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We have to 'stop saying digital', says ITV's online MD Fru Hazlitt

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

October 25, 2012 | 2 min read

ITV’s managing director of commercial and online, Fru Hazlitt, has told an audience at this morning’s IAB Engage conference that the industry has to “stop saying digital".

Speaking about the broadcaster's use of tech and platforms, Hazlitt summed up by telling the industry to stop using the term 'digital' as a divisional one.

“Everything has a digital form now, we’re so in danger of sounding like our dads for God’s sake,” she said. “If we continue to draw this line, at the core of everything has to be our belief in what we are delivering to our customers."

At the heart of Hazlitt’s message to the audience was ‘Keep it Simple Stupid’.

She said the industry must respect the pace of change that consumers are undergoing, with technology being developed and utilised to inform the audience.

And she called on people to stop predicting the deaths of platforms each time another comes along: “Video killed the radio star, internet kills TV, VOD kills display, catch-up kills the schedules, social kills search, internet kills itself and Google is over. Have we not learned anything in the last ten years?

"Yes some of these things will fade out but they will do so because companies are distracted from delivering what their customers want. At the end of the day businesses need to understand digital, but it’s as important for digital to understand business.”

She also revealed that since ITV invested in overhauling its ITV News website earlier this year, focusing more around the use of video reports and social updates from reporters, the site has seen unique traffic numbers grow from 600,000 to 3.2m.

Hazlitt also emphasised that, as when ITV was founded over 50 years ago, content remains the most important factor.

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