we fall

Another trend we are noticing is the gradual integration of sales and marketing teams. More specifically, the traditional division where marketing builds awareness and sales drives conversion is gradually dissolving. Today, these teams are increasingly integrated, with joint accountability for revenue generation, customer experience, and positioning.

At NAB Show 2025, several marketing leaders noted that their departments are beginning to merge, sometimes even officially, reflecting a broader shift toward alignment across the funnel.

This convergence demands not just greater operational integration, but also a shared data infrastructure and tighter collaboration on performance metrics. For marketing teams, it also means optimizing for sales and revenue outcomes, not just engagement, as we mentioned earlier.

Moreover, this shift calls for new skills and mindsets in both marketing and sales. The "little black book" approach relying only on personal contacts to drive sales and engagement is not enough anymore. Marketing and sales teams now need to be fluent in areas such as digital, CRM, data enrichment, and GTM intelligence to identify, prioritize, and nurture leads more effectively as well as personalize outreach. Data and relationship are therefore becoming more united as well. In other words, working the data is becoming as important as working the room and customers’ expectations regarding relevance have changed.

Community rules

Finally, more Media Tech marketers are turning to communities as a means of building sustained engagement over time. This is consistent with Media Tech companies extending customer and partner engagement beyond just trade shows.

Communities are gaining traction particularly in industries such as Media Tech where trust and long sales cycles are common and where technical complexity requires collaboration.

At NAB Show 2025, multiple marketing executives cited community-led strategies as a key area of investment going forward. This is expensive, if done well, as communities need to be properly managed and community members need to be incentivized to contribute.

And community isn’t just about engagement, it’s about data, insight, and advocacy. Companies that succeed in this area will build proprietary channels for feedback as well as long-term loyalty, ideal for breaking through the white noise.

Figure 2 below maps the key, changing buying patterns in the Media Tech industry with changing marketing strategies.

Figure 1: Changing buying patterns and marketing strategies in Media Tech

Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list. The landscape is evolving rapidly, and what works today may not be enough tomorrow. It’s essential that we continue this conversation, challenge assumptions, and share learnings across the industry.

AI can be a positive force, if used correctly

Before concluding this analysis, let us clarify something. Throughout this report, we highlighted some of the dark sides of AI in marketing. However, AI can be a positive force, if used correctly (indeed, I have already mentioned a few areas where this is the case earlier).

In most cases, this means combining AI with human moderation, at least for now. For example, you can use AI to analyse a massive list of prospects with the objective of filtering those that are most likely to be interested in your product portfolio. From there, human insight can step in to validate the results, add strategic nuance, and personalize outreach. This hybrid approach ensures that AI handles the scale and speed, while human insight brings context, creativity, and relationship-building.

In other words, use AI as a marketing intern whose output needs reviewing, not like a marketing consultant.

The future of MediaTech marketing

As we look towards the future of marketing in Media Tech, success may come from harmonizing seemingly contradictory forces: efficiency with authenticity, data-driven decisions with creative differentiation, technological advancement with human connection. This is both fascinating and daunting.

The transformation we're witnessing isn't just about adopting new tactics, it represents a fundamental rethinking of marketing strategies.

Tomorrow's marketing leaders will recognize that breaking through the white noise does not require shouting louder but rather saying something worth hearing. Moving to continuous customer engagement, measuring marketing ROI, investing in quality content and experiences as well as building communities are some of the areas Media Tech marketers are focusing on to stand out.

The companies that embrace these changes won't just survive the transformation, they will lead it.

NAB Show 2025 Preview Analysis: 5 Key Trends in 5 Words

Lorenzo Zanni — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In this article, I have rounded up some of my recent LinkedIn posts about the key trends I have observed in broadcast and media ahead of NAB Show 2025.

This NAB Show 2025 Preview analysis exercise aims to provide attendees and exhibitors with an analysis of the main trends shaping the media technology industry before one of the most important sector events of the year.

I have used 5 words to describe the 5 key trends I am seeing in the industry this year. But before I do that, let me provide some brief context on the business environment in broadcast and media in 2025.

The Business Environment in Broadcast and Media

2025 is a strange year for the broadcast and media industry. 2023 and 2024 have not been easy years amid financial hardship and cost reductions, which have led media businesses to focus on using technology to drive new efficiencies and revenues.

To provide some evidence on this, I analysed EBIT data for 20 large and public broadcast and media businesses in the US, finding that cost reduction initiatives implemented between 2023 and 2024 generally led to a significant improvement in margins.

On average, margins almost doubled, changing from 6% in September 2023 to 11% in September 2024 for this group of companies, as illustrated by the figure below.

Arguably, cost-reduction initiatives were the main driver behind this. We witnessed several companies cutting personnel, reducing technology budgets, rationalizing content portfolios, and, more generally, adopting a stricter approach to investment.

Even though the mood at industry trade shows has been upbeat, industry confidence has been in decline due to this cost-cutting and cautiousness in technology investment. This has led some suppliers to explore other industries and shows, as I explained in my post-ISE 2025 analysis.

Some expect 2025 to be a continuation of trends that already emerged in the past two years, and I generally tend to agree with this view. However, I think that some established trends from the 2023-2024 biennium will mature, with some aspects we have not paid enough attention to becoming more important than before.

Let’s have a look at 5 key trends I expect to be prominent at NAB Show 2025.

5 Key Trends to Watch

#1 AI

AI (mostly Gen AI here) was arguably the top technology trend in the industry and the world in 2024, driving most of the discourse, interest and investment.

I think that 2025 will be no different: AI will remain the top trend due to its immense potential to change the sector.

However, conversations about AI at NAB may shift with the buzz surrounding the technology being gradually (and naturally) overshadowed by realism. I expect an increasing focus on the real benefits of AI, as well as its necessary guardrails. Things like the value of this technology, costs, ROI, specific use cases, pricing models, security, compliance, sustainability, and the like.

Therefore, challenge vendors in these areas if you are a buyer and prepare to be challenged if you are a supplier. This should be a healthy development for a technology that has often been surrounded by too much buzz, despite its real potential.

Not all the buzz around the technology will evaporate, as I expect some to still surround the use of AI in content creation. And I must admit that I am still on the fence on this topic. While there is compelling evidence that AI on its own still has some obvious limitations in creating authentic content, the rise of AI-driven content creation cannot be ignored, particularly as the industry grapples with financial constraints.

I lean towards the view that "AI needs humans" for context and creativity, but contradictions remain, and the boundaries of what AI can do are still being pushed. Even though 2025 might still be too early for a revolution in this area, AI will continue to make content creation more accessible, which will influence a plethora of creative industries, including ours.

There is still debate around regulating the use of AI in content creation, and I think that this will be a hot topic this year, particularly as some of the Oscar-nominated films made (only surgical) use of AI technology.

