Yes, I know I know… you’re putting your hands on your hips right now and saying, “Adele, you must be out of your mind.” I won’t argue that BUT I know you’re about to tell me how everyone is “cutting the cord.” Well, I’m here to say that many haven’t. Statistia states that 79% of US Households still subscribed to pay TV in 2017. Is there a decline? Yes. In 2010 88% of households subscribed to pay TV but overall that is only a 9% decrease over 7 years. Does that mean advertisers should be concerned? Eventually yes, but not right now. TV is still king.
Look at other major brands spending money on television advertising…Geico, Progressive, Boost, Cricket, and Verizon, just to name a few. With their ability to determine ROI, if television wasn’t effective these brands would not be spending the money. Let’s look at some facts. Nielsen reported in November of 2017, “Television users spent just under six hours—five hours and 56 minutes to be exact— per day with medium during Q2 according to Nielsen’s just-released Total Audience Report. It stacks up all the various electronic media side-by-side and shows just how powerful video remains. TV may’ve lost about 20 minutes of live and time-shifted viewing during the past two years, but the typical American still spends twice as much time with television as second-place finisher AM/FM radio. Overall media time now totals 10 hours and 48 minutes per day.” In addition to that, Nielsen also states, “DVR/time-shifted TV viewing remains pretty flat at 1 hour and 55 minutes per day. That’s actually 2 minutes less than in 2015. In other words most people watch TV live, commercials and all.” Trust me, people are watching TV.
So, you may be wondering… what does this have to do with you and your business? A lot. Investing in television advertising means you’re filling the top of your funnel by generating broad awareness and lasting impression of a product or service through pervasiveness, impact, and strategic targeting. What’s the key to television advertising? Three things are critical. 1. Know your audience. This can be defined in many ways using either your database, research, and the old fashioned way – observation and getting to know your customer base. 2. Don’t be afraid to spend money to target your audience. Make the investment and commit to growing your business or generating awareness of your services. 3. Great commercial. Don’t spend time and money on a great television schedule and put up a poorly produced commercial. TV is a visual medium, a great commercial is just as important as a top-quality well negotiated and highly targeted media buy.
Does this mean that TV is the only medium you should advertise on? No of course not, we are a multi-screen world which means you should always have a comprehensive and cost effective marketing strategy. Not sure if you have the right strategy in place?