Opinions are divided on whether TV advertising is dead. Some say TV is dying out, and taking TV ads with it, while others say TV is still very much alive. But is it still worthwhile investing in TV advertising?
First let’s look at the positives of TV advertising. While online advertising is still risky and somewhat experimental, TV is a tried and tested format. Online ads are risk-taking, while TV ads are pretty much guaranteed to bring you results.
TV advertising also benefits from the use of a variety of senses. Most online advertising does not include sound. Online video ads do sometimes have sound, but then may lose their visuals by being on a different tab or down the bottom of the page. It is rare for online ads to manage to combine visual and audio effectively, while it is almost always successful with TV ads.
TV ads are not simultaneous with other content like online ads. Online ads are often a small part of another page, meaning your attention is not fully on them. But TV adverts are full screen and draw your full attention (at least within the bounds of the television).
TV ads also reach a large audience in a short time. In just a thirty second slot, TV ads can reach hundreds of thousands, or even up to several million people. Online adverts are more of a slow burn, taking a longer stretch of time to reach wide audiences.
Because it reaches a large audience, the subject matter of television ads becomes a talking point, which then broadens the reach of the ad. For example, the meerkats in the compare the market adverts have become a feature of popular culture in recent years, and are a big discussion point. This has made the reach of the ads go far further than just the television.
In addition, adverts on television are viewed as more trusted than online adverts. People assume that if a company can afford tele adverts that they must be a legitimate company. Also, there are more stringent advertising standards for TV, meaning that exploitation is viewed as an unlikely outcome from companies using TV ads. Whereas, online advertising is seen as less trustworthy and more likely to be a scam.
Also, TV ads can use targeting by time of day. If you want to advertise to an evening audience, then you can. If you want to advertise to daytime viewers, you can. Online advertising cannot be restricted by time of day as easily. Email advertising cannot be time-specific at all as it relies on people opening their emails, which they could do any time.
There’s an argument that TV will always be relevant. There will always be people who just want to channel hop, and who want to watch something without having to choose from a vast database of options. Sometimes, we don’t want to think too much about what to watch, and television is perfect for that. There will always be some demand for traditional TV.
While there has been a rise in ad spend for ads during big events (like the Super Bowl), ad spend for regular television slots has fallen in recent years. The demand for day to day television ad spaces has fallen, making the prices drop. This shows that TV advertising is falling out of favour, and there are lots of reasons why this is happening.
Streaming services like Netflix are starting to gain traction in the mainstream. More and more people are fore-going traditional TV in favour of services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. This means that people are moving away from television, making TV ads less effective and wide-reaching. Also, these services tend to be ad-free as they are funded by a monthly fee. This means that people may turn to these services as they have become frustrated with TV adverts. For a long time, people have done all they can to avoid ads on the TV – muting the TV during ad breaks, recording the show and fast-forwarding the ads, and so on. The move to streaming services may be the next step in TV ad avoidance.
TV ads take longer to produce than online ads. While online ads can be produced relatively quickly and require a UX designer and then editing and approval, TV ads require far more. They need film crews, actors, considerations of location, editing together and so on. This means that the cost and time for producing a TV ad is much greater, making the risk staked on the ad much greater.
There is a lack of a two-way relationship in television ads. When you are watching a TV ad, you are being talked at, not talked to. Online advertising has a few ways of getting around this that avoids yelling into the abyss, and provides genuine engagement with ads. An example of this is the more effective call to action in online ads. Online ads can take you straight to a form fill, can get you to buy now, can take you straight to their site, or even give you a click to call button. This immediacy that television lacks allows online advertising to succeed.
Another example is that TV ads are very limited when it comes to targeting their ads. They can only target guessed demographics based on the time of day and the TV show that’s being shown. For example, they may guess that the audience of ‘This Morning’ at 11am is made up of retired people, housewives/husbands and those who are out of work. This explains the amount of ads for life insurance, cooking appliances, and accident advice. But, online advertising can target more accurately, and can target users it knows are 18-35 females, for example. Online advertising also allows for retargeting – the practice of bringing consumers back to a page after they’ve left.
TV ads can’t track the results of their advertising. The only way they will see any improvement is an increase in sales, which may have been caused by a variety of things and not just the ads. With online advertising, you can track every click, every conversion and every lead, and know exactly which adverts are performing well. You can also choose how much to spend on your ads, with CPA (cost per acquisition), CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per thousand) campaigns. With TV, you do not have any flexibility in the amount you want to spend. Plus, CPA and CPC campaigns can ensure you only pay for ads that have led to the sale of your product or a click on your link. Guarantees like this cannot be made with TV.
But, the fight isn’t over for TV just yet. TV ads provide a general message, whereas online ads ten to carry a more specific message. The mediums can co-exist, they just propose different things. Also, it can be prosperous to use both TV and online advertising to complement one another.
TV advertising isn’t dead yet; it just needs to evolve, like radio and print ads have done in the past. TV needs to learn to be more flexible. An example of the evolution of TV can be seen in iPlayer and All4 (formerly 4OD). Both are starting to create original, online-only content, allowing 30 days to catch up, and more flexibility. This may help to save TV advertising, and to bridge the gap between TV and online ads. As television evolves, TV advertising needs to evolve with it, or it may die after all.