Big developments in AI technology will still be led by big tech (and governments!). The keynote of Nvidia’s CEO at CES 2025 focused on AI agents, which is what the AI sector is pushing for now, though I doubt this will be the year we relinquish our agency to them (and I doubt we will ever fully do that). There are too many safety questions surrounding the concept of AI agency that still make this unfeasible in the short-term, though the unprecedented speed of change of this technology may prove me wrong (see what Deepseek did in a day!).

Interestingly, the sheer complexity and speed of change in the AI technology landscape is leading organizations to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to AI management, strategy and governance something that is also related to the next trend I will look at. If you are interested in this topic, I talked to Globo about their approach to AI strategy and governance in an episode of Pulsecast.

Finally, back to realism. The potential of AI has driven astronomical valuations for AI businesses and massive CAPEX investments. But the jury is still out on whether these investments will yield returns. Will this disconnect between investment and revenue cause an AI bubble to pop in 2025?

#2 Hybrid
The industry has already diversified its stakes in several business areas in 2024, and I think that this is likely to continue in 2025 as well. Diversification was the industry's natural response to risk increasing due to the emergence of a variety of threats ranging from conflict to inflation, which stifled consumers’ propensity to pay for entertainment and led to rising financial pressure on the fundamentals of the sector.

From a business model perspective, media companies have diversified their position through the launch of ad-supported business models and the increasing reliance on live content, particularly sports. Netflix notably shifted its model towards these two areas in response to financial pressure.

Hybrid business models are now the norm in the media and entertainment sector, and finding synergies between their sub-elements has become increasingly important (think about the synergies between live sports and advertising Netflix has been taking advantage of recently). This is an area technology can perhaps help more with, so I expect to see more features enabling better synergies between disparate business models at NAB Show as well.

Content portfolios are becoming more hybrid as well. Not only are streamers increasingly relying on live sports but also the lines between short-form and long-form content are blurring. For example, Netflix is exploring new programming formats such as short-form digital content and podcasts while YouTube is revamping its TV app to enable creators to:

“Organize shows around episodes and seasons, mirroring what viewers have come to expect on subscription video platforms.”

M&A have helped diversification as well, though recent evidence has shown that some large media companies are dividing their empires to find clearer strategic direction. Between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, media businesses such as Vivendi, Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast all made similar moves consistent with this trend. This is an interesting trend that might have been caused by several factors. I believe that one of them is a return to focusing on the core and achieving more nimbleness in a rapidly changing sector.

From a technology perspective, we have seen companies adopt a more hybrid approach to cloud investment in recent years due to their stricter cost controls. Nobody is talking about an industry that is set to be 100% in the cloud anymore with most businesses recognizing a healthy coexistence of cloud and on-premises. If you think about it, the same applies to the coexistence of other opposites like in-house and outsourced technology (outsourcing has also been growing in the last few years, consistent with media companies' push to focus on the core).

AI is also driving people to acquire hybrid skillsets. In various industries, including broadcast and media, skillsets are becoming more hybrid to be less vulnerable to AI-driven automation.

Finally, I am also increasingly seeing the adoption of hybrid (i.e., more democratic and multi-disciplinary) decision-making models in AI strategy to deal with the complexities of the technology. Think about AI councils to advise on the impact of AI on organizations. This is a relevant trend for technology suppliers as it disperses decision-making, forcing them to talk in more than one tone of voice.

#3 Live
After the difficulties caused by the pandemic-driven shutdowns, live and particularly live sports, have experienced a resurgence. Interestingly, I saw a similar resurgence of live in the Pro-AV sector when I attended ISE 2025 (this is my ISE 2025 post-show analysis for those of you interested in this market). We saw several examples of this live resurgence between 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 (I will focus mainly on live sports here).

Notably, we saw Netflix reneging on its long-standing promise to never enter the live sports market. In a 2024 LinkedIn post, I talked about how Netflix’s high-profile live streaming of the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match represented a case study showing the potential of business models dominating technology issues in media. This event attracted 60m households globally, leading to 1.4m related signups according to Antenna and positively influencing Netflix’s ad-supported streaming offering as well. Netflix has continued to double down on sports since then.

In February 2025, the Super Bowl resiliently attracted a record viewership of 127.7m across all platforms (3% increase year-on-year). Streaming viewership continued to increase with nearly one-third of viewers using a streaming platform to watch the event according to this nScreenMedia analysis. The Super Bowl is a particularly good case study to illustrate the resurgence of live sports post-pandemic, as its audience consistently declined in the period 2018-2022.

My main takeaway from these flagship events is that live is alive and well, and that live streaming is becoming much more important. I wonder whether event size will be a key factor determining the future of live sports (it is already a key factor in technology investment). Will only very big live events remain the stronghold of traditional media platforms while smaller events fall in the hands of digital platforms and creators? There's certainly a tension in sports business models that should be in the spotlight soon.

From a technology perspective, I am seeing a few interesting trends that go hand in hand with the resurgence of live.

One trend is related to the synergies between live content and monetization (particularly in the advertising sphere) I mentioned earlier. How can I squeeze as much money as I can from my live content? An example of this is Netflix’s recent patent for splicing targeted content such as advertisements into live streams. This is an area of focus particularly for broadcasters in the live sports market.

This is related to the viewer experience, which is now a complex equation including not only picture quality but also other important factors such as latency, exposure to advertising and interactivity. All of these are also synergetic and should be considered by both technology vendors and buyers at NAB Show.

I am particularly interested in how the relationship between live and interactivity develops in 2025 and beyond. Although some broadcast and media organizations retreated from their investment in interactive entertainment experiences between 2023 and 2024 due to rising financial pressures, audiences demand them, and interactivity might represent a lever for differentiation in a crowded sports market.

#4 Creator
There is plenty of data points showing a growing divergence between what I’ll call “Traditional Broadcast and Media” and the thriving Creator Economy. Analysts like Doug Shapiro have shared plenty of compelling evidence in support of this trend. To simplify it to the extreme: while the viewership numbers attracted by the Creator Economy are skyrocketing, the Traditional Broadcast and Media sector is struggling to remain relevant to viewers, particularly younger eyeballs. To give you a figure, Google announced in December 2024 that YouTube’s total daily viewing via a TV set had reached 1bn hours. The blog post shared by the YouTube CEO at the start of the year puts this quite bluntly:

“YouTube is the new television.”

The Creator Economy is a market that NAB Show has been increasingly targeting in the last few years. They have been focusing on this more significantly in their content, marketing and messaging, for example. However, even if I am not sure what is the percentage of buyers associated with the Creator Economy that regularly attend NAB, I suspect it is not the majority.

The interesting bit for me is what this all means for media companies and technology suppliers. In both cases, it is a strategic dilemma.

