Give your television to an old person. That's the audience that's still watching the magic box, according to a new Nielsen Media Research report. People in the 55-64 age group are growing by almost 4%. Viewers in their 20's only grew 2%. This is not a measure of population - but a measure of viewers. So here's yet another study showing that the ginormous teen and 20-something population is watching less tv. And old people like it better than the internet.
Old school advertisers who still insist on placing the majority of their ad budgets on tv might want to take this into consideration. Lots of big type, Betty White, and Mickey Rooney.
3 comments:
I don't think it's that internet savvy people don't watch tv at all anymore, they just watch less. In turn, when they are watching less, they are recording more, giving them the lovely opportunity to skip those commercials on the tube.
One thing I still think most advertisers are missing the boat on is fully integrating the 2 mediums to work together. Everytime a web site is mentioned to me in a commercial on tv, I never truly have an incentive to go there and check it out. And vice versa.
I always tell clients it's not about one or the other. Don't take your entire print budget, for example, and roll it into an online presence - make them work together. You don't spend more money on one shoe just because you like one foot better than the other or feel it's more important. You still need both of them to work TOGETHER in order to walk.
I do really like my left foot better than my right. Sometimes it gets jealous, when the right foot gets to push the gas pedal all the time.
And your point is way valid. I only advocate the abandonment of television as a joke (mostly), in an attempt to hyper illustrate the importance of other medias.
The truth, as you point out, is that there are FAR more choices available to everyone now. And campaigns do desperately call for integration. And the need for integration only gets deeper, as these medias evolve. It's no longer just a website that's required, but now there's MySpace, YouTube channels, blogs and podcasts to consider. (And that's just online) Integration has never been so wide in history before.
The television advertising bubble does need to pop, however. Reading Chris Anderson's The Long Tail has illustrated for me how far down the slope television has slid. And there are still some brands (and agencies) who don't get that.
And, since we're an agency that doesn't get anywhere near the mondo tv budgets to work with - we're resentful, and love to see the playing field becoming more level every day.
I usually watch tv while I'm on the internet, anyway ;)
It's come to my attention that I'm old, so my perspective is skewed, but, after a day of surfing through passionate microniches, the crumbelievable mob wisdom of BlogVille, and infinite essays taking off the latest buzzwords, I honestly long for the consistency, passivity and sometimes, yes, the art of the television, until that art is cancelled. But I'd bet many share our habits, half-watching the TV while surfing, so to reach a mass and massively fragmented audience like that, all I can think of is to be everywhere with a consistent message. I wish I could think of something less clumsy and more efficient, but I'm so distracted inputting media, I can't really focus. There's a King of the Hill rerun on.
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