To say that digital media is evolving faster than you can say “Facebook” is an understatement. Newer, faster and more advanced ways to reach out, and reach back, are introduced before their predecessors have even had time to be mastered by the greater majority.
As the medium evolves, so does the message—videos are as long and as high-resolution as a platform will allow them to be. The length of what a person reads is dictated by the number of characters that are allowed to fit. And every day, the boundaries between what is real, virtual, and augmented stretch only as wide as a screen, a headset or an open space will allow.
With a heightened awareness of this evolution, Singapore’s government has several initiatives underway to support enterprises and educational institutions involved in furthering the development of digital media, or its use in various industries.
As a result, the country has become both haven and hub for digital media and content creation, with myriad forms of interactive entertainment making up a multi-billion dollar industry. Singapore’s highly developed infrastructure and facilities for connectivity and R&D make it a magnet for local and overseas talent as well as content creation companies.
Yet entertainment is far from the only reason digital media has become as dominant in people’s lives as it has. Banking and finance, food and beverage, retail, fashion and lifestyle, manufacturing and logistics, education, healthcare and even public services—businesses across the board all rely heavily on digital media as a two-way conduit of information.
Regardless of its size, every enterprise needs to engage with its target audience where and how they prefer to be reached. Given consumers’ parallel dependence on digital media, businesses now face the daunting challenge of keeping up with the latest trends and innovations. With the race for market and mindshare becoming more heated, a business could easily be left behind by more digitally savvy competitors.
Figures from eMarketer and the Interactive Advertising Bureau Singapore forecast the country’s digital ad expenditure to hit SGD376.5 million in 2017, and that the current 23.8% of a company’s media budget being spent on digital advertising will reach 30.8% in 2020. These figures show that businesses are increasingly turning to digital media to market their products and services.
Ads on Facebook and Google, engagement on Snapchat and Instagram, slideshows, webinars, and online videos are just some of the many ways businesses are reaching out to their consumers. With updates for social media, advertising platforms and web applications being rolled out as fast as their developers can code them, it becomes imperative for business communications managers to stay on top of digital media developments.
Knowing how these developments can drive business growth empowers these managers to ensure the continued relevance and profitability of their respective organisations. To arm them with the necessary know-how, SMU Academy offers credit-bearing courses in Digital Media and Marketing which are stackable towards a master’s degree.
These courses are designed to facilitate comprehension of digital phenomena, and to enable the creation of strategies involving processes such as content marketing and e-commerce. If you are a communications professional taking the Academy’s Digital Marketing programmes, in particular, you will be able to familiarise yourself with the latest digital marketing tools and techniques such as social media and search engine marketing. Learn more about how SMU Academy can help get you up to speed and get your business ahead in a digital media-driven world now.
