Channel 4 Leads Drive To Promote Television Advertising
Channel 4 has brought together a range of marketing representatives from across the industry to push the benefits of television as an advertising medium.
A special Appointment To View seminar was held last week to introduce marketers to the power of television advertising and challenge the misconceptions surrounding the medium. The event is the latest in a series of moves to promote the benefits of advertising on television.
Commenting on the initiative, Mike Parker, head of sales at Channel 4, said: “The industry has done more to market itself as a medium in the past two or three years than in the last twenty years.”
According to Parker, the initiative follows a sea-change of opinion in the industry, which over the past few years has seen broadcasters become increasingly willing to market television as a medium, not just as a collection of competing companies.
However, critics have claimed the industry has failed to market itself effectively in the face of organisations like the Radio Advertising Bureau and more recently the Newspaper Marketing Agency. The television industry is yet to form such a body although there has been much speculation over the prospect of the creation of a Television Advertising Bureau.
The television industry has already worked together on a number of projects to promote airtime commercials. Channel 4 has also confirmed it is currently holding discussions with ITV, Viacom, Channel Five, Sky, IDS and Viacom over the possibility of further initiatives.
Parker commented: “With or without a Television Advertising Bureau we can and will communicate the benefits of the medium. We can do joint research and joint marketing initiatives, they are not dependent on there being an industry body.”
He continued: “The RAB was formed when radio was a very tiny medium, television is much more established medium. Radio had to establish itself as a medium in the first place so the need for the RAB was far greater.”
The latest figures from the Advertising Association show that television saw adspend decline by 1.3% year on year to £847 million during the three months to September. However, recent research suggests that television advertising delivers more powerful sales benefits than any other medium (see Channel 4 Appoints Henry To Cross Platform Sales Division).
Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com
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