TV Is Still The Largest Advertising Medium

Despite the fact that Americans are spending more time on their digital gadgets, big advertisers are still committed to television. ZenithOptimedia forecasts that global TV ad expenditure will rise from $180.3 billion in 2010 to $216 billion in 2013. Further, by 2013 television ads will account for 42 percent of that market. From Bloomberg:

WPP Plc (WPP) and Publicis Groupe SA (PUB) are racing to expand their Web and mobile-phone advertising businesses to catch consumers’ attention. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) says they shouldn’t forget a much more traditional route: television.

There has “never been a better time for TV advertising to seize the moment,” Microsoft Advertising and BBDO Worldwide, a unit of the world’s second-biggest ad company Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC), said in a study released today. The survey among 1,500 consumers in the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K. and Saudi Arabia shows that “TV is a rich, powerful medium and advertisers should continue to be making great ads for it.”

The call by the world’s biggest software maker, which spent $1.6 billion on advertising last year, is targeted at top marketing executives gathering this week along the Cote d’Azur in Cannes as they find the right balance between traditional print and TV advertising and newer platforms such as computers, tablets and mobile phones.

While digital advertising has the fastest growth rate, TV is able to stay relevant because of new technology such as digital video recorders and surround sound, as well as rising viewership in developing markets, says ZenithOptimedia, the research unit of the world’s third-biggest ad company Publicis.

The ZenithOptimedia study also found that the internet is to become the world’s second-largest advertising medium in 2013, overtaking newspapers.

"Though the Web has stolen share from print advertising, which is expected to continue its decline," writes Emily Steel in the WSJ, "marketers say television continues to dominate because of its wide reach and the story-telling potential of TV spots." That may explain why internet sites like Gawker and Yahoo! are veering more and more towards becoming video destinations (to better accomodate those ads, one imagines, in large part). It also might explain why cool branded content outfits -- like the Lonely Islands -- might be very forward-looking.