5 Marketing Experts Predict the Future of TV Advertising

The future of television advertising is always a controversial subject.

But should that be the case?

Since the rise of online advertising, many have questioned the continued effectiveness of TV advertising. While some big businesses have shifted budgets previously earmarked for TV and print to satisfy the urge for online ads, the majority of experts remain more nuanced in their views, arguing that TV advertising is not only still relevant, but remains one of the most effective forms of communication available.

We’ve long propagated a balanced strategy, TV and online can work together magnificently to drive exceptional results.

Just look at our articles around John Lewis’ omni-channel approach and Twitter and TV advertising’s close relationship!

It’s been a sobering couple of weeks for those who doubt TV advertising with the UK Government and giant retailer M&S have pulled online adverts from Google over fears their content was being placed next to extremist content on YouTube.

Compare that to research pertaining to TV advertising’s efficacy:

-Every £1 spent on TV advertising derives an average profit of £1.79

–Online businesses invested £639 million in TV during 2016, an 8% increase year on year

-94.2% of the UK population is reached by TV every week

And you begin to understand why TV remains the darling of marketers.

Still, it’s important to remain ahead of the game going forward so we decided to ask five top marketing experts for their thoughts on TV advertising and what they believe the future holds for the platform.

Let us know your own opinion on the future of TV advertising in the comments below the article!

Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, CEO of Hawthorne

Regardless of the significant shifts in advertising over the past couple decades, television advertising has continued to prove itself as a medium that can not only sell individual products, but also create “brand lift” across all products. TV ads have been proven to provide an impact and memorable boost in customer perception that digital campaigns cannot rival.

For companies hoping to see positive results for their entire brand, and not just a single product at a time, they should remember TV advertising casts a strong and reliable shadow that an investment in digital alone may not achieve. 

Eric Lanel, Creative Director of GWP Inc

Television advertising continues to be an incredibly valuable tool for our agency to use for our clients. In this day and age of CPP and ROI-based thinking were we measure value based on return on investment, television plays off a different set of letters: ROO (return on objective).  Driving brand, creating top of mind awareness or simply presenting a product or service to a target audience who we feel will be motivated by a message is all possible through television advertising.

The one thing we can count on is change.  Television advertisers, like with all vehicles, have learned to adapt to the new technology, which is presented on what seems to be a daily basis.  We are not far away from the cross platform of television ads and online search.  Just imagine two people who live on the same block are watching the same show, and Person A, who has been online searching for a BMW, sees a BMW advertisement on television while Person B, who has been looking at a Honda, is presented with a Honda ad.  As advertisers continue to look for more exact ways to target audience and identify buying cycle, television is searching for ways to meet these demands.  Our television future will certainly change…how will be fun to see.

Scott R. Hamula, Associate Professor and Chair Department of Strategic Communication, Ithaca College

I tell my Advertising students that there is still nothing else like television. There is no other medium on which you can place a brand message and have tens of millions of people all at once see your advertisement.

The Grammys, 25 million, Oscars, almost 33 million, or create a road-blocking schedule (buying simultaneous airtime on multiple networks/stations) to achieve those or higher numbers.

Even an ad on The Big Bang Theory (CBS) can score you 17 million viewers. Moreover, compared to other media with the exception of the Internet, it is the best for creating an emotional bond with the consumer, and that’s the real goal for sustained sales and growth.

However, media usage is changing and advertisers need to explore a new approach. The coveted Millennials are watching less TV per day, over half prefer cable, are above average viewers online of Netflix and Hulu, and are more likely to share an advertisement on social media. These trends will continue so I think we’ll see even more dollars shifting from traditional TV to online advertising.

Lucy Stevens, Marketing at Datify

How many of you look forward to the Christmas adverts each year? Yes, John Lewis I’m talking about you. As soon as the festive season approaches, we all wait with baited breath to see what wonder the advertisement creatives have conjured up. These advertisements often have little relation to the product line, but they do add value to the brand image, and allow us as consumers to buy-in to their vision. Proving that TV advertisement is still a very important, and powerful, narrative to include in a campaign.

TV advertisements help to cement a campaigns values when it is reflected across all platforms – print, digital, TV and social. For example, if we view a campaign across all these mediums it’s likely to stick in our brain and become something we subconsciously think about.

While you can of course argue that on-demand TV and catch-up services have laid to rest TV advertising, as people simply skip through the adverts, when we do view them they are a powerful resource which can leave an audience talking about it for days to come.

David Weaver, Marketing at Vintage Cash Cow

We find TV advertising is still useful for our purposes because depending on the time you air the advert you can easily target different demographics. For instance our customers tend to be over 50 so we find that we can target this demographic by advertising at certain times. Not only this but a lot of our customers are not confident in using the internet so it allows us to reach those who don’t use Social Media.

If you require TV advertising services and advice feel free to get in touch with The Living Room for friendly and expert advice.