Commentary

ABC Upfront: Making A Case Where Networks Can Talk Favorably About Digital

And you thought prime time meant some vague references, such as programming running between say 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. So 2015!

In her upfront remarks, Geri Wang, president of advertising sales and marketing at ABC Television Network, said: “Prime is so much more than a time period. It’s a promise of quality -- quality that drives ROI.”

Versus perhaps what other networks clamor on about, Wang was trying to make a detailed, strong point: All digital video isn’t the same. “Long form beats short form by a factor of more than 1.5 times... overall, it drives the highest ROI [return on investment],” she said.

Wang was offering results from an Accenture study which, for over three years, looked at 20 leading national brands, covering six categories. “Accenture analysis shows that a dollar spent on TV in year one, continues to deliver benefits in years two and three --driving a total of 2.3 times overall.”

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No, it isn’t about digital versus TV -- it’s about digital and TV. “No question digital drives results, but TV makes digital work
harder. TV lifts digital by more than 20%.”

Without TV? Accenture says digital media average return on investment would decline 18%.

Some early headlines over ABC’s efforts blared proclamations about networks pitting themselves against digital -- especially with looming prospect of digital media taking away even more dollars in this traditional TV upfront. Which seemed to miss some key minutiae.

You can be sure that perhaps many digital (non-TV network associated) platforms might agree with some of this. But perhaps their math formula might recommend a bit more media spending for digital from marketers.

For sure, these arguments have been made by cable networks advertising executives to media buying executives for the last couple of decades.

But as it was then, and now, it isn’t black or white -- but a lot of grey media areas to filter through. All this is hard to make clear in glitzy and quick upfront presentations.

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