TV Is Not Dead

A recent survey of Chief Marketing Officers has reinforced what everyone should already know: TV still works, but not by itself.

In a panel discussion hosted by Fast Company, CMOs all across the U.S., agreed almost unanimously that television advertising is still an important part of their marketing strategies and won’t be going away anytime soon. 

However, with the changing times, comes changing strategies. No longer can any retailer rely solely on television to save the day. 

While TV advertising remains, in my opinion, the single best way to raise brand awareness and pique interest … it must be supported by a vibrant online presence. With more and more pre-purchase research being done online, it’s just plain foolish not to be using TV to steer consumers to your website.

The best TV advertising now integrates online and social media elements, driving consumers to branded web destinations where consumers can actually interact and experience the brand.

This commercial is a good example of how Best Buy is using TV to get people to their website. A website, by the way, that gets nearly a billion hits a year!

Today’s winners are companies, like Best Buy, that understand that in order to compete, they must deliver on both fronts – Offline (TV) and Online. 

Like it or not, the genie is out of the bottle. The way consumers interact with brands today has changed – have you?

After taking a beating the for the last two years, traditional media companies, especially TV networks, appear to be leading the way out of the longest and most severe recession in 70 years. This according to a recent L.A. Times article.

TV networks like Fox, CBS, ABC, TNT, TBS, USA and Fox News – have benefited the most as retail advertisers snap up all available commercial spots and doing so by paying much higher rates than they did just five months ago.

Here’s how David Levy of Turner Networks sums it up:

“In challenging times, people go back to what they know, and what they know best is television.”

I think it goes a bit further than that. In tough economic times, retail advertisers can ill afford to speculate on what may work, so they gravitate to what they know works. 

Could be why many retailers are no longer as eager to buy Internet display ads as they were two or three years ago, when companies were steering million of ad dollars to online sites.

“There is still a big push toward digital and online video, but the Internet display advertising market is challenged,” said Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic in sights at Optimedia. “There is so much clutter in the space, and advertisers have begun to question the effectiveness of those online display ads.”

Really? Banner ads don’t work. Advertisers still prefer TV. Boy, don’t you just hate it when reality gets in the way of a good new media propaganda campaign?

Kinda like what those leaked emails have done for the global warming debate.