When you think about watching stuff on the TV what comes to mind, do you think about the biggest screen in the house, or do you think about watching stuff from different devices, or as is possible today, watching stuff on the big screen from another device?
Despite what you might read the TV in one way or another is here to stay, sure it's moved on from a central point for the family to gather around, with those annoying ad breaks we all get up to put the kettle on whilst they play out, but it's still a pretty big medium for brands to get close to us the viewer.
Many companies like Sky+ recognise the changes in our behaviour, as we now look to binge watch Box Sets, or catch up with our favourite show, they can now target us with even greater precision than ever before, ad tech for TV is estimated to be the next biggest area of growth for the programmatic Tsunami of intrusive adverts that will follow, along with that we are told the ad fraud industry is set to reach circa $100 billion by 2023, so even if you and me are skipping and blocking those adverts rest assured that fraud bots are doing their job 24/7.
I once read this statement and it made me really think about that big screen experience in a different way;
'The Television, magazine, and news paper industries are not in the business of content, they're in the business of audience aggregation, content is a means to an end in order to drive bigger audiences from which they can monetise those eyeballs via advertising, to do this they need to produce and serve us content that captures our attention'.
This is a golden age of television. Cinema-quality programs such as Game of Thrones draw massive audiences. Events such as the 2018 FIFA World Cup, broadcast in real time to a global viewership of 1.1 billion, prove the medium’s unique power to bring together truly massive live audiences.
Today we can access and consume content anywhere, anytime, and on any device, we consume more content today than at anytime in history, as a result, and in particular when we're online we're exposed to circa 4k - 10k intrusive adverts every, single, day, we simply struggle to avoid all forms of digital intrusion!
We like content, in fact when it's the right stuff we love content, Game of Thrones (never seen it BTW), Peaky Blinders (superb), World Cup (mens and womens) and many others keep us glued to the big screen, YouTube has redefined the term user generated content, and even Zuck's looking to get in on the action - but it all relies on intrusive advertising, and this is what they are gambling on for their future.
Without Zuck we wouldn't really have had the huge take up on social media, without LinkedIn morphing into a business network site, it would simply be a place to connect with people who can help us get a job.
All of these innovations have helped to alter our perceptions and access to huge swathes of content, and not just the stuff that's been professionally polished by the brand police, I'm talking genuine authentic sharing of expertise, experiences, and relateable stories from everyday folk, just like you have chosen to spend sometime reading this blog of mine - Thanks BTW!.
What have brands chosen to do with this exciting new medium, yes they have simply missed the whole point and moved the 'advertise, promote, and talk about me, me, me', mindset into what is a social environment.
According to the Outlook, total global consumer spending on traditional television and home video has fallen for the past two years, and will decline for each of the next five — at a modest 0.66 percent CAGR (see “TV spot market”). Some of these powerful shifts play into the hands of incumbents, and many of the seeming threats are opportunities.
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