For quite some time, television was the most popular and most effective place for advertisers to spend their dollars. After all, the first website wasn’t even created until 1991. It seems like only recently the internet has become the leading place for people to get information – and get served ads.
As reported in a recent Nielsen study, 82% of chief marketing officers expect to increase their spending on digital media in the next year, but only 30% plan to increase the amount they allocate for ad buys in traditional media. It seems like digital is taking the lead, right?
Maybe. Many of the CMOs also said that they don’t exactly have high confidence in their ability measure their returns on their media spend. They’ve got a huge dashboard of information in front of them, but can’t always sort through it to figure how if their investment was worth it.
Senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Nielsen Watch Eric Solomon writes in an introductory letter to the study:
Over the last 18 months, some of the largest and most influential advertisers in the world have spoken up about their concerns with digital advertising, calling the supply chain ‘broken’ and pointing to high incidence of fraud and lack of brand safety.
However, this doesn’t mean that digital advertising isn’t important. Compared to traditional media channels, it’s got a lot more of people’s attention. In fact, 31% of people in the Nielsen study called social media and search extremely effective, while only 13% said TV was extremely effective. Nielsen also points out that it’s important to understand that measures of effectiveness are relative..
Campaign objectives should be aligned with the media types proven to best support specific campaign performance goals. As many of our interviews with CMOs pointed out, the traditional channels evaluated here align well with mid- and upper-funnel brand building, which is critical to increasing the size of the prospective new customer pie.
The takeaway here? Investing and continuing to learn from various tools and capabilities in crucial. No one platform is perfect for everyone, and sometimes it takes a little trail and error to figure out what media channels and strategies work best for your brand. What have you found as an advertiser?
Further Reading:
CMOs Say Digital Marketing Is Most Effective: Nielsen Study – Boradcasting Cable
Television Advertising Pros and Cons – All Business
How Much Does Television Advertising Really Cost? – Small Business
Lauren is the Marketing Communications Director for SocialChimp.
