PETALING JAYA: “The future is exciting, and it is clear that technology is everyone’s business,” said one of the country’s top communications agency executives after attending the largest consumer electronics show held in Las Vegas last month.

IPG Mediabrands Malaysia CEO Bala Pomaleh told StarBiz that there is an urgent need to embrace technology in any business, including media and communications.

He stressed this is because it is a critical component in every aspect of the communications strategy, adding that an agency needs to have a grip on technology rather than the other way around - allowing tech to control and limit an agency’s growth.

Bala, who visited the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in the US, highlighted that “ingredient technologies” which are fast gaining traction worldwide would impact consumers in the market amid numerous tech solutions.

Ingredient technologies refers to enablers such as 5G, voice computing, robotics, biometrics, blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI).

“The interesting thing which I observed at the event was how innovation may open up new opportunities for the communications industry at large, especially with the rapid digital disruptions in the media and ad space.

“Content creation will continue to be a huge opportunity for agencies, and we will see this across various platforms. TV is one area that is not going out of fashion anytime soon.

“On that front, while we see content creators still grapple with 4K TV content, TV manufacturers like Samsung have progressed to 8K TV.

“This dichotomy will mean that TV sets will be deemed worthless if there is no matching content to savor the viewing experience,” he added. 4K, also known as Ultra HD (high-definition), refers to a TV resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. That’s four times as many pixels than in a full HD TV, 8K TV has a higher resolution than a 4K TV.

Similarly, Bala says there are various devices primed for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies but sadly lack content.

There remains a huge opportunity for content creation on these platforms, each posing their own levels of immersiveness, he noted.

AR adds digital elements to a live view via camera on a smartphone. VR implies a complete immersion experience that shuts out the physical world.

He foresees automation to play an increasingly bigger role within most organisations as programming and data management capabilities become more sophisticated and accessible.

Bala noted: “Most media agencies spend a disproportionate amount of time on tasks that require manual intervention, but as data becomes the thread that stitches everything together across creative, media, finance, HR and other tasks, we will see many of these tasks being automated.

“This will ultimately drive better value for clients in terms of agility and speed to market.” He cautioned that due to digital disruptions, everyone in the communications and media industries need to be digitally savvy, otherwise they may become redundant.

There would be a plethora of devices, apart from our mobile phones, that would form the IoT (Internet of Things) which would invade households, he said. This is because communication to consumers could be channelled through these devices.

Therefore, Bala said there is a need to have a good understanding of multi-device digital planning, especially using programmatic solutions as this would drive the efficiency of the industries.

He also highlighted that agencies should invest in new roles such as a technologist who would be able to stitch tech into communication to raise the bar in the communications space.

“On a final note, I foresee data privacy rules becoming even more stringent as the opportunity to target consumers at a personal level becomes more possible.

“It is thus important to work with data partners that are ethical and have the appropriate access to audiences,” he said.

The CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world.

The first CES in 1967 in New York had 250 exhibitors and attracted 17,500 attendees.

This year there were over 4,500 exhibitors across six locations in Las Vegas, with an estimate of over 180,000 people in attendance.

The event now encompasses various categories of traditional and non-traditional tech industries.