TV advertising’s dying… time to get interactive
BT is the latest of many big advertisers to cut its television ad spend. And it’s really hurting ITV, the UK’s leading commercial broadcaster. ITV’s position is made all the more precarious by the Contract Rights Renewal process which means the broadcaster must cut ad rates if audiences fall. Audiences shrunk 5.6 per cent in 2004 and a further 9 per cent in the first half of 2005.
All of this is bad news for marketers who simply want to buy an audience for their advertisements. Even the lower ad rates are bad news. Advertisers are happy to commit the money to buying audience, but audience can’t be bought so easily today.
The parallel success story is, of course, all things digital where the numbers are increasingly spectacular. Yet it’s not as simple as switching money from one part of the marketing budget to another. Marketing on the internet demands engagement – internet and digital are synonymous with interactive – and the web enabled consumer is likely to be as averse to websites that simply sell as they are to TV adverts.
Business, and not just marketers, must learn to engage in genuine two-way dialogue. It will take real cultural change, but it’s what public relations has aspired to all along.
Contact Stephen Newton
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