Is online advertising more effective than television?
tanya77:
mikehudack:
Does anyone know the answer to this question?
My gut: Online advertising is more effective at certain things (i.e. driving actual purchase) while television advertising is typically more effective at other things (i.e. driving brand affinity).
Our hope is that online video offers a perfect hybrid of these two, and is ultimately evaluated on both scores. There’s a battle on right now, though, to measure online video as a direct response vehicle. That is, after all, the way most of the rest of the Internet is evaluated. It’s also exactly the wrong way to evaluate online video.
We’re trying to counteract this trend by supporting a new suite of measurement tools for online video that emphasize engagement, brand affinity, brand loyalty and purchase intent.
What cracks me up is that advertisers have, for YEARS, relied on a completely inadequate measuring system (Nielsen’s) and have felt completely secure in their ads reach and effectiveness. Now that they have a precise measuring system (on-line metrics) they desire that the reach’s effectiveness be proved. I would think they’d be really happy that their reach can be detailed and relatively exact. Perhaps they are making up for the shock of realizing how scatter-shot the Nielsen measurements have been all this time. I wonder if the results of ad spending on broadcast were so focused upon before the Internet.
The term “online video” is too broad a term to answer this question. The level of integration and how a brand integrates is a variable we need to dissect at the moment. If brands are thinking that pre-roll of their TV spots or “viral videos” are going to get them the results they want, then they are not going to be able to prove an effective ROI. And we’ll never get dollars shifted to the digital space.
For that to happen, brands need to turn their current models upside down. They need to get away from an “upfront” media and production model, and stagger spend in a way that makes them relevant throughout the year. Evolve with their audience. They need to spend money on a variety of content types, optimize, and then spend more money on the content that is meeting their needs.
And it’s the creative marketer’s job to make sure they are integrating the brand into content in a way that doesn’t interrupt of offend, but actually adds value.
If all of that happens, then we can start to apply all of the measurement tactics available (or make up new tactics!) to get more brands onboard.