Vodafone exec urges marketers to bridge ‘massive gap’ between TV and digital spend
Vodafone’s head of global digital marketing has said there remains a “massive gap” between the amount of money spent on TV advertising and the reality of where consumers are consuming content.
Adam Stewart, speaking this morning at the Association of Data Driven Marketing and Advertising global form, said marketers need to stop spending the “vast majority” of their budget on traditional marketing and face up to the reality that the mobile is now the “first screen”.
“Mobile is front and centre and has taken over as the first screen. TV is no longer the first screen,” Stewart told delegates during a keynote presentation.
96% of video viewing is currently done on a television. 4% is done on a web device.
according to:
http://adcontrarian.blogspot.c.....world.html
A quick look at the last 12 months and Vodafone Australia contributed somewhere around $7.2m to that ‘massive gap’ through TV spend alone (and that’s without Fox which would conceivably be another $2m).
More broadly Mr Stewart might think in Australia they’ve wasted close to $24m in ‘traditional channels’ in just the last year. Seems his message hasn’t filtered out very far. Might want to do an all-staffer before the all-industryer.
One thing I’ve always wondered, what makes these channels traditional? Do these channels have customs, dishes and costumes to go with their traditions?
And why is traditional suddenly irrelevant?
These broad sweeping statements conveniently ignore the different strengths and weaknesses in channels for conveying a type of message, or how receptive a consumer might be to a message in a particular channel at a particular time. Or any of the other multitude of considerations that go into channel planning, like the size of the potential audience, which, although not fashionable to accept, TV still has.
Saying mobile is the first screen is simply not correct. I can think of 20 people in my wider family alone who would entirely disagree with that statement despite all having mobile phones. This sort of statement in this sort of environment is a self-serving message about how contemporary he wants to be or be seen.
There is no doubt mobile is important for some consumers in some categories some of the time. It’s also pretty clear that as mobile becomes better, faster, cheaper and in more hands that this trend and shift will continue. But to say it’s the first screen without any qualification is no more valid than saying red is the best colour.
Somehow & call me whacky, but I reckon seeing an award winning piece of advertising on my massive LCD screen in my lounge room has kinda more impact than seeing the same ad on my 9cm x 5.5cm mobile screen.