Are TV advertisers switching to Social Media platforms to promote their products?

I was reminded over the weekend of my early career in marketing, when I was part of the lucrative agency world of advertising.

Channel 4 re-ran their Top 100 greatest TV ads show, featuring the winners of a poll conducted with Channel 4 viewers and Sunday Times readers. It was first aired in 2000 and Saturday night’s programme bolted on a selection of ‘The greatest ads of the 21st Century” in an attempt to bring it up to date.

Apparently, according to Channel 4, by the age of 35, the average person has seen 150,000 TV commercials – about 75,000 minutes (or two months of your life), just watching TV commercials! I fear that this figure might have diminished somewhat, in this age of internet and multi-channel media.

TV advertising is still very costly and remains one of the more expensive advertising platforms, while social media advertising could potentially be free or at least more affordable. Could social media be deemed as more effective than TV, as people spend more and more time online and seem to find social media content far more engaging? Or, do consumers think that brands appearing on TV are more credible – if they can afford to advertise on TV they must be pretty confident their products are good?

I think it’s fair to say that it must come down to content and targeting. I mean, not everyone is online, are they? Some housewives, young children and some of the older generation don’t use the Internet as often as they watch TV, so brands targeting them are likely to be more effective on the box.

But, with the threat of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, having a more targeted approach to advertising and more accurate performance measurement, can TV continue to compete? 

By the way, for those who don’t remember, the No 1 ‘greatest TV ad’ according to the poll, was the Guinness ‘Horses & Surfers’ commercial, which cost a small fortune and took London agency Abbot Mead Vickers nine days in Hawaii to make – nice work if you can get it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcdDg30VBgo