It's easy to get carried away by digital. Today's headlines about television penetration falling in the UK for the first time in addition to predictions that globally television has peaked are
well-suited to a dire forewarning to all television executives that their medium is on the way out and digital is taking over.
However, if you care to read beyond the headlines, the latest report
from ZenithOptimedia predicts that television had indeed peaked from a shade under 40% of global ad spend this year to around 37.5% next year. Now, just ask yourself how you'd feel about the channel
you're most closely associated with declining from a 40% to a 37.5% share. Chances are, you'd probably take that.
The really interesting part is that the same figures looked at online video's
global share. The medium that it seems only right is going to eat chunks out of TV budget is set to double next year compared to this. Even so, it will account for 2.8% of global ad spend. In short,
holding a wake for television or even talking about its demise at the hands of online video would seem pretty premature. It's very trendy to talk about television teetering on the edge of a cliff with
online video poised just behind ready to push it over. Throw in programmatic buying -- the kind 4OD will launch next year when it relaunches as All4 -- and you've not only got more ad tech that
television can't keep up with, you can also refer to millennials on smartphones and tablets catching up with television at a time that suits them.
Thing is, you just have to go back to the
figures and conventional television's share of the global advertising pot will still be nearly fourteen times larger next year. Sure, budget is going to move toward online video, but it's not an
overnight revolution.
The fact that television might just be a whole lot stronger than digital evangelists would like to concede hit me the other day when talking to a start-up that is looking
to topple Gumtree from its clear number one position in UK classifieds. TheGoodDeal's owners are very savvy about using digital to get their name online and attract adverts to the site, but the one
thing they don't have is a brand name people know and check out when they're looking for items. That, of course, is exactly what eBay-owned Gumtree does have.
So how are they going to counter
that? Which digital channel are they going to go all-in on to take the fight to Gumtree? Well, actually, their channel is going to be television. In addition to advertising next year, they're going to
be working hard on securing sponsorship of a DIY or home-buying show to make sure millions of people are exposed to their brand name.
How is Gumtree going to react, you might well ask,
as I did at the time, only to be told an announcement was imminent. When it came a couple of days ago, it was a great move, but still a little surprising. The site whose traffic is at least four to
five times higher than its nearest rivals is also looking to television. It's sponsoring Celebrity Big Brother in January both with traditional television idents as well as branding around
clips on Channel 5's catch-up service. There are some nice additional touches, such as items for the house being bought on Gumtree and then, after the show, sold back to the public on the site too.
The main point, though, is that the medium is television.
So I have to admit I am as guilty as the next digital marketing writer for sometimes forgetting that in the middle of all the exciting
developments we have to talk about, the biggest channel of them all is the one we grew up with -- television.