So Iâm here at the ANA TV Conference and so far, Iâve been on my best behavior and avoided any (cough) bullshit (cough) heckles.
Iâm the only blogger here btw
I had hoped to blog live, but unfortunately I couldnât get a $%^%$#@ wireless connection in the room (some things never change), so now Iâve uploaded from a glorious T-Mobile wi-fi connection in Starbucks.
Last yearâs mood/atmosphere was electric (Julie Roehm played a pretty big part in it with her challenging remarks on moving the Upfront to a Stock Market based methodology)
This year, I have to admit that itâs all a little surreal. The best word I would use to describe today is numb. Thereâs a numbness in the roomâ¦shock perhaps. Itâs almost as if people have â en masse â come to terms that a new day has dawned.
Think about the movie, âThe Perfect Storm,â where the characters have all come to terms with their imminent demise and euphemistically joke around and ignore what is yet to comeâ¦.OK, perhaps thatâs a little overly dramatic (just a tad), but I do think the mood is similar, if perhaps the tidal wave that is on the horizon may not be as âOh Lord, you are so hugeâ
People seem to be â unconvincingly I might add â doggedly and stubbornly singing the praises of the 30-second spot and TV advertising in general; throwing out a lot of rhetoric as in âitâs not going awayâ and âitâs still the most importantâ etc
Ad Age just reported on the conference and I was a little surprised by their headline, Marketers lose confidence in TV Advertising, which draws from the Forrester research (see below)
Every year, I seem to pick up a new big idea. In 2004, it was the DVR; in 2005 it was the Web; In 2006 it seems to be (Iâll use the American Express term, rolling video stock.
Let me explainâ¦.I call it (and have referred to it before as) interconsumptability i.e. interoperability for media consumption. What weâre seeing here is a broad-based awakening that content is content; and what we are witnessing is the explosion of that content across a multitude of delivery vehicles and distribution platforms (iPod, VOD, Web, PSP etc)
On the back page of the New York Times for example, is an ad for ABC News demonstrating its availability across an unprecedented variety of platforms (tangent â TV advertising in Newspaper; perhaps the NAA campaign is working better than we thought)
Now that said, I do believe there is still a monstrous elephant in the roomâ¦people talk about TV, but are they talking about content or commercials? It is the former. No one disputes the power of TV (or rolling video stock), although arguably the quality of content has declined, along with fragmented viewership and therefore less ad dollars to support overpaid celebrities. Indeed, considering the average American household is exposed now to 96.4 channels (2005 data), there is more content than every before â targeted, precise and self-selected content.
The resolve thus becomes whether TV as an ad-supported medium has passed its prime (time) and as a follow up, whether the economic model that supports it should adjust and accommodate these shifts.
As my friend, Kiaâs Ian Beavis said in his unusually tame address (for him), stop bragging about increased rates in light of decreased viewership, because it brings the CFO into the room and you donât want the CFO in the room.
Iâll blog (using extended posts) some of the morning panels/presentations in more detail shortly. Some of the highlights include:
- New Forrester research on DVRâs amongst leading national advertisers
o One of the conclusions was that 78% say they have less confidence in the effectiveness of TV advertising compared to 2 years agoâ¦
- Interactive polling of audience (interesting results)
- Case studies/examples of Converse Gallery, Amex M Night long form content, Audi Art of the Heist
Here are a few more poignant takeaways:
- Only 58% of the audience here has a DVR in their homes; seriously, the other 42% should be fired. Unacceptable. Blatantly unacceptable given your responsibility to watch over so much money/budget
- First mention of engagement was at 9.53am by Amexâs Hedleston
- Stephen Berkoff at Audi spoke about rejecting a culture of fear; he also mentioned that we have become somewhat incestuous and inward facing in terms of how we do businessâ¦and he is right
- Dave Poltrack embraced the Web, but âattackedâ search as a) finite, b) direct marketing and c) âpeople will eventually run out of things to searchâ (you got me on this one)
- I asked a question as to whether M Night was an American Express customer before the commercial. The answer was yes. And in fact, this was a criteria in the process i.e. someone who used the brand, understood the brand AND the brand campaign (my life, my card) â good stuff
- Ian mentioned a few great points such as:
o Find a balance between quantitative and qualitative i.e. donât be so obsessed with ROI to a fault
o Walk the talk (to marketers) â stop bitching and moaning and start acting and doing
- Discovery Channel sponsored the lunch talk and unlike last yearâs tremendous gift of a USB kit (mouse, extension, expansion etc), this year there was no giftâ¦times must be tough
More later.
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