News

TV industry best at self promotion to advertisers

The TV industry is considered the best as promoting itself as a medium for advertising, while newspapers and out-of-home are among the worst, according to a new survey.  

The Mumbrella Industry Snapshot survey found that over 31 per cent of respondents felt that television was the best at promoting itself, while over 27 per cent said that online was best.

The commercial free-to-air TV channels are represented by Free TV, while the pay TV industry is backed by the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA).

In October, Nine CEO, David Gyngell and Seven’s national sales director James Warburton said that ad spend had started to pick up in the last quarter despite the tough economic year.

Gyngell told The Australian: “For November we will beat last year’s numbers and that really means that the market has gone from being down about 13 per cent in metropolitan television to probably being down three or four per cent at most or perhaps even better than that. On a year-on-year basis it is incredible and it has happened in a very fast period of time.”

This year Free TV launched an ad campaign featuring testimonials from two of the medium’s biggest supporters – Harvey Norman chairman, Gerry Harvey and Aussie chairman and founder, John Symond.

The testimonials in the TVCs were supported by OzTam data which stated that 13 million people watch FTA TV each day.

And in a significant development, this Sunday will be the first time that TV ratings will reflect time-shifted viewing which is expected to give the FTA TV networks a 20 per cent boost in audience figures for some programmes, while pay TV is expecting an even bigger rise.

Meanwhile, according to the Mumbrella survey, online was a close second in its attempt to promote itself as an advertising medium. It comes despite online publishers admitting that they need to do more to promote their value as a brand building platform for advertisers.

Fairfax Digital CEO Jack Matthews told Mumbrella: “We feel passionately about the issue of demonstrating and proving that companies can build brands online. Other publishers are in broad agreement with us. From a revenue standpoint it’s the single biggest challenge and provides great opportunities.

“We’re carrying out research now which we will take to agencies and the market proving the success of building brands online. The IAB has been doing it as well.”

In other survey results, radio came in third as the medium considered good at promoting itself to advertisers, with 12.9 per cent, followed by magazines with over 10 per cent.

Newspapers and out-of-home lagged behind, with 6.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively. Cinema, which has around a 1 per cent share of the ad revenue pie, saw 1 per cent of respondents say it was good at marketing itself.

The newspaper industry’s marketing body The Newspaper Works recently put out a tender for the creation of a new readership metric. But the process has been marred with controversy, with Fairfax and the Magazine Publishers of Australia pulling out of the project. News Ltd CEO John Hartigan has been highly critical of Fairfax’s decision to continue using Roy Morgan Research.

Elsewhere, the out-of-home industry is preparing to launch its new industry metric, MOVE (Measurement of Outdoor Visibility and Exposure), in February. The Outdoor Media Association is also currently recruiting to replace Helen Willoughby, the industry body’s first chief executive.

Mumbrella Industry Snapshot survey

Question: Which medium do you consider is best at promoting itself to the industry for the purpose of advertising?

  • Television: 31%
  • Online: 27.3%
  • Radio: 13%
  • Magazines: 10.2%
  • Out-of-home: 6.4%
  • Newspapers: 6.2%
  • No response: 4.4%
  • Cinema: 1%

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.