Advertising Age: Viewers Are Abandoning Television Because of Ads, Not Programs
By Tom Chandler on May 19, 2008 in Uncategorized
Are advertising agencies playing an active role in the slow demise of television?
Dan Stein suggests that — in our user-focused, content-driven, Web 2.0 media age — Madison Avenue has it so wrong, that viewers are abandoning television because of the advertising and not the programs.
The ad agency industry needs to wake up to the fact that “the new media” are not going to save them from obsolescence; in fact, the new media options give people even more control over the ad exposure experience. More importantly, television in its broadcast and network forms remains the most effective marketing communications medium yet devised and since it is the driver of content for virtually all platforms will be around for many years to come.Perhaps the ultimate result of integrating ads into programs will be that the ad creation process will be taken over by people who understand what viewers want: the networks and their production companies. Something has to replace the damage being caused to TV by the destructive dinosaurs we call ad agencies.
It’s an interesting premise, though one that ignores an essential reality; broadcast television isn’t particularly interactive, and neither is it on-demand.
Viewers are drifting away from television not simply because of the advertising (though big ad agencies haven’t yet grasped the importance of engagement over interruption). They’re disappearing because television isn’t user-driven, and new media are.
It’s easier to engage, and one thing we’ve learned is that consumers are anxious to engage with brands, not be manipulated by them.
I also think folks are drifting away from TV because 1/the content is increasingly puerile and 2/our attention spans are shortening as our distractions are increasing.
True engagement will keep people in their seats, their eyeballs glued. I wonder though, if too many marketing/ad agencies are confusing entertainment with engagement. And usually snarky entertainment, at that.
Roberta Rosenberg | May 20, 2008 | Reply
Roberta: Playing the quality card is pretty easy in any television discussion (though always fun).
In truth, Stein’s column sounds a little like a Traditional Ad Agency Guy’s Perspective on New Media and Old Agency Practices.
Blaming advertising for the failure of television — in an age where people prefer to become a part of an event and want things to happen when they want them to happen — suggests a perspective I don’t share.
Tom Chandler | May 20, 2008 | Reply
Yes, I know. We’ve been complaining about television quality since the days of the Dumont Network. But even Paddy Chayefsky’s wildest imagination couldn’t have foreseen the dreck that passes for TV entertainment these days.
Advertising isn’t killing TV. The ’suits” are doing that :)
Roberta Rosenberg | May 20, 2008 | Reply