According to Media Post, only one third of nearly 1,000 consumers Nielsen interviewed recently could recall any TV commercials they had seen. There are a million places to go with this kind of data. I might say people can’t remember their own phone numbers either. In fact, 21% of the people polled in this survey could not recall any TV programs they’d watched.
Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 considered the same data but took another angle. He says:
This is not the least bit surprising because traditional TV advertising creates NO value for consumers in the moment — or very little.
Contrast your average interruptive TV ad with the other end of the advertising value spectrum, which is currently occupied by search advertising. Search advertising brings you relevant information about a company’s products or services, in the moment when you’re thinking about it, and typically takes you directly to the company’s website where you can actively “engage” (depending on the quality of the site).
Since TV is not yet an interactive medium, search isn’t a present option. So, how to create this “value” that Karp is calling for? No one really knows. Yet a bunch of smart people show up at their offices everyday to work through this very problem.
Okay, some things we do know. We know TV is still important but no longer the centerpiece from which all other ideas spring. Two, great products and services draw a crowd. Three, the internet has made companies, and the people in them, more transparent; thus we’re operating in a more honest environment.
All of which leads me to conclude that there’s an enormous opportunity to inform and entertain fans of great brands in media venues other than TV.