For media companies, this shift is leading to more collaborations with emerging creators as well as an increasing reliance on creator-led platforms for content distribution. Fox bought conservative podcast business Red Seat Ventures in February 2025 and this is another sign of shifting power balances between creators and broadcast platforms, as well argued by this NY Times article:

“The acquisition moves the Fox Corporation into the heart of the online “creator economy,” where media personalities who once relied on old-school corporate distributors — like, say, the cable networks owned by Fox — have struck out on their own to build podcasts and streaming shows that rack up millions of subscribers on platforms like YouTube and SiriusXM.”

And even streamers such as Netflix and Amazon have been looking with increasing interest at the Creator Economy. Netflix is looking at new formats such as podcasts and short-form videos while Amazon invested in a very expensive TV show led by a YouTuber. These new partnerships between established media and content creators are only poised to grow.

This is a relevant trend that will have a profound impact on business models, content, and technology in M&E as well as the technology discussions that will be held at NAB Show.

For technology companies, there is a clear opportunity to increase the number of markets they sell to as technology becomes more accessible (I focused on some of the reasons why broadcast technology is becoming more accessible in my pre-ISE convergence focus). However, more markets are also a challenge as they increase potential competition while diluting resources. Moreover, the new markets present B2C-like buying patterns, including the requirement to sell more units at lower prices, which is no easy task to achieve.

#5 Headwinds

The rising influence of macroeconomic and geopolitical developments (e.g., trade wars, conflicts, etc.) on the technology business landscape should not be underestimated by companies in the media and entertainment sector.

This arguably rose to prominence when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 but has significantly increased in its importance and relevance since then.

Most recently, the outcome of the US elections has already changed the power balances in the technology landscape. The new US presidency is having an impact on a wide range of issues.

Most notably, tariffs (and the threat of future tariffs) are influencing technology supply chain strategies and components cost inflation for several companies while significantly increasing business uncertainty.

Moreover, some companies are retreating from their ESG and remote/hybrid work pledges due to their shifting political mood regarding these topics (though some are also maintaining them).

These are just some of the obvious implications, though there are many more I could mention (e.g., repeal of AI legislation).

While all of this might not be evident on the show floor, it will be an important element of conversations between media technology suppliers and buyers.

Don’t look at these trends in isolation

Despite my simplified distinction of 5 key industry shifts, you could perhaps already spot some connections between the trends I have discussed so far.

Let me provide some examples. Both hybrid skillsets and decision-making are becoming key to managing AI innovation within organizations. Accessible AI-driven creator tools influence the quantity and quality of content churned out by the Creator Economy. Individual creators are increasingly attracting live audiences, and their live streams sometimes focus on deepening the discussion on live sports and news played out by traditional broadcast platforms. It is perhaps clearer how headwinds will influence many of these trends (e.g., AI regulation).

My point is that these trends should not be looked at in isolation but rather with a good dose of systems thinking (back to hybrid skillsets!).

Checklist for NAB Show vendors and visitors

This is a checklist of areas to focus on for NAB Show vendors and visitors based on my analysis:

Follow the money by focusing on efficiency and revenue generation.
Focus on AI's real benefits, ROI and guardrails.
Be multi-disciplinary, particularly when it comes to AI.
Be flexible and open-minded in technology investment and provision.
Highlight and focus on the synergies between content and monetization.
Consider the multi-dimensionality of content quality, including interactivity and engagement.
Understand the impact of the Creator Economy on your customers and your business model.
Prepare for threats from the external economic and political environment.
Use systems thinking rather than looking at trends in isolation.

Conclusion

As we look ahead to NAB Show 2025, these five key trends will shape the conversations and decisions made throughout the event.

Whether it’s navigating the complexities of AI, adapting to hybrid business models, embracing the power of live content, understanding the dynamics of the Creator Economy, or managing the external pressures of geopolitical and economic headwinds, there is much to keep an eye on this year.

For attendees and exhibitors alike, staying ahead of these trends will be essential for success in 2025 and beyond.

About Dovetail Pulse

Our objective at Dovetail Pulse is helping companies navigate the changing media technology landscape by providing a deep understanding of market dynamics and audience needs through data.

ISE 2025 Preview: State of Pro-AV & Broadcast Convergence

Lorenzo Zanni — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 04:00:00 GMT

In this article, Lorenzo, our Lead Consultant - Dovetail Pulse, has rounded up some of his recent LinkedIn posts about pro-AV and broadcast convergence ahead of ISE 2025, in case you missed them, and you need some insights on this topic to be well prepared at the show. He has also added some new bits here and there and we hope you find the information below useful to your business.

ISE 2025 will be the perfect place to assess the evolution of convergence between broadcast and pro-AV technology, a trend that has become increasingly important in recent years. Whether you're attending ISE 2025 or monitoring industry developments, understanding these dynamics is becoming crucial.

Let’s start with some context about ISE’s growth in the last few years and the key trends that have driven it.

ISE’s Growth & Convergence Drivers

ISE’s Mike Blackman told invidis in a November interview that ISE 2025 will be at least 20% larger than the 2024 show (in terms of exhibition space). 2024 was the most successful in the show’s history and delivered a 27% increase in attendance on the 2023 edition. 2025 is expected to be another record year for ISE.

The pandemic was a key turning point for ISE, as for other trade shows. While ISE suffered from an inevitable decline in attendance in its first post-pandemic edition in 2022, it rebounded significantly between 2023 and 2024. This rebound was arguably led by pandemic-driven forces such as the rising investment in corporate video and communications caused by the move to remote and hybrid work environments. You can see the historical trend in ISE attendance in this chart:

The recent growth of ISE highlights the health of the pro-AV segment, but what does it say about the convergence between broadcast and pro-AV? The pandemic-driven forces cited above have gradually made broadcast technology more attractive to AV users looking to upgrade the quality of their systems, which has led broadcast technology suppliers to show increasing interest in the AV market.

It is also useful to note that convergence is operating both ways, as broadcasters have gradually adopted some AV technology and, more generally, technology used in non-broadcast industries, at accelerating pace after the pandemic.

But back to ISE. There is one part of the show which might help us better understand the direction of this convergence.

Analysis of the “AV Broadcast” Hall

A portion of Hall 4 at the show is dedicated to broadcast technology. This has been rebranded to “AV Broadcast” from “Content Production & Distribution” in 2025, which may signal an effort to blend broadcast technology within the AV landscape further. Tracking this part of the exhibition over time is a good indicator of convergence progress, and particularly of which broadcast technology is finding its place in AV (and how).

First, let’s take a snapshot of the types of companies exhibiting in this hall. I conducted a detailed profiling analysis of the companies exhibiting in the "AV Broadcast" Hall at ISE 2025 to find out which segments dominated the floor. I analysed the companies’ business profiles and product portfolios to categorize them into one of four main segments. Here's what I found:

39% of companies are in the Streaming and Connectivity segment. These companies provide solutions for video transport, encoding, decoding, and live streaming.
37% of companies are in the Content Acquisition and Production segment. These companies provide tools for capturing, creating, and editing audiovisual content.
15% of companies are in the Immersive and Display segment. These companies provide technologies like AR/VR, holographic displays, and advanced monitors.
9% of companies are in the Audio segment. These companies provide products such as mixing consoles, microphones, and audio signal processing.

