This Is partly due to the fact that the final cost of advertising for any company Includes creative and agency costs; local branding and marketing efforts; catalogs, brochures and other printed matter; the creation and maintenance of web sites and myriad other components, in addition to expenses for media. Numbers that are available for analysis and comparison are generally limited to actual spending on media, such as radio, TV, billboards and paid search or Internet advertising. Even these numbers are often educated guesses.
Estimates of ad spending may include pending at both local and national media outlets, as well as spending on Internet media via paid search and online ads. Recently, spending on social media sites has been added to the mix. Among the best growth areas in advertising are advertising on mobile devices, which is still in its infancy, and advertising online. Analysts at Gardner expect mobile advertising to reach $24. 6 billion worldwide by 2016. Commoditized estimates that global digital advertising, including online search, will reach $101. 5 billion In 2013.
Advertising Is Irrevocably linked to media, whether rotational media like the 15,302 broadcast radio stations in America (about $16_5 billion in annual revenues; 2,034 commercial broadcast TV stations plus myriad cable and satellite TV outlets (totaling about $66. 4 billion in advertising revenues); the 1,382 daily newspapers (about $18 billion in annual advertising revenues); or new media like the tens of thousands of Internet sites that now accept advertising. The advertising sector also Includes direct mall, at about $25 billion yearly In the U. S. ; magazines, at about $15. Billion In print-etalon revenues; and outdoor (“out of mom”) advertising, at about $6. 4 billion. In Dalton, there Is significant activity In specialty and alternative advertising, everything from ballpoint pens printed with a message to t-shirts to small airplanes towing advertising banners. Branding, marketing and public relations activities and services generate billions more in revenues. Advertisers are faced with daunting new realities when considering the various media they might use to get their messages across. Traditional media are losing control over their audiences.
That means that advertisers can no longer feel cure that their ads on TV, on the radio or in print are going to receive maidenhair. Gone are the days when television and radio programmers enjoyed captive audiences over a handful of networks, who happily sat through ad after ad, or planned their schedules around favorite shows. Consumers, especially consumers in younger demographics, now demand more and more control over what they watch, read and listen to, and thus more control over the advertising they might be exposed environment, there is good news.
Effective advertising today targets consumers eased on things they are passionate about, rather than simply their tendency to watch network TV on Friday night, their age or their household income bracket. That is, the increasing range of niche media now available enables carefully crafted messages to be designed for and delivered to specific consumer “passionate interest groups. ” For example, consumers who read Bon Apptit magazine (gourmet food and lifestyle coverage), watch the Food Network on cable TV and hold Platinum American Express cards are likely to respond to messages that are centered on dining and entertaining well.
Obviously, a niche campaign could be created around direct mail to these upscale credit card holders, combined with print ads in the magazine and cable TV ads on the Food Network. Blobs, interactive magazines in the form of APS, social networks like Backbone, cable TV programming on-demand and cellophane- based entertainment are booming. Never in history have there been so many unique opportunities for targeted marketing based on consumers’ tastes, interests, locations, special needs and passions.
In fact, asking consumers to respond by going to a pacific web page may finally make advertising truly traceable and results-based-? long the holy grail of marketers. Cutting-edge cable TV technology makes television advertising directed at specific neighborhoods possible for the first time-?a boon to advertising by local retailers, local services and political candidates. With interactive cable TV, subscribers can order movies on demand and other unique services. They also have the ability to respond to direct sales offers via their cable systems.
For example, viewers watching a pay-per-view music concert may be able to order venires such as t-shirts via interactive cable. Cable TV offers another unique advantage to direct sellers and other advertisers. Since the cable system knows the address of the cable subscriber, that address information can be matched against demographic databases to create a unique profile of the subscriber based on likely household income, value and size of the home and other data. Ads displayed by the cable system can then be custom tailored to match the viewer’s profile.
A true sea change in the way that television is watched and used is occurring as consumers arches the first wave of Internet-enabled television sets manufactured by Sony and others. A direct link from the screen to a set-top box or other controller (e. G. Media center PC) to the Internet means that interactive viewing will be brought to new levels. It also means that the download and local storage of content will be more convenient than ever. Meanwhile, the use of ads that are intensely targeted to “passionate interest groups” is long past-due.
By one count, Americans are subjected to 3,000 commercial messages daily-?most of which, such as billboards, occur randomly. The competition among entertainment delivery platforms has intensified. Satellite radio delivery of subscription-based music and talk programming has reached more than 23 million subscribers at Sirius XML. Telecommunications companies such as AT&T are now delivering television programming to the home via telephone wires, battling cable and satellite TV firms for market share.
Millions of cellophane owners are subscribing to mobile video, enabling them to watch news, entertainment and sports on color cellophane screens. The implications of these changes are staggering. The business models upon which most media have rotational outlets, while advertising at new media, including online, is soaring. Television programming schedules are losing relevance while electronic program guides are becoming more and more vital. Media companies and the advertisers that rely on them are being forced to radically change to deal with new technologies and new demands from consumers.
Rapid changes in viewing habits are already occurring. Network TV news, radio news and newspapers all find that they have to compete fiercely against Internet-based news content. A large portion of sports programming has migrated away from “free” broadcasts on TV and onto paid cable Hansel and pay-per-view systems. Meanwhile, media platforms and ad delivery are evolving quickly. Multipurpose cellophanes are now used for more and more entertainment purposes. Game machines are going multipurpose with the ability to connect to the Internet.
Broadband to the home has grown to vast, mass-market numbers, while high-speed wireless connections are enhancing the use of entertainment and media on the go. A serious evolution of access speeds and delivery methods will continue at a rapid-fire pace, and media companies will be forced to be more nimble than ever. Globally, more and more households are gaining access to the Internet, creating even more opportunities for online advertising, with an estimated 2. 4 billion broadband Internet users worldwide, including fixed and wireless, as of mid-2012.
The global base of cellophane and wireless device subscriptions now tops 6 billion. In magazine publishing, some niche publications have been enjoying high advertising page counts. Fashion magazines and bride’s magazines, for example, remain robust. However, news magazines, business magazines and other broad interest publications are losing advertising clients to inline and cable TV media, and are becoming thinner than ever. Newspapers are finding it increasingly difficult to compete against Internet news and advertising delivery rivals.
