Rumours of the demise of the television industry are very much exaggerated, according to Clare Salmon, director of marketing and commercial strategy at ITV, who was speaking at MediaTel Group’s ‘Future Of TV’ seminar this morning.
Jim Marshall, chairman of Starcom UK, agreed, saying that there was an “extraordinary amount of confusion and a lack of confidence in traditional forms of advertising, particularly in television”, believing the lack of confidence is misplaced.
“TV is in a funny shape at the moment,” said Marshall. “I think there is a lack of confidence in it and I think that has been caused by the television companies and agencies as well failing to promote the market and prove that it can still work.
“I still vehemently believe that television advertising is the most powerful form of communication and I think that allied to the fact that it can be done alongside other forms of advertising – sponsorship, interactive, etc – I think there are great opportunities that are being missed. I know the industry recognises it has got to get its house in order, promote itself and do a better job in selling to advertisers.”
Salmon believes that TV advertising is an underrated medium that is a powerful and compelling communication mechanism. “Some curious things are happening in the ad market,” she said. “Traditionally I think life was fairly simple and consumer confidence and macro economic trends tended to feed directly through to advertising spend. That link is busted; it’s no longer easy to see the causal relationship. In the past television hasn’t necessarily done the best job of communicating the benefits of TV.
“Television, far from being on its knees [in the US], is actually resurgent and the networks are very powerful. We can draw some confidence from that. We need to recognise that for any advertiser, television is not going to be the only thing that you spend your money on, and looking at the effects of TV as an amplifier on other media and producing metrics that demonstrate that to clients is obviously a major focus for their attention.”
Media journalist Ray Snoddy was more pessimistic: “I’m absolutely convinced of the power of interactive advertising. It is the biggest long-term threat to television advertising.”
Rahul Chakkara, controller BBCi, disagreed, saying this form of advertising was not a threat. “There are so many changes happening in consumer behaviour, so many new entrants,” he said. “This will create so many tremendous opportunities for the young and the bold who can understand, take some risks and figure out what the marketing models are instead of sticking to one 30-second box.
“I look forward with a lot of optimism. The people who are willing to take some risks and innovate don’t have anything to fear, those that sit still will have lots to fear.”
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