Moving Beyond the TV, Part 2

Here is the second half of my interview with Kirstin Knezevich...

Are you excited about any particular emerging technology?

I think mobile is going to be a big opportunity for media companies as usage grows and mobile phones are becoming smarter. Though I am kind of old school and don’t have an iPhone, I still feel that as the quality of the video becomes better more people will engage with it on mobile devices.

So, even though it wasn’t the career you originally imagined for yourself, are you happy working in the digital space?

There are a lot of interesting things about it – content is moving online and people are experimenting in the space. Content is taking on a whole new meaning – TV, mobile device, internet, etc.). Digital is an interesting area that is really the place to be. It is hard to know every little thing going on in new media, and there is always something new coming up. Gen Y particularly is so engaged in so many places (online, texting, etc.) – it is amazing. I think I’ll probably end up staying within the industry.

Do you ever worry about all the noise?

I think that is the biggest challenge in the space. How do you get people’s attention? We are fortunate that we have a really strong brand. It would be much harder with a new brand. But once you have people’s attention how do you keep it? How do you keep them coming back for deeper engagement? Specifically trying to challenge that generation [Y] is hard across the board.

What is the coolest thing about your job?

Working with new partners. I have mostly worked with internal stakeholders, affiliates or ad agencies. Now I am working with new partners that are excited about our content being on their platforms as well. They are always asking what kind of content is coming down the pipe and are interested in promoting it. Working on the content side, it is now interesting to see how things work on the platform side. I’m also learning so much about what they are trying to do.

Any technology or company that you’d like to learn more about?

I love anything Apple related. I think they are so interesting as a company and so forward-thinking. There are a million small companies that are emerging that would also be great to learn more about, but it is so hard to keep up with them all. I’m also interested in seeing how Facebook meets the challenge of monetizing their product. Oh, and I can’t wait to see what the “next Facebook” will be.

Any last thoughts?

I think the danger that a lot of companies face is that they sit down and say, “So what is our Facebook strategy?” or “What is our MySpace or Twitter strategy?” when they really should be saying “What is our brand strategy?” It really is the most important element, and a lot of brands are missing it in trying to compete in so many spaces.