I've been guilty of suggesting that TV is an advertising medium in decline, as have many of us. Well, a brilliant booklet from Thinkbox has busted many of the myths about TV advertising (thanks to the Marketing Society for sending me the booklet).
Myth 1: TV effectiveness is in decline
Research by the IPA shows that in fact TV is more effective than 20 years ago, with ad campaigns including TV 35% more effective that those without TV. And a 10 year study by Price Waterhouse on over 700 brands in 7 markets showed a £1mill increase in TV ad spend delivers on average a £4.5mill increase in sales.
Myth 2: TV takes too long to pay back
TV advertising does have a long-term effect. But it also has immediate benefits as well. The rise of the internet has in fact made TV more effective, not less. The web means all TV advertising has the potential to generate a response, not just those that say "call this number" or "go to this website". In a survey by the IAB 57% of people said that as a result of watching a TV ad they had conducted a search online.
Indeed, many of the most celebrated online viral brand campaigns started through good old TV, such as T-Mobile's "Dance" and Old Spice's "The man you man could smell like".
Myth 3: Creative awards are only an ego trip
Interestingly, research shows that creatively awarded campaigns are 11 times more efficient at growing share. In a busy world with more and more messages, there is a need to be distinctive in order to get noticed. And creative execution can play a part in this.
Myth 4: I can protect profit by cutting my ad budget
If you cut TV spend in half it will take two years to recover the lost share, according to research by Data2Decisions. Also, companies who want to win back share a year after a recession will need to spend 60% more on ads than they saved by cutting the ad budget in the first place.
Myth 5: Younger people don't watch TV anymore
15-24 year olds still spend 44% of their media consumption watching live TV, more than any other medium. And their TV viewing has actually increased slightly over the last 5 years. They are the most into "2-screen" viewing, such as TV and internet, so most likely to respond to TV ads (see point above).
Myth 6: Everyone fast-forwards TV ads or skips them
In the UK 93% of TV is still viewed live. And in fact we watch 41% MORE TV ads at normal speed than in 1999. In houses with digital TV recorders like Sky+ 87% of viewing is still live, with 13% "time-shifted" (i.e. recorded and played later). But these homes watch 17% more TV, which more than compensates for this.
In addition, even fast-forwarded ads have real value, with about 65% of the recall of ads watched at normal speed!
Net, TV aint dead. Its alive and kicking and still the best way to achieve wide reach. You can get to 70% of people in one day, and 92% of them in a week. Its proven to drive profit. And the rise of new technology means that TV can be even more effective, not less so.
All this time I thought it'd cost a fortune to run a TV ad. Looks like I better give it a go!
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See also:
Sharp, Byron, Beal, Virginia, & Collins, Martin (2009). "Television: back to the future", Journal of Advertising Research, 49(2), 211-219.
Documents empirical laws of TV viewing behaviour that have remained in place during decades of social and media change. Predicts a rosy future for TV.
Posted by: Byron Sharp | March 08, 2011 at 02:00 AM
From a client pov, myth 2 and 3 are not myths! Myth 2 is completely true. The number of ads that are effective at driving short term sales is really low - and that's what people mean when they talk about 'pay back' - driving a discernible ROI over a defined period. TV is good at this over longer periods. A google search for your product or service doesn't equal payback or ROI.
Is myth 3 self fulfilling? Creative awards are a 'lag measure', usually awarded after the ad has been demonstrated as being 'successful'. So was the award because the ad successfully grew share? When was the last time an ad won an award even thought it didn't grow penetration or share?
Also, "you can get 70% of people in 1 day" - yeah, at what cost?!! Media agency dream brief!
Have you got a link for the PwC data (£1m incremental spent = £4.5m sales increase)?
Posted by: Andrew Nadin | February 28, 2011 at 10:23 PM
I think the best thing for TV is DVR... We actually watch it more!
Posted by: Tim | February 27, 2011 at 11:01 PM
With big events happening on TV like Super Bowl and UEFA Champions League, marketing through this channel never lost its luster. The internet serves as a compliment because, as you've mentioned, it enables for quick responses and reactions. In San Diego, I've seen a couple of commercials of a company based here.
Posted by: Abigayle Soderstrom | February 27, 2011 at 03:51 AM
Except......a beautiful example of TV's irrelevance is the Academy Awards broadcast. In Australia, it's broadcast primetime Monday night, a full 6-7 hours after live broadcast in the US (the night before - timezones etc.) So at lunchtime Monday, everyone goes online and reads the results, watches video grabs of 'best bits' i.e. no reason to tune in that night. Like the music industry, they defiantly think they are in control of the information and story. Sad to watch really.
Posted by: Michael | February 26, 2011 at 10:43 PM
So pleased you found the booklet useful. Thanks for writing about it.
The fact that there were so many myths about TV is in part our own fault; the TV industry only really started challenging the nonsense being written when Thinkbox launched in 2006. People were confusing the decline in viewing to the original 4 analogue channels (BBC1&2, ITV1 & C4) with overall decline when in fact total viewing was rising but just spread across more channels.
Anyway, 2010 was an amazing year when linear TV viewing broke new records, revenue went up 15%, way ahead of other media, new platforms and devices for TV grew and social media helped us prove the huge engagement in and influence of TV, even for the Twitterati. So TV's in a pretty happy place.
If there's anything we can ever help you with please shout.
Tess
Posted by: Tess Alps | February 24, 2011 at 02:16 PM