Published here is the full text of the keynote that Guy Gadney gave at the 16th AIMIA Awards in Melbourne.

Over the past decade I have been lucky enough to work on some pretty transformational digital projects.

I was with FOXTEL when it went digital. At BigPond when Telstra became a mediacomms company. At PBL Media when it was sold to private equity.

In each of these, I was told that to be living through such a transformation was a once in a career experience.

Since leaving the client world and getting involved at the coalface again, I have had the privilege of seeing and working with more companies about to ‘go digital’ than ever before.

What I have seen is not a just a bunch of companies wanting to build a new website, spend some money on a marketing microsite or run an SMS campaign.

What I have seen is companies realize that the digital world is about to change them from the absolute core.

And there is one reason for this: It is because audiences have moved online and created a new mass medium.

Digital changes everything.

At a television conference last year, the CEO of a television production company stood up and asked the panel: “This digital problem. I don’t know what my business model is any more.”

Book publishers face a transformational challenge from ebook readers and Amazon.

More Ebooks were sold last Christmas Day on Amazon than printed books.

Apple will change the publishing model via iTunes and the iPad. As an author, iTunes will give me 70% of revenues from my ebook rather than traditional book publishers who will give me around 15%.

Both my parents are writers and I have advised them to take the reins on their own copyright as of now.

The movie industry needs to learn that digital distribution is a clear and present opportunity to reach new audiences and generate new revenue streams.

The movie industry needs to learn the lessons that the record industry has so irresponsibly failed to learn in the last 15 years.

Recording companies exist to commercialise the creative work of artists by making it available to the broadest audience possible.

In that singular objective they have singularly failed. Failed to support artists. Failed to support consumers. Failed to support themselves

It is our responsibility as digital experts to pass these lessons on to other more receptive media industries and explain that… Digital changes everything.

The television industry, newspapers, magazines: all media is affected by digital.

Digital changes their businesses because the audience has changed their behaviour. Audiences have changed the way they consume media products.

The cancer of television audience erosion cannot be cured by the morphine shot that digital television provides. The cure for media companies is an engaged and well-funded multiplatform digital strategy.

Retailers, banks, auction houses – all have seen their industry sectors change with the transactional convenience of online and mobile platforms.

And through digital platforms they are cutting costs and creating new revenue streams.

Digital changes everything

What excites me about our digital industry is that is forces us to think differently about the world we operate in.

All of us here tonight, we are the leaders of digital media in Australia.

It is our responsibility to partner with traditional companies to bring them on this transformational journey.

It is our responsibility to build the bridges between old business models and new audiences.

Above all, it is our responsibility to work with companies as partners in a transformation, because for many of these companies, digital is no longer a way to market the product. It is the product.