Last month Gravity Thinking were invited to join the great and good of the media and communications world at the Changing Media Summit hosted by the Guardian. The event featured an array of the biggest names in the business including Dennis Crowley the founder of foursquare, Tim Armstrong of AOL, Adrianna Huffington and Adam Crozier CEO of ITV, as well as representatives from Facebook, Disney, Nike, Google, BBC and Guardian.

The 2 days produced some fascinating themes with huge implications for marketers tackling the challenges presented by the changing media landscape. We thought we would share these so you can consider the impact within your business.

The Changing World “If you work in media and marketing and don’t think it is exciting then get out!”The tone was certainly set by Paul Hayes of News International and although it is a universal truth that the world of communications has become hugely exciting, fast moving, opportunistic, and in some cases unsettling, everybody seemed to have differing opinions on by how much, how far it is going to go and what impact it has for media channels and in turn brands.There were some clear areas for consideration from the asendancy of content and social media to the changing media habits of consumers and perhaps most importantly how brands can take advantage of these opportunties, avoid the hazards and choose the right type of partners to help navigate this journey.

Content is kingThis was the one clear meme from the majority of speakers and they all agreed the reign would be a long one as content is constantly demanded, universally accessible and always up to date.

From the free rich content offered by citizen journalists, bloggers and media owners such as guardian.co.uk, who now receive over 4m visits a day, to the paid content provided by the likes of FT.com with over 10,000 paying subscribers. Everything is shared, adapted, commented on and spread quickly and efficiently.

Quality & monetisation is key Increasingly content is not just about news and articles but includes gossip, advice, games and a plethora of resources available online which the success of sites like Videojug demonstrate. That said quality wins out - in the words of Stevie Spring from Future Publishing “nobody wants crap even if it is free crap.” To deliver this quality many of the speakers indicated that paid is a route that many of them are exploring to both monetise their offerings and fund the provision of future content. With increasingly niche groups of consumers demanding narrow and deep content and friction free payment systems being offered by the likes of Apple and Google with their One Pass, free content looks like it will increasingly be a thing of the past.

Linear vs non linearSurprisingly, the rise in time shifting media devices and universally available content via platforms such as Youtube is yet to impact the mainstream, despite the iPlayer on iPad experiencing over 55k downloads in 24 hours. According to Adam Crozier of ITV 93% of TV viewing was still in real time (with 6% on catch up and 1% on VOD) and actual viewing has risen by over 2 hours in the last year to just over 28 hours per week driven by the likes of X Factor, IACGMOOH and Downton Abbey. However there were 2 interesting developments - content aimed at certain audience profiles was seeing a increase in non linear viewing, The Only Way is Essex for example has an equal split of linear to non linear, and different methods of viewing was growing with over 1m people viewing the World Cup games live online last Summer.

Social turbocharges distribution If content is king then social is its most loyal subject – not only driving the message, but dictating how to receive the message and when to receive it. If you tell a good story, people will retell it (Like or Tweet/Retweet) many times over but this needs to be considered carefully as your kingdom can also turn against you and worse still, abandon you.

Troy Young of SAY Media summed this up perfectly when he said “people are the new content and influence is the new distribution.” Big brands are starting to react to this – Gino Fisanotti from Nike referenced how 99% of their spend for the World Cup 2010 was spent on Facebook and You Tube compared to under 20% in 2006.

The numbers also seem to back this up – 90% of tweets are related to content, according to Christian Hernandez of Facebook his site is now the number 1 referrer for the majority of online content and Crozier pointed out that 44% of people use social when they watch TV.

Implications for brandsThis brave new world presents both huge opportunities and clear and present threats to brands. You don’t need to look beyond Nestle’s handling of Greenpeace’s efforts to highlight the use of palm oil in Kit Kat, and BP’s disastrous buying of search terms relating to the oil spill to highlight their clean up efforts, to see where the dangers lie. Many agreed however that the majority of these pitfalls were avoidable with a clear digital brand planning coupled with quick reactions.

Using content That said opportunities to embrace the world of openness, collaboration and curiosity by far outweigh the threats. Never before has there been a better chance to grasp the chance for brands to become content providers, owners, curators, developers or distributors. The examples were manifold - Richard Pinder of Publicis referenced how a partnership between Coke and Avatar meant the film was featured on 140m cans and 30m fridge packs in the US with no money changing hands, Renault have recently launched a TV channel where 80% of their brand budget is now taken up on providing content compared to 30% last year for TV commercials. There has also been a big return to sponsorship with P&G tying up with Olympics for the next 10 years and Gillette continue with their World Sport association. With brands such as Fosters working with Alan Partridge and Vodafone with Katy Perry the consensus seemed to be that this one would run and run.

Finding, funding and being the futureMarc Giusti of Leo Burnett summed up the opportunity for brands when he said brand agility was key – essentially brands need to become responsive, participative and meaningful and ensure that they are explorative not exploitative.

There was however a big watch out, in Marc’s words “be careful what you wish for as many brands are not set up for moderation and community management, and with the social media tap always on brands needs to make sure they consider their plans in digital and social media carefully.” So brands needs to make sure they consider their plans in digital and social media carefully.

Brands of the future?One of the closing panels were asked to name their 3 brands for the future and there were no surprises in their unanimous response – Google, Facebook and Apple – all were seen to be driving the changing media and communications agenda, innovating constantly at their own pace and not looking likely to be slowing down anytime soon.

Interestingly two of these companies are integral to the success of brands in the new media age with Google increasingly integrating real time search and including social within results and it goes without saying that Facebook continues to be the King of social networking.

Forever in betaSo lots of exciting and fascinating developments and many different opinions and points of view but one undeniable fact - nothing is certain except that the future is bright. To embrace this new world brands need to create platforms to allow for two way interaction with their consumers and carefully consider the opportunities within paid, earned and owned media as well as exploring evolving channels like mobile which, according to Ian Carrington from Google, now accounts for 25% of web traffic.The key is to find the right partner(s) on this journey who understand the changing media landscape and who can help shape the plans for this eternally evolving marketplace. Find out more about Gravity Thinking at http://www.gravitythinking.com For more info and videos from the summit visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/changingmediasummit