In the age of streaming, are TV ads dead? Surprisingly, the data seems to suggest otherwise. We turned to entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, for some insight.
Undoubtedly, the upfronts from this year were remarkable. All the same, a shift from linear TV to streaming is upon us, and that will inevitably affect the advertising industry in years to come. Add to that another pronounced swing to online marketing as the preferred marketing platform, and the current difficulties in getting an accurate measurement of streaming data, and we do have something of a problem.
Projections for this year should see TV advertising top $60B, yet a shrink of around 4% is also predicted. Why is linear TV advertising managing to hold so strong, however? The answer is two-fold- scale, and quality.
If a marketing world obsessed with ‘online’ and ‘viral’ is going to choose physical advertising at all, they want quality. Roadside billboards and magazines will die long before the TV ad. Linear advertising still is unskippable, at least next to online adverts that are skipped in seconds. They also want a massive reach, one which TV can easily give them. Not to mention that televised sporting events are still a massive drawcard for people. Matching that scale on a digital platform is near impossible, at least for the moment.
Not that it’s all rosy, of course. We can’t just ignore the rapid advance of streaming and the alluring pull of all those ad impressions. For TV ads to continue to thrive, they will have to fight to keep advertisers in their ecosystem. What will thrive in the future? Probably joint campaigns, where live events and sports are leveraged for easy reach and appeal, while on-demand video carries targeted advertising.
It’s difficult to plan that far ahead, as viewer habits, measurement, and technology all sit in flux. Yet there’s one thing TV ads have going for them- advertisers already know how to make good ones. If you need to reach most of the country in one hit, it’s still the way to go. It may not stay there without updating its relevance as things shift, but Brandon and the Blake & Wang team feel it won’t take quite the hit some think it will.
