In terms of resilience, VAB found that over the past decade, TV has proven remarkably able to stay steady in terms of consumption. In an era of immense disruption thanks to the emergence of new SVOD services and the arrival of online video platforms, viewership has remained steadfast around the globe. In the US, adults spent four hours and two minutes on average per day watching TV. Today, as of the first quarter of 2017, that average remains steady at four hours and one minute. In the intervening years, viewership reached as high as four hours and 27 minutes per day (2014), but has never dipped below four hours.
TV also is the most trusted form of advertising, and remains most likely to make consumers laugh, move them to tears or trigger emotions. For example, in the UK, 58% stated television is where they are most likely to find advertising that makes them feel emotional. That’s in comparison to 9% for social media and 6% for newspapers.
This translates into effectiveness: Advertisers invest in TV advertising because it works. For instance, the report found that an average broadcast TV campaign in the US gets 1.2 billion views.
“TV is still really powerful for us,” Marisa Thalberg, CMO of Taco Bell, said in the report. “It is still the most mass-reaching audience and it still works for us.”
Advertisers also appreciate TV’s brand safety: Essentially, all TV is whitelisted.
“TV is the safest space for advertising,” the VAB said, citing its 100% transparency, the fact that it has the highest rate of viewers’ trust out of all content sources, the presence of well-understood regulations and its established and trusted ratings and measurement systems.
At the same time, digital is seen as a critical complement to TV ad campaigns, according to the VAB.
“TV still works, obviously, but how we plug it with digital is becoming more and more important. You can’t separate digital from what happens on air,” Seth Kaufman, CMO of Pepsi, said in the report.
by Michelle Clancy
