On Wikipedia, there are two entries for “The Golden Age of Television.” The first describes a period from the late ’40s to late ’50s, which featured live productions aimed at the affluent viewers who could then afford television sets. The second one, we’re living through now.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to
In just a few short years, DVRs and video-on-demand have dramatically altered how television is watched. In 2006, fewer than two percent of households owned a DVR. Now, more than half do. The use of DVRs has changed along with market-growing penetration. Instead of just being time-shifters, many viewers are effectively becoming collectors, stockpiling so many shows on their DVRs that they don’t have time to watch them all. As a result, they’re also watching shows later, at a time when it’s convenient to them.
As The New York Times reported recently, this fall’s television season saw a surge of viewers watching shows four to seven days after the initial air-date. Broadcasters and cable networks typically base their ad prices on so-called C3 ratings or the amount of viewership over the course of three days of delayed viewing, and view those later impressions as effectively uncompensated.
TargetCast has had great success as an agency helping its clients navigate these churning media waters. I sat down with Audrey Siegel, TargetCast’s Agency President, to discuss how shifting viewing habits have changed how TV advertising is sold and used.
It is certainly true that increased consumer control over multiple aspects of their viewing behavior has forever changed the medium at its core. The ability to time-shift viewing is really the tip of the iceberg. We must now add to time-shifting the viewer’s ability to platform shift, to actually change the location of their viewing as well as the time in which they view a particular program. In effect, dayparts are becoming intensely personal; “my primetime” supplants generic primetime. The language around the nature of the viewing experience – at-home, lean-back, me time – must now recognize mobile as well as multiscreen viewing. All of this viewing, ultimately, will be wrapped in the cloak of digitized delivery, of both ads and programming, and will open up television advertising opportunities for addressable messaging and dynamic creative versioning. This ultimately will make our most mass medium most personal, promising greater viewer engagement and potentially greater brand engagement as a result.
Tracking the effectiveness of TV advertising has long been a promise unfulfilled. We have settled for surrogates – such as program engagement, ad awareness, and commercial ratings – but in fact have not been able to directly connect television advertising with marketplace effectiveness in the most direct manner. The increasing digitization of the video medium, as well as the multi-screen nature of program and ad delivery, brings us closer to the realization of effectiveness metrics. In addition, as we build more complex multi-channel attribution tracking and modeling applications, we will better understand not only the effectiveness of one video channel, (television) but its impact on, and relationship with, other video elements (mobile, online) as well as other messaging channels (search, social).
I talk here on Madison Ave Insights a good amount about digital, social media, and mobile advertising trends and developments, and how they are changing the industry. Advertisers are shifting dollars from traditional print and television to online media outlets and novel platforms – that is no question. However, televisions are still in nearly every home in America, tuned to leading sitcoms, special programming, news, and sports. So, how do advertisers determine which programs are worth allocating ad dollars to in order to reach target audiences? Cue Sweeps periods.
I sat down with Matt Seiler, CEO of Mediabrands, Interpublic’s media-buying division, to discuss the upcoming annual Sweeps periods and the relevance for the advertising and entertainment industries.
The concept of sweep periods are almost as old as television measurement itself. Nielsen began sending out viewing paper diaries in 1954 to capture demographic information, a practice that continues today in the smaller TV markets—almost sixty years later. Because the data is only collected at certain times of the year, networks and stations tend to heavy up on first-run and special programming in order to influence the ratings. This is especially mind-boggling when you consider that top and mid-tier markets are being measured electronically, fifty-two weeks per year. In terms of evolution over the years, there’s been virtually none, and better measurement of local television is something we strongly believe in. To Nielsen’s credit, they are currently exploring different forms of improved electronic measurement in smaller markets and we are involved in several committees to help guide the process.
To our dismay, it is still a significant consideration for our local investment staff because of the nature of the measurement. However, it is hardly the only factor involved in their decision-making, as we leverage all of the data at our disposal to help us buy smarter.
Ask anyone in Ohio what they’re least excited for during the home stretch of this year’s Election season, and I bet you they’ll say the non-stop television, print, and online advertisements from Obama, Romney, and other Ohio politicians trying to win the battleground state. At the Democratic National Convention in August, the crowd cheered and laughed when Obama said he was even tired of saying, “I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.” Election season always means a surging tidal wave of political advertising. The 2012 elections are expected to break records for ad spend – after the 2008 elections hit a new record as well. According to Kantar CMAG, the United States will see 43,000 political spots a day until Election Day. We know what all of this means for the average American voter preparing to go to the polls, but what does it mean for the advertising industry?
I sat down with Steve Farella, the founder and CEO of TargetCast, to pick his brain on this year’s political ad spend and what it means for the advertising industry as a whole.
At this point in the race, the largest ad spends are anticipated to be in those states that are still considered “swing states” where it is unclear whether they ultimately join with other blue or red states in the election. Those states currently include: New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, and Colorado. Generally we see little national advertising and it tends to have only slight or no impact on national broadcast. Most agencies work with their clients to plan their local scheduling and daypart utilization so that, where possible, they side-step the heaviest pre-election weeks based on the clients’ needs. Primetime garners 23% of campaign spend, while combined News dayparts gets 32%. Early Morning saw significant growth between 2008 and 2010 and we expect that trend to continue. Access and Early Fringe also see activity while Late Night, Daytime, and Weekend see less.
The explosion of Super Pacs – 501 (c)(4) organizations, trade associations with political arms – are the biggest development in 2012. For example, advertising weight in the market of Columbus, Ohio for the week of 8/15-8/22 reached 1,842 presidential race spots as compared to 832 spots in 2008. Las Vegas saw its presidential spot count go from 925 in 2008 to a record 2,870 in 2012. Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker has raised political advertising estimates from $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion by Election Night. So far, presidential candidates have spent more than seven times the amount of money spent in 2008 on digital ads (up from $22MM to $159MM). Online ad spending has doubled as a percentage of campaigns’ budgets over the same time period. Thus far, online ad dollars have mostly focused on emails, display ads, sponsored search terms, and audio and video ads.