Category: Advertising

You always have to take these kind of reports with a grain of salt, but Mediapost reports on a new Forrester Research/Association of National Advertisers survey, based on responses from 104 U.S. advertisers in 21 industries, including Cisco Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, ING, Kraft, Marriott, State Farm and Clorox.  All told, they represent nearly $14 billion in media budgets.

Here are some highlights from the report, which kind of illustrates how many irrational people there are making marketing decisions: 

• TV marketers plan to spend 41% of their media budgets on television in 2010 — the same level as a year ago.  (However, this is down from the 58% level of two years ago.)
• BUT…62% percent of companies say TV ads have become less effective in the past two years due to increased advertising clutter. 

So, even though 62% of the marketers admit TV ads are less effective than before, they are going to spend the same amount as last year.  Read: “Buying TV is easy, and I like hanging out with ad agency folks on sound stages.”

More insight:

• Virtually all advertisers believe the TV industry needs new audience metrics beyond reach and frequency; 82% of respondents would be interested in ratings for individual commercials.
• BUT…While 78% are interested in targeting consumers more precisely, only 59% would be willing to pay a premium for it.

So, advertisers admit the TV spot is hard to measure.  But no one wants to give up any of their media buy to improve targeting capabilities.  Read: “Buying TV is easy, and I can blame the product guys if the ads aren’t working.”

• 80% of advertisers say future branded entertainment deals will grow. And in 2010, 38% say they will spend more on branded entertainment as an alternative to the 30-second commercial.
• 19% say the 30-second spot will be dead in 10 years, down from 28% a year ago.

So, advertisers want to move away from 30 second spots and into branded entertainment.  But these same people think the 30 second spot will live forever. 

Now the good stuff:

• Social media, Web advertising and search are stealing budgets from TV and other media. Of those surveyed, 77% said they would be moving TV dollars to social media this year; 73% plan to shift money to online advertising, and 59% will be spending more on search-engine marketing and 46% on e-mail marketing. Other non-TV traditional media doesn’t seem to be part of this trend. Only 15% said they plan to increase spending in traditional media such as radio, outdoor, magazines or newspapers.

Advertisers want targeting (online advertising, email and SEM).  They want stronger engagement (Social). And they don’t see much future potential in radio, outdoor, etc… The question is, do they expect lower CPM’s in these channels in comparison to TV?  If they want to shift budgets to mediums where they can get a direct measurement of success, why don’t they want to force TV to do a better job of measuring?

There’s an obvious part of this survey that is missing, which illustrates how there’s still a knowledge chasm.  No one asked how many of these companies are going to integrate their social and online campaigns with a TV buy.  It’s obvious TV is still needed – at least for the largest 104 advertisers – to drive awareness and brand.  But it’s not an either/or.  These guys have the chance to use the 30 second spot to drive branded entertainment deals online, and capitalize on an engaged social audience.  For me, how these 104 companies are going to integrate those campaigns is the really interesting question.