This classification largely resonated with my previous beliefs, even though I was perhaps expecting content creation to be more dominant than streaming on the show floor. Feel free to share what you think about it and whether it is consistent with your view of the show.

The analysis also highlights sectors that may be underrepresented at the show, which may represent an opportunity if you are a broadcast vendor looking to expand into AV as convergence further progresses.

Analysis of Floorspace Trends in the “AV Broadcast” Hall

I also wanted to share some observations on the floor map changes I have noticed between 2024 and 2025. Note that this not a perfect analysis, but still, it provides some valuable insights:

Some broadcast tech suppliers (e.g., Ross Video) have transitioned to Hall 4 this year. This could reflect a move to further centralize solutions coming from broadcast. It certainly helps navigation for buyers (and for analysts)!
Some suppliers like Blackmagic Design seem to have expanded their floor space this year. Though most seem to have kept a similar booth space as in 2024 even if the overall show is growing, as mentioned earlier.
There are some new suppliers exhibiting this year (e.g., Grass Valley). And there are also a few vendors that have vanished from the map in 2025

My main takeaway from observations is that convergence is still a trend in flux, with companies coming from the broadcast industry still experimenting with strategies to engage the AV market effectively. Yes, while convergence is on the rise but, companies need time to adapt to the AV market.

Approaching the AV Market Effectively

Conversations with broadcast tech suppliers about the AV sector have often revealed mixed experiences. While some are energized by the opportunities provided by this new market, others express frustration over the mismatch between investments (including ISE) and returns.

The AV market should not be approached in the same way as the broadcast market. Success often comes from recognizing and understanding the distinct demands of the AV sector.

Here’s a short checklist for broadcast technology suppliers attending the show or considering entering the AV market (while it is not exhaustive, it may provide a framework to get started or review your strategy):

Do your research: Study AV trends, buyer priorities, and tech investments. This foundation drives everything else.
Focus on UI/UX & simplicity: Design solutions that are easy to use and don’t always assume deep technical expertise.
Educate your users: Provide training, resources, and great product documentation relevant to AV.
Highlight integration: Showcase how your products can easily fit into AV infrastructures and workflows.
Update your messaging: Tailor marketing to address AV buyer needs across various sectors and preferably drive this effort with research.
Partner up: Consider partnerships with integrators, consultants, and distributors to penetrate the market.
Adapt to changing buyers: Recognize that AV purchasing decisions, like in broadcast, are increasingly spread across departments, not centralized in engineering.

If you have other tips, please feel free to share them in the comments of this article

Conclusion

In conclusion, the convergence of pro-AV and broadcast technology is a trend in flux that presents exciting opportunities for technology suppliers and AV users alike. ISE 2025 offers a great platform to explore these trends and engage with leading voices shaping this convergence.

I will be at the show so feel free to contact if you’d like to meet there. Our objective at Dovetail Pulse is helping companies navigate this convergence by providing a deep understanding of market dynamics and audience needs through data.

See you in Barcelona!

ISE 2025 Post-Show Analysis

Lorenzo Zanni — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

ISE 2025 Post-Show Analysis: I attended ISE 2025 at the start of February, my fourth time at the show since the first post-pandemic edition in 2022 (which was also the first time the event was held in Barcelona).

As the show wrapped up on Friday, February 7, I felt that this edition represented a turning point for ISE and the trends driving the show. It was by far the busiest ISE I have ever seen, reflecting the growth of the Pro-AV sector in the post-pandemic era.

As I have often mentioned, ISE is the perfect place to assess the evolution of the convergence between Broadcast and Pro-AV technology, a trend that has become increasingly important in recent years, and one I am particularly passionate about.

If you missed them, here are my two pre-ISE 2025 articles focusing on the convergence between Pro-AV and Broadcast:

Part 1: State of Pro-AV & Broadcast Convergence
Part 2: Key Drivers of Broadcast/Pro-AV Convergence

These articles offer some context for understanding the current state of convergence and the drivers behind it, using ISE as a benchmark.

This article shares my post-show reflections on ISE 2025, specifically focusing on the convergence between Pro-AV and Broadcast.

I hope you find it useful, and, as usual, I welcome any feedback and thoughts you might have.

Happy days for the Pro-AV sector

ISE 2025 was buzzing, confirming pre-event predictions of a show that is significantly growing (see this article). Traffic was high, people were positive, conversations were bullish, and budgets were (and are) supposedly on the rise. There was a genuine optimism about the show and the industry it represents.

Was this justified? Generally, I would say so. Pro-AV is a growing sector that, according to AVIXA’s projections, is set to add $98bn over the next five years, reaching $422bn. That is a CAGR of 5.4% and a total size that is a significant multiple of the Broadcast technology sector. In other words, this is a significantly larger industry that is growing more rapidly than Broadcast according to various analyst estimates.

Attendance numbers also confirmed pre-show optimism. The show attracted 85,351 unique visitors, up 15.5% year-on-year (see more info here). Below, I have updated the chart on ISE historical attendance with the latest numbers:

And it is not just about numbers, the key drivers behind the show’s growth are solid, as argued in one of my previous articles. In a nutshell, technology, including Broadcast technology, is becoming more accessible while brands increasingly demand better tools to tell their stories. Happy days for the Pro-AV sector, but what about Broadcast technology?

The Pro-AV opportunity for Broadcast technology vendors

What’s not to like about this? Broadcast technology vendors are increasingly attracted by the market opportunity Pro-AV presents and this is even more compelling as budgets in Broadcast, their core sector, continue to be under pressure. Some vendors told me that ISE is becoming one of the most important shows on the calendar, with more marketing budget being dedicated to it as a result.

The increasing presence of Broadcast technology vendors at the show was even more evident this year. There were more of them, and more first-time exhibitors flocked to the show to seize the Pro-AV opportunity. There were also more suppliers exploring the show as visitors, without exhibiting. Although FOMO drove a few suppliers to come to ISE, I believe that the trends behind their arrival are solid. And it was not just vendors, I saw many more Broadcast-focused publishers, PR companies and consultants attending the show for the first time.

This is why I thought that ISE 2025 was a turning point. I remember telling people that the show was a must-attend due to the rise of convergence in 2022, and I remember many not fully understanding what I meant back then. I think that this prediction in 2022 was validated this year with ISE attracting such a significant portion of the Broadcast world.

However, as I argued in one of my previous articles, this opportunity does not come without challenges as convergence is still a trend in flux. I gathered even more evidence in support of this argument at ISE 2025 with most Broadcast technology vendors reporting various challenges related to approaching the AV market.

Let’s have a look at the reasons behind these challenges and the potential adjustments that Broadcast technology vendors could make to improve their approach to the Pro-AV market.

