Are marketer’s this stupid?

TV has taken a secondary role in most marketing strategies due to the growing influence of digital marketing. Many marketers are increasing ad spending on digital mediums. As marketing budgets are set to increase, what doesn’t make sense is that more marketers will spend more money on social media, even as social media scams are being exposed by the media almost every day. Why would any brand spend more money on social media?

I’ve analyzed a LOT of social media spending for clients. The only ones that seem to be getting a decent ROI are eCommerce brands; offline brands see an ROI that’s so bad someone should be fired.

Twitter, right now, is a mess, and I don’t know if they will survive. Facebook is being sued almost every day by someone and is bleeding money on their meta rebranding. Some brands think interrupting visitors to Tik-Tok is a good idea, but they would be wrong.

Contrary to the belief of some marketing pundits, it is highly likely that TV will continue to be a significant piece of an effective marketing strategy. One compelling reason to incorporate a TV advertising strategy today is that more people are watching. There are currently over 120.6 million TV households in the U.S., which is rising. In addition to the growing number of TV homes, it’s possible to reach millions of people in every demographic.  

People still really like to watch TV — just not in the conventional way. Today, customers want to use over-the-top (OTT) devices such as smart TVs, Chromecasts, and game consoles. There’s just one snag with these devices: usually, people don’t watch as many ads. Savvy TV users spend about 57 percent of their time watching Netflix, which is not accessible for typical advertising campaigns. In addition to Netflix, intelligent TV users enjoy other ad-free platforms like HBO Now or ad-free Hulu subscriptions. While some of these OTT platforms are difficult to break into fully, marketers are enamored by the ability to target ads and take advantage of multi-screen environments.

If you’re worried about television ad campaigns underperforming compared to others, TV isn’t likely to fade away anytime soon. Using it in conjunction with other advertising and marketing efforts can help you further extend your reach and impact. If you want to get better returns on ad spend and drive consistent results across your strategies, TV is an invaluable tool to have in your kit. 

Facebook and Instagram have dominated advertisers’ media mix for the last few years. But recently, media buyers say ad spend on social media’s most prominent platforms has started to deteriorate. According to Pew Research, Facebook and other major social media platforms’ growth stalled over the past five years. Last year, Facebook’s brand reputation suffered after advertisers boycotted the platform with the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign. And new research from analytics and insight company Skai shows that social media CPMs have been steadily increasing, up about 12% from 2019. According to Skai, CPMs hovered around $5.71 in 2019 and are now at $6.37. 

Recent news that Facebook’s user growth has slumped for the first time in 18 years has wiped 20% off parent company Meta’s share price (a drop in value of $175bn). Recently, Facebook has battled with a new rival, TikTok, driving engagement among Gen-Z audiences and content creators. This competition has hit Facebook hard. Despite attempts to clone TikTok’s core features (eg ‘stories’), Facebook seems unable to match TikTok’s levels of engagement.

Years of research on the Internet’s private data point to a substantial evolution against personalized ads, including a generational backlash that cannot be underestimated. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted so much last month, on the eve of his company’s stock price 26% mini-crash: “There is a clear trend where less data is available to deliver personalized ads,” he told employees during a virtual meeting.

Recent evidence suggests that a shift is underway. In contrast to the historical trend, in August 2021 and February 2022, marketers predicted that traditional advertising spending would increase by 1.4% and 2.9%, respectively. Why? As consumers are spending most of their waking hours online, they are becoming increasingly numb to conventional digital advertising and engagement.

People report frustration and negative brand association with digital advertising clutter that prevents them from reading an article, watching a video, or browsing a website. For example, a HubSpot survey found that 57% of participants disliked ads that played before a video, and 43% didn’t even watch them. As a result, marketers are looking for a way to cut through the noise.

Traditional ads, on the other hand, are experiencing increased engagement. MarketingSherpa reports that more than half of consumers often or always watch traditional television advertisements and read print advertisements that they receive in the mail from companies they are satisfied with. Indeed, research by Ebiquity suggests that traditional media channels — led by TV, radio, and print — outperform digital channels in terms of reach, attention, and engagement relative to costs. This performance differential is amplified as online advertising costs have increased, especially when accounting for impression, click, and conversion fraud — whereas the costs of traditional media have fallen. It simply makes good economic sense to rebalance spending away from digital clutter.

A MarketingSherpa survey found that the top five most trusted advertising formats are all traditional, with customers trusting most print advertising (82%), television advertising (80%), direct mail advertising (76%), and radio advertising (71%) to make purchasing decisions. Similarly, British and American consumers trust traditional advertising such as television, radio, and print more than social media advertising. As a result, marketers can use traditional advertising to build brand credibility and trust with jaded buyers.

Pundits have long predicted the demise of traditional advertising. However, it is alive and well and headed for growth for the first time in a decade. When used together, conventional and digital marketing can reach more audiences, build and keep trust, and motivate buying from consumers who otherwise might tune out marketing messages.