7 Facts About TV Advertising

18th June, 2009

I subscribe to updates from Thinkbox who are the television marketing body for the main UK commercial stations and they often provide research and insight that help me continue to wave the flag for TV advertising.

The most recent entry to ping into my inbox was entitled "7 Killer Facts About TV Advertising". The title might build the part up slightly but I thought that it was worth passing on for any of you that need a little bit of extra encouragement to consider TV in your marketing mix.

1) TV advertising payback is more than any other media:

The PWC Payback Study (2007) – found TV advertising paid back an average 4.55 times in increased sales; 30% more than press advertsiing which was the only other media channel to show consistent paybac.

2) TV hardwires into memories

MRI scans have demonstrated that the two parts of the brain most stimulated when watching audio-visual material (like TV adverts) are the amygdalla (emotion) and the hippocampus (long term memory encoding). Emotions and long term memory = where brands live.  Neuroscience studies from a variety of media companies (Viacom, GMTV and PHD) have confirmed this finding and so TV ads become hardwired into your memory.

3) We are watching more TV now than 10 years ago

According to BARB we are watching ovver an hour more commercial TV every week compared to 10 years ago. We now spend more than a day a week (around 26 hours per week watching broadcast TV.  And don’t forget that this doesn’t include all the TV BARB doesn’t yet measure, like out of home, online or mobile TV. An hour extra is the least we’re watching.

4) TV is the dominant medium for younger people

Touchpoints 2 (Research into media use by the IPA in 2008) shows that TV accounts for 47% of the media day of 15-24 year olds – compared to 26% for internet and 24% for radio – and that young people have increased their time spent with TV compared to Touchpoints 1(2006).

5) TV is the new point of sale

Thinkbox’s recent TV + Online study, with the IAB demonstrated that, for the 25% most digitally enabled people, TV is often watched whilst also online (I know I often have the laptop on whilst watching TV). As a result viewers are increasingly ready and able to go online to find out more or communicate about the content they are watching on TV (both programmes or advertising content). This makes the leap from TV to purchase much shorter – even immediate – thanks to the internet.

6) TV is the most talked about advertising medium

Surely this doesn't need any explaination as most of us will already have said "did you see ........ on TV" at some point this week. People love talking about TV, off- and online. In fact, the only subjects we want to discuss more than TV are friends and family, according to Television Opinion Monitor. Check out the immense number of groups on Facebook dedicated to TV shows and ads if you don't believe me.

One important fact that the article didn't include was my number 7:

7) TV advertising is as cheap now as it was in the '80s

The cost of getting your ad on air has fallen dramtically, this is partly due to advertisers cutting budgets and therefore a drop in demand but also because there are hundreds more channels to choose from.

The full article has a lot more supporting information and is well worth a look but the underlying message is that TV advertising has never been more attractive for your marketing spend. It is no longer only for the national brands and locals companies can now enjoy the tremendous benefits of being on air.

Jason Edge