The composite nature of the Pro-AV sector

Every time I go to ISE, I am reminded of the composite nature of the Pro-AV sector. I shared some thoughts on this in my analysis of the ISE visitor base, but I feel I need to complement these with some additional analysis here.

Not only this is a sector relying on an intricate web of integrators, distributors and resellers, but also it is made up of different sub-industries (e.g., education, corporate, broadcast, etc.) with different fundamentals, strategies, needs and priorities. This composite nature leads to complexity, which creates various challenges for exhibitors.

The obvious challenge that this complexity creates is tailoring messaging relevant to the different sectors attending ISE. This is one of the actions I recommended to Broadcast vendors in one of my previous articles. Unfortunately, I saw many examples of Broadcast vendors not doing this, and repurposing messaging from Broadcast-focused shows such as NAB Show and IBC to ISE. These were often the quietest booths on the show floor. On a positive note, I also saw vendors that tailored messaging very well.

The other challenge that this complexity creates is identifying potential buyers of Broadcast technology products in such a diverse pool of industries. This means finding the decision-makers who are likely to be interested in buying your products and targeting them with the right marketing and messaging. Although this is a difficult endeavour, it is possible to use tools such as data-driven marketing in support of this objective.

Applications vs. technologies

The other relevant improvement area that Broadcast technology vendors could work on is focusing their messaging on applications and use cases rather than technologies and tools. This is very important to attract the attention of Pro-AV buyers and it is akin to what I had said in my post-show report about ICE (the show focused on gambling and iGaming I attended in January):

“Compared to Media Tech shows, the marketing and messaging on the booths were less focused on specific technologies (e.g., cloud, IP, AI, AR, etc.) and more on business outcomes and functions (e.g. customer retention, compliance, etc.).”

However, I noticed that many vendors were far too focused on showing off the sophistication and intricacies of their kit and software features rather than explaining how it could be applied (and why it should be applied) in different Pro-AV sectors.

And even in this case, I noticed examples of messaging repurposed from Broadcast. For example, I heard a vendor talking about how their solution could lower content distribution costs, but I didn’t hear anything about why a corporate organization should distribute content with their solution and the benefits it might bring.

In a nutshell, focus on why and how your offerings should be adopted by Pro-AV buyers rather than spending too much time on what they do.

Updated checklist for Broadcast technology vendors

Based on my ISE 2025 observations, I updated the checklist for Broadcast technology vendors I had shared in one of my previous articles (while it is not exhaustive, it may provide a framework to get started or review your strategy if you are approaching the AV market):

Do your research: Study AV trends, buyer priorities, and tech investments. This foundation drives everything else.
Prioritize use cases, not just tech: Clearly articulate why your technology matters for AV professionals, not just what it does. Focus on practical applications rather than feature lists.
Focus on UI/UX & simplicity: Design solutions that are easy to use and don’t always assume deep technical expertise.
Educate your users: Provide training, resources, and great product documentation relevant to AV.
Highlight integration: Showcase how your products can easily fit into AV infrastructures and workflows.
Update your messaging: Tailor marketing to address AV buyer needs across various sectors and avoid repurposing generic content from other industries.
Partner up: Consider partnerships with integrators, consultants, and distributors to penetrate the market.

Adapt to changing buyers: Recognize that AV purchasing decisions, like in broadcast, are increasingly spread across departments, not centralized in engineering.

If you have other tips that could help Broadcast technology vendors, please feel free to share them in the comments of this article.

Key trends at ISE 2025

As part of my post-show analysis report, I also wanted to share the key trends I noticed at the show. The observations below focus on a few macro trends rather than providing a roundup of products. Please feel free to share other macro trends you noticed in the comments of this article.

AI’s invisible hand

Unsurprisingly, the presence of AI at the show increased, consistent with other industry events and with the central presence this technology is taking in our personal and professional lives. However, I noticed that AI was not always very visible on booths as the technology was hidden by factors such as its integration into physical devices (see what LG displayed at their booth), application-focused marketing or perhaps fear of losing competitive advantage.

AI’s impact on the industry was perhaps more evident in connection with video and audio use cases or the macro applications ISE focuses on such as learning or collaboration.

Productive collaboration

Collaboration is always an important theme at the show, particularly in Hall 2, which is focused on technologies enabling effective meetings and collaboration, particularly in work settings (companies such as Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet exhibit in this Hall).

When it comes to collaboration, the change I noticed this year was a greater focus on boosting productivity (e.g., making meetings more efficient using AI) than on enabling hybrid collaboration (e.g., using immersive technology to bring onsite and remote workers together), which had been a feature of the show in the immediate post-pandemic period.

Of course, companies heavily invested in AI that also provide major collaboration tools such as Microsoft and Google have an incentive to merge these two areas. However, I also wondered what this means for the future of work, which is a major driver for technology at this exhibition.

Hybrid work is maturing as the norm for most corporate organizations (even if some are retreating from their flexible work pledges), and the spotlight might be moving on making this more efficient. More generally, I think that productivity is becoming a more important priority in the age of Gen AI to gain competitive advantage, which might be the main driver behind this trend.

Broadcast and live

I already talked about the evolution of convergence between Pro-AV and Broadcast technology at the show, which remained an important trend. Most Broadcast technology vendors were located in the AV Broadcast Hall (part of Hall 4) though there were a significant number of them in Hall 5 as well. As I said earlier, it was evident that there were more Broadcast vendors at ISE this year. For more info about the technology solutions in the AV Broadcast Hall, have a look at my article on the State of Pro-AV & Broadcast Convergence.

I also thought that Hall 6 (focused on Lighting and Staging) was very busy and buzzing. This might reflect the shiny technology exhibited in this Hall, but I thought it was also a sign of the potential resurgence of live events, which is akin to what is happening in broadcast as well. I shall explore this area further in future posts and reflections I share.

Sustainability and ROI

Sustainability and energy-efficient hardware remained an important trend at the show, consistent with the predictions that were made before the event.

I noticed that the debate around this is gradually moving onto sustainability which makes economic sense, and I think that we will see this at other trade shows this year due to the impact of macro trends.

Macro influences

I believe that the rising influence of macroeconomic and geopolitical developments (e.g., trade wars, conflicts, etc.) on the technology sector, which includes Pro-AV technology, is rising to prominence. While this could not be visible on the show floor, it was an important element of the conversations I had. Most recently, the new US presidency is having an impact on a wide range of issues, including tariffs, ESG and flexible work pledges, expected M&A activity and AI legislation. This should not be overlooked.

Finally, a few words on the venue. Most exhibitors and attendees I talked to reported very positive feedback on the Fira. I think that the organization of technology in different "zones" dedicated to macro applications makes both the discovery of products and the identification of trends more convenient.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ISE 2025 marked a significant turning point in the evolution of Pro-AV and Broadcast technology convergence while reflecting key industry trends such as the evolution of AI and collaboration in the sector. With a record attendance of 85,351 visitors, the show demonstrated the health of the Pro-AV sector.

