BI is a driver in the march towards one-to-one marketing.   “In the UK we are seeing an explosion of people communicating through stuff that can be downloaded from the web and played back with MP3,” says Steve Messenger, Director of IPSOS.  Meanwhile above-the-line advertising is shrinking in response to the budgets going more towards one-to-one communications.   “In the UK Heinz stopped doing television advertising for a mix of direct marketing and marketing through stores,” notes Messenger.

BI helps business understand and respond meaningfully to the needs and desires of individuals. As BI drives results-based, one-to one strategies, mass media will become increasingly irrelevant.

As addressable media usurp the traditional roles of television and newspapers, the business case for BI gains strength. “Direct access to information has hugely increased and this is a producing a situation of disintermediation of the traditional processes of information as people use Google and blogs to circumvent them,” says Bill Emmott, editor of The Economist.