• by Tara Walpert Levy , January 2, 2009

Since the debut of the first television program at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City, Americans have been enthralled by TV. Subsequent advances in technology - the advent of color, cable television, HD, surround sound and DVRs - make today's TV-watching experience almost unrecognizable compared to that of those first viewers, but the love affair is still going strong. Even as alternatives proliferate, total TV viewing hours continues to increase.

The shifts in television-viewing technology over the past 70 years have not changed the core mechanism for funding television programming: advertising. Television advertising itself remains largely unchanged, continuing to rely heavily on the tried and true 30-second spot. But technology is revolutionizing the production and effectiveness of these commercials.

With a challenging economy, the key concern for marketers, and as a result, for professionals in all aspects of the advertising-driven television business, will be making advertising more effective. With fewer dollars to spend, advertisers will be looking for efficiency, accountability and cost savings in developing new marketing campaigns. These three factors are nothing new. Like television, they have stood the test of time. In a recession, they take on even more importance.

Efficiency, accountability and cost savings will be found through advanced advertising systems. The economic downturn will be a catalyst for accelerating advertisers' adoption of new technologies, but significant innovation has been percolating behind the scenes for years. New companies and approaches already deliver not only sexy new applications that intrigue viewers, but tangible benefits for marketers and media execs alike.

The era of targeted television advertising has arrived. Advertisers demand that agencies provide them with easier and cheaper ways to deliver more creative messages faster to their target market segments. The good news is that technology partners already exist who can create, version, segment and reach the viewers who are important to advertisers big and small. This means more interesting, relevant messages for the viewer and more engagement for the advertiser and media seller. With all of the new ways for viewers to avoid advertising, improving engagement - an increasingly important TV ROI metric - will be critical to campaign success.

And Google is at it again, but this time on television. Whether provided by Google or any other targeted TV advertising company, new technologies now make it possible for advertisers to buy time and deliver messages tailored to particular moments, content or geography. It is even possible to target messages to individual households, enabling media efficiencies across brands and product lines. Many vendors build these capabilities directly into existing advertiser or agency systems, making any transition as seamless as possible.

New capabilities enable media sellers to provide marketers with more anonymous information than ever before about how different consumer segments interact with various television messages. That means more opportunity to take advantage of media and creative efficiencies. No wonder David Verklin of Canoe Ventures has been quoted saying, "Data is the new creative."

New systems and solutions have emerged to automate some or all of the very manual TV advertising and media workflow. Imagine buying media time, customizing a commercial, targeting the spot delivery, getting the spot on air, and iterating based on performance data you are witnessing in real-time. All at the press of a button, without the myriad of people and paper previously required. The end result is simple - a spot so perfectly tailored that the viewer thinks it's magic. And the CFO thinks he or she is the magician.

The glory days of extravagant spending are fading in the advertising industry, just as surely as they have faded on Wall Street. However, the power of new TV technologies will change how advertisers and agencies connect with viewers, allowing them to do more with less. The individuals and companies at the forefront of this revolution will be the first to reap the benefits of the experience and knowledge they have already acquired.