Prominent media buyer and CEO of IPG Mediabrands Australia, Danny Bass says that the decline in TV advertising has come from media agencies switching spending over to outdoor media, which has been growing at a stellar rate for the past decade.
Bass says that despite the common perception that the online world is dragging dollars away from TV the reality is that Facebook and Google are inaccurately blamed for the decrease in advertising spend elsewhere.
He says, “Outdoor used to account for 5-10 per cent of a client’s media spend, it is now creeping up to 30-40 per cent, even higher in some cases.”
Bass says, ““Facebook and Google have been blamed for a lot of the woes affecting traditional media in terms of ad spend. But where do they think the rise in outdoor has come from? It has not come from print because there is nothing left. Where has outdoor’s growth come from? It has come from TV.”
Australian newspaper behemoths Fairfax and News Corp are seeing revenues decline alongside readership and sales, while the out-of-home industry is reporting surging year-on-year growth. Simultaneously, Facebook and Google offer increasingly targeted advertising, but Bass does not believe the online mediums offer the same exposure, or ability to build a brand.
“I do not think Facebook and Google are growing at anywhere near the rate that people think it is from a display perspective; a brand perspective”, says Bass.
“Why is that? Outdoor has done a really good job. It is a less complex sale, you are not talking about audience fluctuations you are not talking about audience guarantees as such. It is an easy concept for agency people to get their head around.
“The interesting thing about outdoor now is as it moves towards digital boards, the issues around accountability, viewability, the currency of it are growing. They have gone from a static board that sat there to a display which might have five pieces of creative on it, and you are paying more for it."
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