Despite this growth, the convergence of Pro-AV and Broadcast technology remains a trend in flux. Even though a larger percentage of the Broadcast world is attending the show, technology vendors are still looking for the right ways to engage with Pro-AV effectively.

Our objective at Dovetail Pulse is helping companies navigate this convergence by providing a deep understanding of market dynamics and audience needs through data. I Feel free to contact if you’d like to know more.

ICE 2025 Post-Show Report & Comparative Analysis

Lorenzo Zanni — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

I attended ICE 2025 in Barcelona on Wednesday 22 January, the show's last day. ICE stands for “International Casino Exhibition,” and represents sectors such as gambling and iGaming (i.e., online betting). Aside from this basic level of information, I must admit that didn’t know much about the event before attending.

Why did I attend? Firstly, it is always refreshing to attend events in adjacent industries to be inspired by new people, perspectives, and trends. Secondly, sectors such as iGaming and betting are part of the entertainment sphere, and this show could present interesting crossovers with the broadcast and media industry. And it did, albeit perhaps not as much as I expected.

ICE attracts 55,000 visitors from 170 countries, and it was great to meet a few people from the Media Tech industry at the show. I recommend reading the report that Janet Greco did to share her reflections on the show.

Below is a short report on my experience at the event, my key observations and comparative analysis to highlight similarities and differences between ICE and important shows in our sector such as IBC or NAB Show.

This report is particularly aimed at people who do not know anything about the show and would like to find out more about it.

Key Observations

Size and Distribution of the Event
As I said earlier, the show attracts 55,000 visitors from 170 countries. Hence, it is quite a big show. Compared to shows I know better like ISE, NAB Show and IBC, however, this is an industry with bigger and fewer exhibitors, which is immediately noticeable as soon as you step into the event. The ICE website reads that it features 630+ exhibitors, which is less than half of the 1,400 attracted by ISE in 2024, for example.

Look and Feel
I thought that the look and feel of the booths at ICE reflected the industry’s grandiose approach and glamour. Some booths like Novomatic’s were massive and covered the full length of the hall (see this video about Novomatic's booth at ICE London in 2023 to have an idea of what I mean). Some of the booths featured casino-themed layouts as well as bars that resembled those in Las Vegas.

The size of the booths was also a sign of the opulence of this sector, as this is an industry growing at a rapid pace, particularly in its iGaming segment. There was no evidence of market saturation or cautiousness in spending, something we have heard much recently in broadcast, media and streaming.

Marketing and Messaging
This was perhaps the most interesting aspect to me. Compared to Media Tech shows, the marketing and messaging on the booths were less focused on specific technologies (e.g., cloud, IP, AI, AR, etc.) and more on business outcomes and functions (e.g. customer retention, compliance, etc.).

This might reflect a less technical and/or more pragmatic audience, though I am not sure about the principal cause behind it. Definitively, there was less buzz surrounding specific technologies at this show.

Aside from the largest booths, most of the technology presentations were also basic and simple, focusing on a single, powerful message rather than on a list of features or applications.

Technology Trends and Crossovers
Despite the wealth of data in sectors such as betting, there was not as much focus as I had expected on Gen AI at the show. Even though there was some Gen AI here and there (at the Sportsradar booth, for example), I thought that there was a greater emphasis on analytics tools and AI technology for pattern recognition (e.g., tracking player behaviour, understanding user journeys, and optimizing engagement).

Concepts like loyalty engines, bonus programs, and churn prevention are core to this industry. And this is one of the crossovers with broadcast and media, particularly with streaming, which has increasingly focused on using data for engagement and subscriber retention in the last few years.

There was some AI in compliance and fraud detection solutions, which are natural application areas for the technology as they are essentially about recognizing patterns.

I also saw very little immersive technology at the show. The only company focused on this I can remember is Zeus VR, which, according to its website is:

“Reshaping the gaming landscape by seamlessly combining blockchain technology and virtual reality to create the largest gaming platform in Web3. Experience luxurious casino gaming from the comfort of your own home.”

Potentially, this could also be a crossover with broadcast and media though it was featured too little to add it to the list.

The other relevant crossover was the technology infrastructure for online betting which was prevalently showcased in halls 4-5. Betting requires low latency as many applications in broadcast and media, particularly in live settings.

I also saw several companies focused on Crypto payments in this area. Payment technology was heavily featured at the show, and this could represent another “fringe” crossover, particularly for those interested in B2C business models and monetization.

Finally, there was an Esports area at the show, though this was a bit isolated from the main halls. This is another crossover with our industry, as in the Esports realm live broadcasting and gaming intersect.

ICE by Hall

Hall 2: iGaming
iGaming refers to online gambling and betting, including software for casinos, poker, and more. This is a report on the sector I found through a QR code exhibited at the show (the report was published just before the event), for those of you interested in diving deeper into this topic. The iGaming hall featured a range of companies including software businesses, white-label platforms, analytics tools and immersive experiences.

Hall 3: Land-Based Gaming
“Land-based” refers to traditional, physical casinos and their operations. This hall felt as if a slice of Las Vegas had been transported to Barcelona! It reminded me of ISE’s LED display technology hall as well, though these displays were all looking similar. Despite its brightness, this part of the exhibition was a bit less relevant and exhibited almost no crossovers with Media Tech.

Halls 4-5: Betting and Payments
For me, this was perhaps the most interesting part of the exhibition. These halls were the most mixed, featuring a wide variety of technologies representing the backbone of the betting industry: payments, compliance, and regulatory technology. The booths here showcased solutions for fraud detection and financial risk management as well. Moreover, the hall also featured technologies addressing latency for betting, essential for real-time applications, and innovations in crypto payments and identity verification. There was a lot, and more parts of this hall were relevant to our industry.

Conclusion

ICE 2025 provided a fascinating glimpse into an industry that, while adjacent to broadcast and media, operates on different priorities.

The show also provided valuable insights into the fast-growing iGaming and betting sectors, revealing a few crossovers with broadcast and media.

Key areas of overlap include the use of analytics for user engagement and low-latency technology for live applications.

Our objective at Dovetail Pulse is to help companies navigate the convergence between different media sectors by providing a deep understanding of market dynamics and audience needs through data. Reach out if you are interested.

Navigating the AI-Driven Marketing Landscape

Lisa Collins — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

I have been closely observing how AI is radically reshaping day-to-day marketing tactics. In my quest to stay ahead of the curve, attending training courses, listening to podcasts and doing a great deal of reading, it has become clear that the old ways of doing marketing simply won’t cut it any more.

I believe these changes aren’t merely necessary; they represent an exciting opportunity for us to lead the transformation in digital marketing. I hope this article provides a flavour of the challenges we face and inspires you to join me in embracing a new era of strategies that truly make a difference.

