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Spotlight on... Television
Since its inception in the late 1940s, television has grown
from an interesting novelty into an integral part of our daily
lives. Today, TV is part of the very fabric of our culture.
People turn to it for entertainment, information and news.
It can cart us around the world in an instant. Teach us how
to fish, cook, golf, or improve our homes. Children can recite
certain commercial jingles before they learn their ABCs. And
Ronald McDonald has become more recognizable than Santa Claus.
How powerful is television? Consider these facts:
- 98.2% of American households have television
- 75% have multiple sets
- Over two-thirds subscribe to cable—more than half
of these have access to 54 or more channels
- 86.2% have VCRs
- The average person spends approximately 7.5 hours a day
watching TV
- There are more than 1,250 commercial television stations
Despite its ubiquity, television is a medium very much in
transition, however. It is changing dramatically with digital
cable, direct broadcast satellites, high definition television
(HDTV), digital versatile disk (DVD), personal video recorders
(PVR), interactivity and convergence (TV and PC working together),
with more to come.
Television as an advertising medium
Advantages
Impact. Television has been called the sum of the
alternatives, featuring the sound of radio, the color of magazines
and the sight of newspaper. It can present an ad message in
a most spectacular way, combining sight, sound, motion and
emotion. Television is excellent for product demonstrations.
Mass coverage. Almost everyone watches television
multiple hours a day.
Cost efficiency. With tremendous audience penetration,
TV remains the most effective way to deliver a commercial
message to a broad mass audience.
Fast acting. Television provides the opportunity for
hourly/daily repetition.
Flexible. A wide variety of message formats and program
content is possible. Messages can be scheduled at specific
times and within specific programs.
Selective. Greater selection of channels with specific
types of programming means a greater ability to target specific
audience segments with less waste.
Data. Availability of audience research data by program.
Limitations
Cost. Television is expensive. It is expensive to
purchase time because of audience size (not necessarily true
of cable), and it's costly to produce good quality commercials.
Fragmentation. With the increasing popularity of cable
and its hundreds of stations from which to choose, the viewing
audience is becoming more and more fragmented. In addition,
paid premium channels such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc.,
are commercial free. As a result, it's becoming increasingly
more difficult and more expensive to reach that large mass
audience.
Fleeting. The life span of a television commercial
is the time it takes to air. Because of this intangibility,
viewers must be exposed to a message several times before
it begins to sink in. This helps explain the high rate of
brand misidentification within this medium.
Clutter. The more commercials are jammed on top of
one another, the less attention each receives. To escape commercial
messages, viewers “zap” their way around the dial
during programming breaks. While others tape their favorite
shows, editing out commercials or “zipping” through
them.
Focus. In most cases, television lacks narrow geographic
focus within a metro or local area. As a result, some local
advertisers must pay for audience delivery that is of little
or no value.
Because of its broad coverage and maximum creative possibilities,
television remains the number one medium for national advertisers.
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