The switch from traditional media, especially TV, to Digital is well underway as we know. Common sense.....because rather than be told differently, we all know that we are spending more time online.
Whether that's web browsing, youtube or Social Media, we see it all around us and especially if you've young kids where their 'devices' are all that matters, rather than say, traditional TV.
How many of us now, get our news online for free rather than physically buying a newspaper? How many of us watch Ad-free Netflix or Amazon more than before?
If traditional media is not being consumed as much, less people are watching the Ads. In the case of TV, less people are watching the Ad breaks and when they are, they're watching via fast forward on record or, with their laptop open (second screen). So the Ads are getting less and less attention not just, less and less viewers.
So we know it's happening.
A really interesting piece from Social Week Blog, now supports that with numbers.
Flurry (owned by Yahoo!) show mobile is watched in the US (and that'll be no different to other countries with high mobile penetration) for 2 hours, 57 minutes. Traditional TV is behind at 2 hours, 48 minutes.
18-24's according to Nielsen, watch 18 hours a week of TV. Only. A decline of nearly 4 hours viewing in a year.
Yet 41% of them are active on Snapchat and undoubtedly, Facebook (with 4 Billion video views a day).
And these are a key demographic for brands.
As Social Week points out, it has momentum in the switch away notably, from TV. And if that audience is moving to online (and it is), then that's where the Ad money will go. Although the Ad budgets are shifting, far more slowly than the audience is moving.
The fact is that advertisers need to sit up and take notice and be conscious of the advice of their Agency who may, through a lack of skill sets in this changing world, want to maintain the status quo. It's easier to keep doing what you've always done.
"Beliefs are hard to change" says the Social week blog and they are.....but the growth in online digital video (Video Ads) which Streamabout alone have experienced, illustrates that change is coming.
Quickly. But perhaps, not at the pace it deserves.
You can read the Social Week Blog here;
http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/08/the-end-of-advertising/
Nielsen, the firm of TV ratings, have released new figures from October about second screen usage in the US. (The full report is here but you'll have to enlist, although for free http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports-downloads/2012/state-of-the-media--cross-platform-report-q2-2012.html)
That is the trend where people watch TV and at the same time, use a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Indeed. Exactly as I am doing whilst I write this blog and my missus is doing the same thing - probably updating Streamabout video actually.
But both of us almost every night, are second screen users.
Which of course has a dramatic affect on TV "viewing" and certainly TV advertising engagement. Basically we're, what's called, "snacking" on TV.
Not good for the medium.
Neilsen today says we're part of 85% of adults who do that monthly and a massive 40% who do it daily. And remember, Neilsen are the bible of TV viewing so this is very pertinent. Given that not every home has a tablet or smartphone, this is also truly astonishing.
Older people use tablets, younger use smartphones the research shows.
And it shows the power of online is preferred compared to TV broadcasters fare. Yet again, they should see this coming but they won't and they don't.
Even if they look at Netflix usage, it averages 5 hours and 20 minutes a day! Wow indeed. TV is getting dead in the water without question. TV Advertising makes less and less sense and at one stage I was at the helm of Ireland's largest TV Advertising buyers. So it's not bias on my part, it's that the world has changed and TV broadcasters haven't.
It's pure and simple. Advertising money chases Audience and with 40% of the audience using a laptop or spending 5+ hours on Netflix, clearly they're not watching TV. And yet Ad agencies haven't got around to measuring this passive audience yet - neither have TV stations because it will mean their airtime is less valuable.
Although RTE, the Irish state broadcaster, is already starting to experience it.
In 2011, its Ad revenue is down -40% on 2007. It actually produced a deficit of nearly 17 million euro after receiving a staggering 183 million euro from Government. So if they were to stand on their own feet, without Government subvention, they'd lose circa 200 million euro.
Government subvention to a broadcaster is also a strong potential conflict and RTE have been in hot water this year about its coverage of the Presidential Election. If your company receives that kind of investment that simply keeps you "afloat", how critical would you be of the investor? so how critical are they of Government?
So the threat of online and second screens, as shown by Nielsen, must put their future under further threat. And indeed, all traditional TV broadcasters.
It's a sea change that isn't going to go away.
