PR 101

There has been a lot of debate in the blogosphere lately about whether television is still a viable place for companies to hawk their wares. Those who argue old school marketing methods aren’t going anywhere for a long time say television is still a great place to set up a booth. Those who have imbibed the social media wine argue just the opposite – that television is as much a dinosaur as print.

Well, I think that for a time, both sides are right. However, if the sun isn’t yet setting on television for marketing, it is late afternoon. Why you ask?

A lot of eyes still watch the television screen

Well, let’s consider the latest report from Nielsen. In comparing American television viewership, the research service found that overall television viewership had risen by 1.9 percent to 153:27 hours a month in the first quarter of 2009. That’s an average of just over five hours a day.

(Editor’s note: Who has five hours a day to watch television? That’s 35 hours a week. Assume people work about 45 hours a week, spend another 10 hours commuting, and sleep 56 hours a week, that leaves 22 hours a week, or three hours a day, to get everything else done. No wonder most Americans look so bleary-eyed.)

According to Nielsen, approximately 284 million Americans watched television in the first quarter of last year. That number increased by 1.2 percent over the same period in 2008. For analysis purposes, that number was flat.

Still, that means approximately 80 percent of the American population was watching television. If I were marketing something, I think I would consider using television as part of the campaign – depending on the age of the consumer I wanted to reach.

TiVo and DVRs are changing the game

The Nielsen report found something else that is very interesting – approximately 79 million Americans watched “time-shifted” television. In other words, they recorded a show to watch later. They spent about eight hours a month doing that – a 37 percent increase over the first quarter of 2008.

Nielsen also found that “online video grew 13 percent in Q1 2009, driven by both strong brand marketing and large media events including the Presidential inauguration, the Super Bowl and March Madness. With broadband levels increasing in the U.S., online video audiences will continue to grow as consumers begin to upgrade their PCs to support increased video consumption. Mobile video viewing (on smart phones) has grown a significant 52 percent from the previous year, up to 13.4 million Americans. Much of this growth continues to come from increased mobile content and the rise of the mobile web as a viewing option.”

The researchers found that 131.1 million Americans watched video on the Internet in the first quarter of 2009 – a 13 percent increase over the same period as 2008.

What do time shifting, watching video online and on smart phones have in common – little or no advertising. Anyone who owns a DVR knows that it is programmed to skip by commercials. Most DVRs record the last five seconds of commercial to ensure none of the program is missed. That’s why marketers in Europe are developing five-second ads. They hope they can at least make an impression on a viewer.

I think we are about to see a massive change in the way people wath videos.

I think what we are seeing is a shift away from traditional television watching. As I said, the sun hasn’t set yet on traditional television. But it’s late afternoon for the 70-year-old medium.

The report notes that the age group that spends the most time watching time-shifted television are the 24- to 35-year-olds. They spent just over 12 hours a month watching something they had recorded. What marketers should really notice is that 12- to 17-year-olds spend the most time watching video on their phones – 6.5 hours a month. This is a group everybody wants to reach. The theory is that they haven’t yet formed any brand loyalty.

So, what I take from this is that the younger you are, the less likely you are to be wedded to traditional television. Oh, you still watch it, but you are gradually integrating newer technologies into your viewing universe.

Incidentally, while I don’t have any data to back this up, I think the same thing is happening in the rest of the world. In fact, since on-line video watching demands broadband hookups, I have a feeling the rest of the world is further along than the United States. Broadband in most of the world is much faster that in the U.S.

I think the snowball has started to roll downhill. The avalanche hasn’t gotten serious yet, but it is at the point where it cannot be stopped. Marketers and their clients had better start looking for alternatives.