How TV advertising is influencing other media channels

Flash back to the ’90s, to the first time Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai and Aamir Khan shared screen space for a Pepsi advertisement. Aishwarya, then a budding model, is even now remembered as the charming Sanju who left Aamir moonstruck. They came, they acted, and left the world swooning. There’s a reason why we all still remember the advertisement, though both the stars later parted ways with the brand and became brand ambassadors for Coca-Cola. Television advertising, with its unique mix of production and audience-targeting techniques, has a huge scope for consumer engagement.

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Over the years, the rise of digital media has necessitated that marketing executives use a part of their advertising spend for internet marketing. However, as per a Nielsen survey, television advertising still takes the lion’s share — 70 percent — of marketing budgets. Incidentally, online companies like Netflix and Google are also dedicating a large portion of their advertising spend to television advertising.

Realising the long-lasting effectiveness of television branding, companies are now integrating this medium with their digital strategies to get optimal results. Here are a few ways in which the medium is inspiring more creativity across other media channels:

• Demographic targeting: Picture this. A person sitting in New Delhi and one sitting in Nagpur might be watching the same cricket match but not the same commercial break. Thanks to demographic-based targeting, brands can choose regions where they would like to expand their presence. Analytics has made it possible for a brand to focus its advertising on certain geographic regions. A KPMG-FICCI report, titled ‘The Future: Now Streaming ’, said “Geo-targeting can help attract new advertisers, especially small businesses and regional players.”
• Multiplier effect: Television commercials tend to have a ‘multiplier’ effect on other media channels. In other words, the brand awareness created by a television advertisement leads to other elements of a marketing campaign working harder. As per a survey by ThinkBox, the multiplier effect of a TV advertisement on radio could be as high as 100 percent and up to 50 percent in the case of print media and outdoor advertising.
• Influence on online media: The kind of effect a television advertising campaign has on an audience can be gauged by the frequency of online searches. Think Box ‘s study also indicates that the brand searches generated by television advertising had gone up by 33 percent in 2011-14, as compared to the corresponding figure for 2008-11.
• Social media: What people see on their television screens also has a bearing on brand engagement on social networking websites. A study by 4CInsights shows that television commercials account for one out of every five social media brand engagements.

These are just a few examples of how the idiot box has evolved over the years and is inspiring other media channels to raise the bar. If you are one of those who think TV advertising might run its course, think again. Television helps not only create awareness about products but also assists in nurturing brands. It helps keep a company or a product stay put in the audience’s mind much longer than a sponsored post or a search engine result. Analytics and media measurement company, TiVo Research, found a direct correlation between a decrease in television ad expenditure and a decrease in sales.