The Changing Face of Content Discovery

The way people discover and consume information is evolving at breakneck speed. AI-powered search engines such as Google’s Search Generative Experience and ChatGPT are transforming traditional search methods by synthesising information from diverse sources into one authoritative answer. This evolution is not only upending established SEO tactics but is also challenging marketers to rethink how they craft their messages in an age of content overload.

Real Expertise Over Keyword Stuffing: AI now favours content produced by industry experts who can substantiate their insights with both experience and data.
Multi-Platform Visibility: Rather than funnelling users to a single webpage, successful brands are broadening their presence across platforms such as LinkedIn, YouTube, and podcasts.
Data-Driven Storytelling: With search algorithms increasingly rewarding depth and credibility, content must now demonstrate real-world knowledge rather than rely solely on traditional SEO metrics.

New Era, New Challenges for Marketers

In today’s digital age, the sheer volume of content produced by both humans and machines makes it harder for quality messages to stand out. Here are some stats:

Content Overload: According to HubSpot, 82% of marketers using AI have reported a significant increase in content output in 2024. However, more content does not automatically equate to better engagement.
Quality vs. Quantity: Forbes has noted that 45% of marketers in 2024 identified attracting quality leads as a major challenge, while Gartner warns that content lacking originality and credibility is likely to underperform in search rankings.
The Importance of Research and Data: As Human Digital predicts a shift towards original, research-backed content in B2B marketing, Pavilion has found that executive buyers are 20% more inclined to trust content grounded in robust data and genuine insights.

These insights highlight a radical shift: traditional content marketing is no longer enough. Marketers must now invest in developing their own well-researched, authoritative content that truly resonates with their audiences.

Rethinking Content Strategy for an AI-Driven World

As the marketing landscape evolves, so too must our strategies. Instead of chasing fleeting website visits, we now need to focus on:

Sharing Original Insights: Provide unique perspectives and original research that set your brand apart.
Developing In-Depth Case Studies: Detailed content that leverages first-hand experience and robust data is more valuable than ever. Consider showcasing case studies as videos as well as written content to attract the audience
Engaging Across Platforms: True thought leadership now spans multiple formats—blogs, LinkedIn articles, podcasts, and even video interviews all contribute to building authority.
Measuring Success Differently: Rather than solely counting page visits, success should be gauged by the breadth of content engagement, the quality of citations, and the extent to which insights are shared across the industry.

Our Change in Approach

I have always believed, and made it my mission when working with Dovetail Creative clients, that building genuine authority is far more important than chasing vanity metrics. Our approach in this AI-driven era includes:

AI-Optimised Thought Leadership: Crafting expert-led content that aligns with how AI search engines evaluate credibility.
Multi-Platform Strategy: Expanding our brand presence where audiences already engage, from social media channels to industry podcasts.
Data-Driven Storytelling: Leveraging solid research and actionable insights to create content that delivers true value.
Community-Led Engagement: Fostering interactive conversations rather than relying solely on one-way content dissemination.

With the rise of AI and the challenges of content overload, the future of marketing lies in genuine, research-backed engagement. It’s not merely about staying visible, it’s about leading the conversation with authentic expertise and an unwavering commitment to quality.

The question for businesses is no longer if they should adapt; it’s whether they can lead this change or risk being left behind.

ISE 2025 Preview (Part 2): Key Drivers of Broadcast/Pro-AV Convergence

Lorenzo Zanni — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 05:00:00 GMT

I had not initially planned to write another article previewing ISE 2025, but the feedback on my previous piece about convergence changed my mind. Many readers appreciated the analysis, for which I am grateful, and suggested exploring additional facets of convergence relevant to ISE visitors, including the key drivers of this trend. This input inspired me to delve deeper into the topic in this follow-up article.

Let’s start with some contextual information about the makeup of the ISE visitor base.

ISE’s Visitor Profile

ISE published some information about the profile of its 2024 visitor base on its website (click on the link towards the end of the page to access the full report on this).

The report has many useful data points, including some demographic information (e.g., age, gender, etc.). However, I wanted to dive deep only into the section “Business Focus - End-User,” which provides more details about the main areas of focus for ISE end-user visitors. I turned this data into a chart below (note that I scaled the data so that it adds up to 100%):

You can see that there is some degree of overlap between broadcast and pro-AV as 12% of end-users attending the show in 2024 identified themselves as “Broadcast/Media.” 22% identified themselves as “Entertainment (includes cinemas, theatres, museums, theme parks).” This is not broadcast, though some of it is closer to broadcast compared to other corporate organizations attending the show. The rest of the show is split between corporate buyers (these buyers add up to almost half of total end-users) and users from the education sector (almost one-fifth of buyers). It is a mixed audience!

This audience has been fluctuating in the last few years. The data on this is not as straightforward though we know that ISE has consistently delivered a significant number of first-time attendees over the last few years. About a third of the 2024 attendees were first-time attendees, like in 2019, highlighting that the audience attending the show may be in flux. Of course, first-time attendees are bound to be correlated with the growth of the show (I looked at this in my previous article), though these numbers suggest that interest in ISE is coming from a variety of sectors and that the demographic attending the event is evolving.

The show is becoming more diverse from a job role perspective as well. I briefly mentioned this point in my previous article, but I will explain it in slightly more detail here. Conversations with regular ISE attendees have highlighted that AV users visiting the show are no longer coming solely from technical departments such as engineering, but increasingly from non-technical departments such as marketing and communications.

The ISE visitor audience's mixed nature reinforces the relevance of convergence at the show. The broad range of attendees from different industries and backgrounds underscores the demand for solutions that can be applied across disparate sectors and teams. We will come back to this later in this article.

The fragmentation of investment power is akin to the trend we are witnessing in the broadcast sector where non-technical departments such as creative and editorial teams are becoming more important decision-makers.

Technology investment decisions are now dispersed across different teams due to the increasing accessibility of technology tools and their closer relationship with business outcomes (e.g., consumer experiences), which has led to a gradual deterioration of siloed decision-making.

This is a key trend that applies not only to the people making the decisions. Why is technology becoming more accessible?

Why Broadcast Technology is Becoming More Accessible

A clarification. When I use the word accessibility in this article, I mean the usability of broadcast technology by non-technical users.

Several trends have been driving the increasing accessibility of broadcast technology in the last few years, and I will focus here on some of the main ones

Arguably, the main driver of technology accessibility in broadcast has been the rising importance of general-purpose technologies (e.g., cloud, AI, etc.) coming from the IT and software industry. This trend is relevant to most sectors that, like broadcast, were used to a specific set of technologies designed to please (only) them.

In the last few years, both broadcast and AV technology infrastructures have gradually converged with IT technology, which has in turn favoured a gradual cross-pollination between these sectors. This AV-IT-Broadcast triangle is best exemplified by the transition to IP-based media that has become a major feature at both AV and broadcast trade shows over recent years.

This trend has also favoured the adoption of concepts, principles and practices from the IT and software industry, including an increasing focus on intuitive user experiences, which has strengthened technology accessibility. Recently, the rise of low-code and no-code solutions in the software industry, which has influenced broadcast as well, has taken this concept of accessibility to an extreme.

