Are you ready to scale your digital media business (but afraid you’ll hit a bottleneck)?
If you run a digital media company today, you know your data stack is going to be your bottleneck eventually.
You have the content pouring in. You have an audience flocking to your platform. But do you have the infrastructure to handle BOTH of those growing needs?
…let’s just say…
Taking your media business to the next level is only possible when your data stack is rock solid.
Cloud data platforms like Snowflake have become table stakes for any forward-thinking media company.
They’ve mastered tackling big data problems at scale like:
- Tremendous volumes of content data.
- Audience demographics, interests & metadata.
- Ad performance metrics.
- Real-time analytics.
In fact, according to recent market research, the worldwide Media and Entertainment Cloud market size reached a valuation of USD 16.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a rate of 22.1% CAGR.
Now that’s serious growth!
Here’s What You’ll Learn
- Why Media Companies Need Cloud Data Platforms
- The Biggest Benefits of Cloud Data Platforms For Media
- Must-have features when choosing your Cloud Data Platform
- How to Prepare Your Team to Start Scaling
Why Media Companies Need Cloud Data Platforms
Digital media businesses create large amounts of content data each day.
From their libraries of media content to viewership behavior, ad performance, social engagement metrics, and more.
The problem with growing your business around this type of data:
Hosting it all on legacy infrastructure creates data silos. Reports take DAYS to generate. And actionable insights are slow to develop.
Enter: Cloud data platforms.
They store all of your data in one central repository that’s easily accessible to everyone who needs it. That’s why so many media companies work with a team of snowflake consulting experts these days.
Data architecture matters because everything else is built on top of it.
Audience recommendations? Content personalization? Targeted advertising? Revenue optimisation?
If your data stack is shaky, everything else will be too.
The Biggest Benefits of Cloud Data Platforms For Media
Media companies understand the value that Cloud Data Platforms provide.
But did you know that these benefits compound over time?
As your business grows, you realise just how important each benefit is.
Here are just a few…
Unlimited Scalability
On-premise data warehouses require you to plan your capacity months in advance. Cloud platforms scale infinitely. And on-demand.
This is especially important for media companies because of their unpredictable traffic.
Say you’ve got a viral article or a big live event. Cloud platforms can handle the influx of traffic while keeping your site up-and-running. No lag. No buffering. Just a happy viewer who will come back for more.
Real-Time Data Insights
Trends come and go in the media industry. What’s popular with viewers today could change in the matter of hours.
Cloud data platforms provide real-time dashboards that allow media companies to stay on top of content performance. Optimize ad campaigns. And understand viewer engagement before their competitors do.
This is a game-changer.
Pay-As-You-Go Pricing
Another cool secret about cloud platforms is their flexible pricing models.
Because they’re run on a pay-as-you-go model. Media companies are able to pay less for what they NEED and not what they THINK they’ll need several months down the road.
Better Collaboration
Media creation is a team effort. Between editors, marketing teams, data analysts, sales teams… the list goes on.
Cloud data platforms open up data access to everyone who needs it. And because it’s the same source of data for everyone, there won’t be any discrepancies in reporting or outdated Excel spreadsheets being passed around.
Must-have features when choosing your Cloud Data Platform
Cloud data platforms are not created equal.
Here are some features every digital media business should look for when choosing a platform.
Decouple storage and compute. The ability to scale your storage and compute resources separately is critical. Since storage-intensive tasks won’t require high-compute resources and vice versa.
Ability to work with semi-structured data. Media companies ingest JSON, XML, and other semi-structured data on a daily basis. Make sure your platform can natively work with these types of data.
Focus on security and compliance. From content licensing to user privacy to regional data laws. Media companies need platforms that offer enterprise-grade security and compliance capabilities right out of the box.
Consider integration requirements. Your platform should integrate with your existing content management system, ad platforms, and analytics tools. Don’t forget about your CMS. Data integration will be crucial to your migration strategy.
Data sharing. Make sure it’s easy for you to share data with partners and advertisers.
How to Prepare Your Team to Start Scaling
Thinking about making the jump to a cloud data platform?
Implementing your first cloud data platform can be daunting. But if you know what to do. You can drastically reduce your risk while speeding up your time to value.
Here are 5 steps you can take right now to set your organization up for success.
Evaluate Your Current Data Stack
What software do you use to store your data? How do you currently analyze it? What tools are you using to share data with your teams?
Understanding your existing data architecture will help you pinpoint pain points and areas for improvement.
Identify Your Business Goals
What do you hope to achieve by making the switch to cloud? Faster reporting? Improved segmentation? More personalized content recommendations?
Be clear on what success looks like before you start the implementation process.
Partner With The Right Team
Hiring a consultant to help with your implementation may be your best bet. Migrating data, designing your new architecture, configuring security — there’s a lot that goes into implementing a cloud data platform.
And since most businesses use multi-cloud strategies, you’ll want a team that understands how to design your architecture with this in mind.
Start Small, Then Scale
Don’t try to migrate all of your data at once. Pick one use case you’d like to start with and identify some key metrics that’ll measure success.
Building out your use case could be as simple as creating a content analytics dashboard. Or segmenting your audience into different categories. Whatever you choose, pick something that can deliver value quickly.
Keep Building
After you’ve proven value with your use case. Pick another and start the process over. Each new use case you come up with will improve upon the last.
Take pride in your wins. Document your lessons learned. Just keep moving forward.
Cloud Data Platforms Are Key to Media Scaling Strategy
Handling high-volume content and audience data. Delivering real-time business insights. Enabling cross-team collaboration.
Media companies who leverage cloud data platforms gain a massive competitive advantage against their competitors.
Remember: Companies who dominate the media industry are building insane amounts of value on top of rock-solid data foundations.
Cloud data platforms give media businesses that foundational strength.
Just to recap:
- You can eliminate data silos and infrastructure bottlenecks by migrating to the cloud
- Access to real-time data helps media companies make quicker decisions
- Cloud pricing helps save on infrastructure costs
- And finally, working with a team of experts can help you implement your first platform quickly.
Want your business to be the next media success story? Start taking steps today to migrate your data to the cloud.
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