Just in time for the TV upfront: A new survey says that the majority of TV advertisers are finding commercials less effective now than they were just two years ago.
Among the 133 advertisers surveyed by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Forrester Research, 78% feel that traditional TV advertising has become less effective during the past two years.
In presenting the findings last week at the ANA Television Advertising Forum in New York, Forrester vice president Josh Bernoff all but dropped the gauntlet at the feet of TV executives: “Television networks continue to publish research that traditional TV advertising is potent as ever, but national advertisers aren’t buying it and are seeking alternatives to enhance their budgets and move them beyond the customary 30-second spot.”
In fact, almost 70% of survey respondents think that digital video recorders (DVRs) and video-on-demand will reduce if not destroy the effectiveness of traditional 30-second TV commercials. Among the alternatives that respondents said they’re exploring: branded entertainment within TV programs (61%), program sponsorships (55%), interactive advertising during programs (48%), online video ads (45%), and product placement (44%).
What’s more, four of every five advertisers surveyed said they’ll be spending more of their ad budgets on Web advertising; nearly two-thirds (65%) of the advertisers said they will look into search marketing.
What they’re not yet testing are the media that they say are threatening the efficiency of TV commercials. Only 49% of survey respondents have experimented with advertising on DVR, and just 44% have tried advertising via video-on-demand.
CHIEF MARKETER’s take: The release of the survey coincides with the annual spring TV upfront, when the networks unveil programming and hope to lock in ad commitments. Media buyers have long griped about the illogical, outdated upfront process. Being able to point to a survey blasting the reason of being for the upfronts while negotiating with the networks must lend advertisers a bit of schadenfreude—and what they hope will be a bit of leverage as well. And while news of increased interest among major advertisers in online advertising—and search in particular—in no doubt heartening to the engines and the agencies that support advertising, it’s no doubt equally disheartening to the smaller marketers already dismayed with rising keyword costs.
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