When will on-demand outstrip linear TV viewing?

In 2019 – “but I may be a little optimistic there” – according to Rhys McLachlan, Mediacom’s managing partner for implementation and future investments, speaking at The Future TV Advertising Forum on Friday.

“By 2013, 35% of advertising consumption will be originate via the internet; Men 18-34 already exceeds 40%,” McLachlan said, pointing also to the effectiveness of pre-rolls in VOD – new research carried out at Mediacom found 33% of viewers (in an FMCG example) went on to buy. “1+ on TV is 5.2%,” he added. But he would have upset a good few with his assertion that you should “just use your TV ads… in the short term it is good enough.” He said that he would get “slated by procurement” if he suggested otherwise, but an advertiser delegate from the floor said he would never do this, and asked how much higher still the conversion rate could be with made for online content.

McLachlan went on to focus on non-linear viewing research and data, praising “fantastic” BARB, “the best in breed globally, but it has a legacy issue.” Comscore, he described as “disparate, disconnected and diluted…not the answer” for online video data, where its offering is “rudimentary”, and UKOM barely got a mention. That may have been because McLachlan believes “the old metrics of reach and frequency won’t matter in this brave new world.”

He could not over-stress the importance of data to agencies and clients: “We are structuring our business around the ability to collect, co-ordinate, interpret and re-distribute data.”