Too Much Digital Conversation

We seem to be stuck in one of those periods where the amount of discussion behind spending in certain media does not match the actual client investment. This time it’s digital.  So, while the media world is clearly changing, and that change is driven to a large extent by digital, there is too much digital conversation by comparison to other media.

So, why so much talk about digital when it represents such a small portion of client investment?  Is it warranted?  Let’s consider two points.

First, fragmentation is an important consideration when building a plan. Clearly, this would seem to be a problem for digital investment as the absolute number of digital opportunities continue to expand at a mind-boggling rate.  This makes this area very difficult to substantiate and almost impossible to create presence for any client.  In fact, several clients have started to pull digital spend back because it has been too difficult to prove results.

Second, the continued TV investment shows little sign of abating.  As agencies have started to wrap up the 2009/2010 upfront with an expectation of over $16B in spend with another $10B+ expected to be invested in the scatter marketplace, it highlights this point. That is a serious commitment to the medium. Given that,  I wonder why more discussion is not devoted to TV and the power of this medium.  Is TV dead?  I don’t think so. Rumors of TV’s demise have proven to be wrong time and time again.  It is still the biggest game in town.  In fact, several recent studies would seem to point to the continued, if not increasing power of TV.  For example, viewership/time spent with TV remains consistent over the last 10 years.  It’s power as a marketing tool remains very strong. And, TV has crossed into the digital space with streaming video and delivery over all types of hand-held devices…making this an interesting TV-digital opportunity.

So, next time the conversation shifts to digital…maybe we should circle back and spend as much time talking about the TV portion of the media mix and how to make that an even better investment for our clients.

-Don Morrison, svp, managing director