Friday, July 11, 2008

Online vs. On-TV Advertising

ZenithOptimedia's June 2008 Forecast for the world adspend shows television advertising dominant but flat, maintaining a 37% share of the ~$600B market in 2010. Internet advertising grows from 10% to 13%, mostly at the expense of slight declines in Newspapers, Magazines and Radio.

Today, Internet advertising is dominating by "search", which is dominating by Google. The battle for online video advertising is just beginning. The WSJ reported on July 9, 2008 that Google's YouTube only generates revenue from 4% of the content with a total revenue of $200M. Plans to re-architect the business are underway.

Video advertising will take several formats: pre/mid/post roll runs of varying lengths, embedded product placement, sidebar display ads, etc.

What happens when the distinction between online and TV blurs. When, for example, I'm watching "web content" on my big screen TV using a Web-to-TV device connected to my ISP. I'm watching branded messages in a lean-back setting with my friends and family. Do I care whether the content comes in as MPEG2 from the Satellite receiver or as Flash/Silverlight/H.264 through my cable modem? I don't think so.

The question branded advertisers should be asking is not "how to move my ad content from TV to online" but "how but to exploit online technology to blur the distinction between Online and TV.