Accessibility has also been favoured by IT technology lowering the cost of producing content, which has plummeted in the last few years thanks to the economies of scale provided by the IT sector. This has enabled smaller players and even individuals to produce higher-quality content at a fraction of the cost compared to just a few years ago.

This brings me back to cloud and AI, as lowering barriers to entry is one of the things they have in common. For example, while the cloud made post-production accessible to editors working from home, AI is making video creation more accessible to non-expert users. The consensus is that creativity is (fortunately) still needed, though the rules of the game are undoubtedly changing. AI is leading to even more technology democratization, making professional content production more accessible.

General-purpose technologies have also contributed to lowering the barriers that historically separated different sectors.

Think about B2B and B2C, which are not as separated as they used to be. For example, video cameras could be neatly separated between B2B and B2C use cases, though technology development has gradually blurred the lines between these two categories, making this separation less easy today. Moreover, consumer gadgets such as smartphones and drones have been increasingly used to shoot professional content and news coverage. Applications of products more fluidly move from one industry to another, influencing various areas such as marketing and communications.

Think also about interactive user experiences and social media platforms. Our increasing usage of social media platforms has contributed to making the definition of and demand for interactive experiences increasingly similar across different sectors. Broadcasters, universities and employers are all trying to interact with viewers, students and employees, respectively, in increasingly similar ways, even though differences remain across these sectors. The business objectives these companies are talking about are increasingly resembling each other, which has inevitably driven convergence between the technology tools they use (back to the point I made earlier).

Why Visitors Are More Interested in Broadcast Technology

The supply of technology becoming more accessible would not be enough to sustain convergence if demand was not there. However, a range of demand-side trends has gradually made broadcast technology more attractive to AV users looking to upgrade the quality of their systems.

As I said in my previous article, the pandemic was definitively an important catalyst for this. The rising investment in corporate video and communications caused by the move to remote and hybrid work environments led AV users to double down on broadcast technology to produce content of higher quality.

However, there is more to this. Arguably, the pandemic accentuated some trends that were already at play before its advent. The trajectory of ISE attendance explored in my previous article reflects this, as attendance was growing even before the pandemic, with patterns resembling its post-pandemic growth (e.g., a similar percentage of first-time attendees).

Which trends were already at play? Streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon were already pushing the quality of streaming video even before the pandemic, which gradually influenced consumer expectations.

However, I would focus on social media video as the key trend. Social media has made video more ubiquitous than ever before. While YouTube pioneered this trend, social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok (and now even LinkedIn!) have followed, and are now heavily dependent on video. Money was the next thing to follow, with ad dollars shifting to social media platforms. This led corporate organizations to look at video with increasing interest.

This intricate web of trends has driven a proliferation of both video content and the number of platforms through which is distributed to us viewers. As a result, standing out in a crowded marketplace and increasing engagement with viewers have become more important to most, including non-media organizations. They are not just looking for functional solutions anymore. They want to create compelling stories about their brands. This is perhaps the main reason why they are looking for broadcast-quality technology.

More recently, the combination of drivers such as the creator economy and AI-driven content creation has pushed this trend to an extreme. More creators are sharing professionally produced videos with their followers while AI-driven content creation is flooding our social media timelines. Note that this trend goes well beyond video and applies to other sectors such as content marketing (see this as an example). Of course, this is further shifting consumer expectations, making differentiation through broadcast technology more attractive to AV users.

Finally, the impact of social media distribution has made video delivery more interactive, which is perhaps one of the improvement areas for corporates and broadcasters alike.

What About Broadcasters and AV Technology?

Convergence is not a one-way street, and the visitor profile of the ISE audience shows that even a few broadcast professionals are starting to attend the show.

Conversations with broadcasters on this topic have highlighted that ISE is one of their “fringe shows,” events they attend to benchmark technologies and trends beyond their core industry. ISE is arguably not as important as consumer shows like CES or SXSW, but it may slowly gain traction due to the trends mentioned earlier (i.e., technology and business outcomes converging).

Broadcasters are keen on learning how non-media companies are using collaboration technologies as well as interacting with their customers and employees. For example, understanding how corporate organizations are using AI chatbots to interact with their customers in different industries can inspire broadcasters to explore new use cases in content personalization.

Broadcast and media businesses are also interested in monitoring technology developments that AV has in common with broadcast. Not just IP-based video but also other trends such as virtual production and collaboration systems. For example, if I am a broadcaster interested in IP-based video, I might want to check out what suppliers focused on IP are doing at ISE, as the penetration of a supplier’s products in the AV industry might be a proxy for their versatility. It is no coincidence that an IP standard like NDI has gained traction in broadcast as well.

After this long reflection on the main trends that are driving convergence between broadcast and pro-AV, let’s move to some practical guidance.

ISE Visitor Checklist

To conclude this article, I wanted to provide some practical advice to ISE visitors. Arguably, this applies not just to ISE but to other shows that present crossovers with your main industry.

This checklist is designed to help them navigate the convergence between broadcast and professional AV technologies effectively (feel free to add any additional suggestions or insights):

Spot technology trends: Identify key technology trends that AV and broadcast have in common (e.g., IP networking, virtual production, AI, etc.), differentiating the trends that are media-specific and those that are general-purpose.
Understand use cases & business objectives: Identify overlapping use cases and business objectives. For example, interactivity and personalization are use cases and objectives in both broadcast and some AV sectors.
Rank your interest areas: Rank your interest areas (in both technologies and use cases) in order of strategic importance. If possible, identify the relationship between technologies and use cases as well.
Map your interest areas: Map your interest areas with suppliers, halls and activities (e.g., conference streams) at the show, identifying your show hotspots. Mark these against your own objectives (e.g., learning, networking, etc.).
Build & prioritize your agenda: Use the output from the two previous exercises to build an agenda and/or prioritize your most important areas of interest, if there are any conflicts in your plan.
Document your findings: Use the framework above to document your findings according to your interests. For example, report on the most promising use cases, their maturity as well as the suppliers and technologies enabling them.

This should provide a useful mental framework to navigate shows like ISE.

Conclusion

The convergence between AV and broadcast offers exciting learning and business opportunities for visitors coming from both industries. Trends like the rise in corporate video and general-purpose technologies are breaking down barriers between sectors, intensifying the cross-pollination between them.

Whether you’re from the AV or broadcast sector, ISE 2025 is the place to see technology convergence in action. For AV users, the show is a chance to explore tools that can up their game in communication, collaboration, and storytelling capabilities. For broadcasters, it’s an opportunity to broaden their horizons and uncover fresh ideas from the AV world.

I will be at the show so feel free to contact me if you’d like to meet there.

Our objective at Dovetail Pulse is to help companies navigate this convergence by providing a deep understanding of market dynamics and audience needs through data.

See you in Barcelona!