Microsoft’s Ballmer kicks off ANA show with claim that all media will be digital in 10 years

Microsoft’s Ballmer kicks off ANA show with claim that all media will be digital in 10 years

Phoenix—In his opening keynote presentation at the Association of National Advertisers’ annual conference, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said that in 10 years, all media will be digital, with tremendous ramifications for marketers, agencies and publishers.
“Within 10 years, the consumption of anything we think of as media today, whether it is print, TV or the Internet, will in fact be delivered over IP (Internet protocol) and will all be digital,” Ballmer said. “Everything will be delivered digitally.”
He said this transformation will change the ways in which marketers, agencies and media companies deliver information to consumers and business customers, using rich Internet applications to deliver targeted messages to the audience.
“We will have rich databases of information to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time in any communication,” Ballmer said.
“As soon as you assume that everything is delivered digitally, all media and all advertising will have to take that into account.”
Ballmer said Microsoft is committed to developing a marketing platform that will help advertisers deliver next-generation marketing and media services.
“We’re investing in this as aggressively as anything we’ve ever invested in,” he said, pointing to recent acquisitions such as Microsoft’s purchase of digital marketing company aQuantive.
—Kate Maddox