Death of TV Debate Re-ignites, Sparks Fly
Television advertising is far from dead, but it is evolving in the changing media ecosystem.
Last week the IAB and PwC released first half UK internet advertising figures, showing above expectation 41.3% year on year growth, taking the sector to a half-year high of £1,334 million – compared to £917 million a year ago (see NewsLine).
Such expansion lifts online advertising’s market share to 14.7%. The total UK advertising market grew by 3.1% during the first half of the year to £9.1 billion, but the IAB says that without online’s contribution, UK media expenditure would have fallen by 1.9% (or £147 million).
Recently the IAB had sponsored a Guardian supplement on internet advertising, provoking a vigorous response from TV marketing body, Thinkbox.
CEO Tess Alps wrote: “The growth of online activity has not displaced any broadcast viewing time in the UK. We are watching 10 minutes more TV per day than 10 years ago – more than 25 hours a week – according to BARB, not the 11.3 hours stated.”
Alps was irked by claims that the Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Gorilla ad was a triumph for the internet, following nearly a million YouTube viewings. “And there was me thinking the 56 million viewings of it to date on UK broadcast TV had something to do with its success,” she exclaimed.
Alps said that the issue of time spent with a medium is a “total red herring”, and that it’s about advertising opportunities and their effectiveness. “The Internet Advertising Bureau has every right to promote its own interests but not by denigrating another medium in such a shoddy way,” she wrote.
“We in TV… remain hugely positive about both internet-based media, as complements to TV advertising, and about internet technology, which is enabling more TV – programmes and ads – to be viewed in new ways and in new places.”
On the back of this was the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) conference in London, where Jeff Henry, director of ITV Consumer, told a packed house that “online is at the core of our [ITV’s] strategy.”
Henry said the broadcaster was very confident of meeting the online revenue target of £150 million by 2010 – and of making ITV.com a top ten UK site by that date (see ITV Confident on Digital Targets).
ITV.com ‘s greatest challenge is “to bring the advertising world with us”, he said.
Henry admitted that whilst Britain’s Got Talent lured 12 million viewers, a series of videos of winner Paul Potts on YouTube attracted 30 million views. He accepted that it clearly delivered no additional revenues to ITV.
Meanwhile, panellists at the MediaGuardian Changing Advertising Summit lamented the 30-second spot, and admitted that TV is becoming less central to consumers and their lives.
Television is not going to die, said Steve King, worldwide CEO of ZenithOptimedia, but the internet is now at the heart of everything.
“All channels will hang off the internet,” he said, with the web being the central point of distribution.
Marketers were told that a digital focus is key, consumer choice and control are paramount, and interaction and conversation are what people want, it’s clear that TV is changing and has to change, and gone are the days of sedentary consumers and mass media reach.
“The golden years of mass media advertising are gone for good,” he claimed.
Dee Dutta, corporate vice-president and global head of marketing, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, felt that television was “fast becoming a sideline”. He rather provocatively said: “21st century consumers are not sitting watching TV.”
So once again we see the debate in full flow, just in time for MediaTel Group’s one-day ‘Future of TV’ seminar, to be held in London on Tuesday 9 October (see TIOTI Founder Joins MediaTel ‘Future Of TV’ Seminar Panel).
A few tickets remain for the event. For full details and to book, click here.
MediaTel Group: 0207 439 7575 www.mediatelgroup.co.uk