Marketers Losing Confidence in TV

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Whether traditional TV advertising has truly lost its power, marketers and advertisers are already eager to find alternatives. The Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research's fourth biennial TV and Technology survey shows a dramatic loss of confidence in the medium as the industry gears up to explore new ad formats and forms of video commercials. Indeed, two thirds of the C-level-executive respondents said they are watching the medium closely, up from just half two years ago, and 87% of respondents said they were going to be spending more on web ads in the coming year. The study was conducted in January and is based on a survey of 78 leading advertisers across all major industries and categories. Sixty-two percent of marketers believe traditional TV ads have become less effective during the last two years. Given that belief, it's no surprise that close to half of them already have experimented with other ad formats that work with digital video recorders or video-on-demand programs. And more than 50% of marketers reported that when half of all TV households use DVRs, they will cut spending on TV advertising by 12%. Branded entertainment Eighty-seven percent of advertisers believe branded entertainment is the key to TV advertising in the coming year, and 65% of them are eager to try ads in online TV shows. And emerging technologies continue to lure marketers looking to experiment. Forty-three percent would like to try interactive TV ads; 55% are interested in ads embedded in VOD; and 32% would like to try ads attached to the set-top-box menu. Despite the introduction and adoption this past season of C3 ratings -- which measure the average number of viewers that watch the ads live and within three days of playback on a DVR -- most marketers still would like the industry to go even further: 72% of marketers said they were very interested in having individual commercial ratings rather than average commercial ratings. Dealing with change With the proliferation of new media, media agencies have stepped up their game to help clients deal with the changes. Two years ago, just under half the agencies reported they were ill-equipped to address changes in TV advertising, whereas only 28% did so this year. But it is the creative agencies that are falling behind, according to marketers: 47% of them said their agency was ill-equipped to deal with the changes, a mere 8% improvement from two years ago. "As marketers embrace the richness of new advertising avenues outside of the traditional TV format, the TV industry is working to address marketer's issues related to ratings and the changing TV landscape," Bob Liodice, ANA president-CEO, said in a statement. "Marketers, in collaboration with the TV industry, will continue to find the most effective and innovative ways to reach their customers through the TV medium, utilizing the emerging technologies available to them." The ANA will reveal the full survey findings at its TV and Everything Video Forum at the New York Marriott Marquis, Times Square, on Feb. 28.