MARK RITSON: THE MEDIA BATTLE OF THE DECADE WILL BE FOUGHT FOR THE TV SCREEN

3. 10. 2018 Mark Ritson, the Australian university professor and marketing expert, started his European tour in Prague on Monday. He delivered a presentation to the representatives of clients, media agencies and the TV market. His speech ranks among the most interesting presentations on the local marketing scene in the last few years. Ritson came to Prague at the invitation of the Association of Commercial Television (AKTV), which continues its activities, inviting to Prague renowned representatives of the current marketing industry, predominantly those with a foreign university background. Initially, Mark Ritson provided a summary of the development of ad investments in media types in the recent 50 years using data from Morgan Stanley. He demonstrated that the last decade was significantly affected by the growth in digital media with the milestones being the years 2000 when Google started selling advertisements in its search engine and 2007 when advertisements were posted on Facebook. In Ritson’s opinion, the growth in the digital media had a negative impact namely on print media while radio and outdoor advertising was not affected too much by the onset of Google, Facebook and other digital platforms. That is because radio and OOH are more digital media today. Outdoor carriers are digitalised and more than half of radio broadcasting in the UK is delivered through digital platforms – DAB, applications and the Internet. (Editor’s note: This statement does not apply to the Czech radio where listening through FM still prevails.) As opposed to the above-mentioned media types, TV has not been impacted by the growth in the digital media and has succeeded in increasing ad investments despite the general perception that the days of TV are numbered. “In the media history, there has never been so much nonsense that would be so far from the truth. TV is not dying but the myth is spreading all over the world,” noted Ritson. The fact that big tech companies use TV advertising for communication and increase their investments in TV should be taken as evidence of the TV medium’s effectiveness. Ritson considers TV investments to be a goal pursued by digital players (represented namely by the Google/Facebook duopoly that accounts for 85% of all digital investments as estimated by Group M). “There is just one place that digital may use to grow – TV. It is a battle between digital and TV,” described Ritson. Technology firms will strive to attack TV ad budgets but the ‘battle of the decade’ will be fought for the TV screen according to Ritson. Or more precisely, for the ‘connected TV screen’, which he sees as the key medium. “I am not saying that TV companies are going to win but this is the playfield where the game will be played and that will be fought for. Digital firms will undoubtedly seek to get there,” he forecasts. But he is not talking about the form of TV broadcasting of ten years ago. In order to succeed in the competition, the existing TV companies must change – and go digital. With respect to the size of the Czech market, Ritson mentioned in the subsequent discussion that most probably, it will only be possible to face the global internet giants through cooperation with international TV players or associations. "The last decade was affected by the digital duopoly, completely devastating newspapers and taking most of their money. The next decade will offer a different battle. Digital firms will go after TV." says Mark Ritson. According to Ritson, the existing marketing mindset overestimates the effect of digital media. Although growing in recent years, mobile video is not the critical medium of future in his opinion. “Mobile video is small, we watch it occasionally when we have no access to a large screen,” he described. As indicated by the data of extensive research projects of BARB, ComScore or IPA Touchpoints, more than two thirds (71%) of all videos watched continue to be viewed on TV screens (live TV) and even millennials watch nearly half of video content on TV screens (47%). TV’s impact on advertising video content is expected to be even more significant with the majority of ad spots (90%) being watched on a TV screen. The times we are living in, which are referred to as the post-factual era, are to blame for the facts about media channel effectiveness being overlooked. Some of the guilt is also attributable to how media consumption development is perceived by marketers or agencies that tend to project their own media consumption methods to all consumers. The result is that while the data of Ebiquity’s Re-evaluating Media study demonstrate that traditional channels (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines) have the strongest effect on brand-building (in attributes such as reach, targeting, ROI, etc.), the marketer and agency community overestimates the effect of social media and online video. “It is a conflict between perception and reality,” noted Ritson. In order to achieve the highest communication effect, Mark Ritson recommends to integrate multiple media channels. TV is a medium that can still derive the largest reach from individual media carriers (in the Czech population, TV is watched weekly and monthly by 90% and 96% of people, respectively). Digital media also play an important role; however, Ritson thinks that their importance is exaggerated and investments in them are excessive. In conclusion, he also mentioned Les Binet’s opinion. In the last AKTV meeting in Prague, Binet spoke about the primary effect of reach on brand growth, about the importance of share of voice and the need to work on a long-term brand building. (You can read a summary of Binet’s presentation here). Mark Ritson recommended The Long and the Short of It written by Les Binet and Peter Field as one of the key marketing publications that would have an impact on communication planning in the near future. Source: mediaguru.cz

A GOLDEN AGE FOR TELEVISION ADVERTISING

25. 9. 2018 Ignore the doom-mongers, writes Ebiquity's Dr Nick Pugh - here are five reasons why TV is in rude health.

WHAT WE LEARNT AT FUTURE TV ADVERTISING FORUM CANADA – CONFIDENCE IN TV IS RETURNING

25. 9. 2018 The ad-supported TV industry in Canada is moving fast to provide the data-driven environment that advertisers want, including more defined audience planning and better attribution to prove the value of television buying. The stand-out message from Future TV Advertising Forum 2018 was that Canadian TV has its self-confidence back, with a better product to ‘sell’ to advertisers.

WHY BIG TECH SPENDS BIG ON TV

9. 8. 2018 If you read the trades regularly, there’s a good chance you’ve read that TV is dying. It’s less likely you read that Google, Netflix, and Amazon collectively spent more than $1B on TV advertising in 2017.1

CZECH TELEVISION MARKET HAS GROWN BY 5% IN RECENT YEARS

29. 3. 2017 Performances of the main commercial broadcasters show, however, that the market has not returned above the pre-2008 level. The Czech television market in 2014 and 2015 rose in net investments by less than 5%. The comparison, based on economic results (performance) of the main commercial players in Czech television market (Nova Group, Prima Group, Barrandov Group), also shows that in total the television market volume has not returned above the 2008 level. On the other hand, 2015 had the second best result of the observed period of time. In 2015, which is so far the last year with available data regarding the three subjects, the total performance of the companies CET 21, FTV Prima and Barrandov Televizní Studio reached 8.5 billion Czech Crowns. Compare this to 2014, when it was almost 400 million Czech Crowns. As compared to 2008, however, the 2015 result is behind by 1.3 billion Czech Crowns. After 2013, which was affected by TV Nova´s business policy, which led to decrease in advertising investments (-5 %), the market started to grow again the following year. It continued for two subsequent years, during which the total performances of the main players in the commercial market increased by just under 5%. According to existing prognosis, growth in several percent is also expected for 2017.