The television industry is embarking on a new marketing scheme, launching a TV marketing body to promote the awareness of the medium, aiming to ‘inform, involve and inspire people about television.
Thinkbox is jointly composed of commercial television companies, Channel 4, Five, GMTV, IDS, ITV, Sky Media, Turner Broadcasting and Viacom Brand Solutions and has committed £1.5 million to its launch phase.
Advertising on TV is an important part of marketing campaigns, however, recent complaints from advertisers have highlighted the failure of broadcasters to listen to the industry’s needs. Thinkbox was created after a period of research with the advertising industry and its customers examining what steps they would like commercial broadcasters to take. The research revealed that 76% of clients believed television needed an industry body to market the medium’s potential.
Commenting on the initiative, Thinktank said: “Now is the right time for the commercial television industry to come together to launch Thinktank. The market place is rapidly evolving, with the ITV merger, the growth of multi-channel, changing audiences, the emergence of exciting new technologies and the importance of cross media solutions and customers want to know how they can take advantage of these changes.”
Through its work, Thinktank aims to demonstrate that television can be used for a wide variety of marketing tasks, from brand building to direct response. The body argues that TV can work for any budget, is innovative from constant product innovation to red button interactivity; sets trends and is the most talked about medium, going from strength to strength.
Thinktank added: “We believe television has more to offer today than ever before. Thinkbox will inform and inspire people about television. We want to meet with customers to share knowledge and discuss how we can help them get more out of TV.”
TV advertising expenditure is currently at a five year high, with the industry predicting adspend to increase by 12% in Q1 of this year. Forecasts from ZenithOptimedia and Starcom both estimate TV adspend to increase by 12% in the same period, while Mediaedge:cia is more optimistic, forecasting a 14% rise (see TV Adspend Fuelled By Elections).
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