Are TV Ads In Trouble?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Love them or hate them, TV advertising pays for much of the content we love to watch, but could the uneasy truce between TV sponsors and TV viewers soon be broken?

Bob Garfield, ad critic for Advertising Age and co-host of the NPR show On the Media, argues in an article for Slate.com, "the long-standing, two-way partnership between advertising and content is due for a violent rejiggering." As the Internet has strangled traditional newspapers, so too it may traditional TV.

Garfield foresees the classic, 30-second TV spot replaced by interacting with consumers online, analyzing their complaints and desires (as revealed on their blogs, tweets, and website comments) and provide utilitarian information to those who seek it. He dubs his approach, "Listen-omics."

We think he's confirming the paranoid fear of marketing "Ad Nauseam" has been peddling since 1993.

The Truth

People don't hate advertising. People hate irrelevant advertising. Men don't want to see ads for tampons any more than ladies want to see Viagra commercials during their favorite shows.

As more and more channels are offered and viewership becomes increasingly segmented, advertisers can become increasingly targeted with their ads. The more targeted they get, the more relevant the ads become.

Are TV Ads in Trouble?

In their current state, yes. However, the line between TV and the Internet is blurring by the day. Soon, TV will be an interactive advertising medium--perhaps with opt-in ad subscriptions. Now, where have I heard that before (blog post from October, 2007)?

Excerpts from "Is Television Over" by Seth Stevenson

2 comments:

Justin DowneyAugust 12, 2009 3:41 PM
Funny anecdote about offline advertising and online:

Six Flags theme park decides to give away 45,000 tickets as a promotion for its 45th anniversary.

They told their big ad agency to gigure out the logistics. Once upon a time, they would have spent tens of thousands or more on radio ads, billboards and direct mail but, instead, posted a blurb on Craigslist.

The tickets were gone in five hours. After the initial thrill of success wore off, one ad executive asked another, "How do we bill the client for that?"
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Jonathan GoodmanAugust 14, 2009 11:17 AM
I have a lot a respect for Bob Garfield. Though I don't see the death spiral for TV that he predicts.

One of my favorite media aphorisms is "New media does not kill old media."

Newspapers are smaller yes. But most still turn a profit. I believe they'll be here in 10, 20, 30 years in a paper form.

Same with TV. It's unique place of dominance has been diminished much like a certain global superpower nation-state we all know and love.

But the boob tube will survive and even thrive even as the business model shifts in our age of increasing media and digital saturation.
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