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The Cause Of The Death Of Television: Suicide
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |
I don’t usually watch T.V. in the morning but I flipped on The Today Show while drinking coffee today. They took a commercial break at 7:49 a.m., at 7:57 NBC did a 60-second news update, and then more commercials until 8:00 a.m.
7 1/2 minutes of commercials, 1 minute of news,
then 2 more minutes of commercials
Television broadcasters are caught in a vicious cycle: With less people watching television due to competing forms of entertainment, plus the fact that many of those who DO watch television Tivo the shows and skip through commercials, they’re running more commercials to keep up their ad revenue.
-But by doing that, it discourages viewers from watching, because the increasing amount of commercials is just too painful to put up with.
…And of course, as people watch less due to increased commercials, they increase the number of commercials to keep up their ad revenue. (and the cycle continues)
I’m pretty sure this story doesn’t have a happy ending.
The crazy thing about television advertising is that the bar is set SO LOW. Except for a small minority of smart direct-response marketers, most television advertising has no measurable results, no measure of success, and no real reason even for existing. (Think: Coca-Cola)
For these reasons, right now companies are shifting their ad budget buys to online promotions in droves. When done right, internet advertising can get higher exposure at lower cost, and advertisers can quantify their online advertising impact to a large degree by gauging what percentage of people click through for more information or respond in some way.
Most of the online advertising I run for clients needs to pay for itself immediately in a big way - It’s a big challenge, but it’s a fun puzzle to put together.
But… If any corporate types out there want to throw me $10,000,000 to run some online branding campaigns for them with no expectation of making the money back in any tangible, measurable way, well… I’m up for that too! (heh) 
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