Why TV ads are such a waste today.

I was watching ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ on HBO last night. Bane kicks batman’s @r$e and sends him into the hell hole to wait for his permission to die and <bliPPP> a commercial break... I flip the channel to Discovery-Turbo and there was this guy building a chopper with Gold & Titanium-alloy parts for a Sheikh in Dubai, crazy stuff!!! He assembles the chopper and realizes that the base frame is not up to the mark and he had to do the whole thing again, and <bliPPP> a commercial break. I flipped back to HBO and there was a commercial there too, so I start watching the repeat telecast of BPL, Man City vs Arsenal and it suddenly strikes me, the guys that get their commercials aired on TV are simply burning their money. Is there anyone out there that really watches the ads on TV.

Business houses invest a lot of time and money in coming up with concepts, developing advertisements, comparing various media, buying the media with great TRPs and getting the commercials aired. Which simply is becoming a lost cause. The TRPs of the TV programs would however be high on the charts because people watch just the programs and skip the commercials. Some thing to really think about.

The Print Media's Ad Revenue still Sliding

With the rise and increase in appreciation to the online media, the traditional print media has been seeing a drop in the percentage increase of circulation every year. As per The Guardian's, Dec 2009 issue on this subject, all the major print media of the world i.e. the likes of SUN, The Daily Mirror, The Telegraph including The Guardian had seen a dip in circulation numbers every year from 2001 till 2009, and the trend was still on till 2013. The advertisers quickly grasped the trend and hence, the print media's revenue in terms of advertising has been seeing a dip every year since 2003.

According to the Newspaper Association of America, the total revenue from print advertising in 2012 was at $18,931(Mil) against a $44,939(Mil) in 2003. It’s not obnoxious now to declare that the print media is no longer a great watch out space as much as the new age marketers are concerned. On the other hand, the print media's digital counterparts seem to display a higher reach potential with cheaper space for advertising, and so have become the prime tools in everybody's advertising strategy.

Conventional modes of advertising are almost Dead.

How many of us rush into a store to buy something, right after we see its ad on TV? The answer to this question is MOSTLY NEVER. Ideally, we buy when there is a need. Although, when we buy we might consider that particular brand whose ad we saw on TV. But, it again depends after how long we are buying such a product, it could be days, months and in few cases like automobiles and real-estate, years. This is where most conventional advertising tools like the ads on TV, Radio, Newspapers and Billboards, etc., seem irrelevant to most consumers that interface with them. People who watch them are mostly not in the same context of making a buying decision right away. These media mostly reach a wrong consumer that has no use for the product, or could reach the right person in a totally wrong time. Even more a depressing fact about these media is that their 'reach' to a certain target audience is not measurable.

Take an example of an average Indian family with middle level income, the grandfather, grandmother, the father, mother and the two children watching a movie on TV. The moment a commercial break comes up the mother rushes into the kitchen to bring in something to eat for the kids, the grandpa goes to the loo, the children run around and play, in the meanwhile the father flips the channel. Now, who has watched those commercials? The business houses might have invested  a lot of time and money in coming up with reasonable concepts, developing advertisements, analyzing various media, picking the best one with great TRPs, buying the media time and getting those commercials aired. Which simply has become a lost cause and effort. On the other hand, the TRPs of that particular TV program would however be high on the charts as the family is back into watching the movie after the commercial break. We business houses consider that, not so firm TRP data in deciding upon which media to buy for our advertising.

Let’s consider the same family in another situation. Let’s say no one in the family moved and all of them sat through the commercial break. Like most general TV ads, let’s say there were ads about an automobile, one related to FMCG, one about an educational institute and another from a tampon brand.  Now in whose mind does an advt of an MBA coaching institute ring along with? It would years before someone from this family is ready to sign-up for one. The FMCG stuff would mostly be thought about in the beginning of the next month. How often does an average middle income level family decide upon buying a car? And the ad about the tampons is surely out of discussion. These two situations paint quite a picture, how simply the advertising on TV is ignored. May be, in rare situations you might sit through and watch a commercial, for the humor or glamour in it, but making a buying decision is still far off. 

This concludes that in most situations the conventional old school forms of advertising, are simply being ignored by today's average consumer. These media are not capable enough to draw a full marketing circuit that ends in customer conversion. The pivot points in the marketing circuit they can afford to draw are very disconnected. This disconnection leads to the loss in customer's attention. The loss of customer's attention mid-way is a huge loss that the marketers can afford today. And so, the old means of marketing communication are in no position to provide the deserved level attention to the brands, and ultimately they are also failing in providing the deserved customer engagement. They are still a great means for brand awareness, but are really dull for brand engagement. Marketers today need to focus on tools that empower them in drawing a firm connection between customer's interests-needs-brand awareness and finally engagement. Choosing specifically the best tool that simplifies and does the task for them is the key.