Dive Brief:
- 49% of U.S. ad agency professionals report their clients are most interested in spot TV and cable, followed by digital at 31%, according to eMarketer.
- The study separated out streaming video (5%) and mobile (4%) from digital while combining linear TV and cable advertising. The results were rounded out by radio at 7% and out-of-home at 4%.
- The research, which polled 84 U.S. ad agency professionals on which advertising mediums their clients were most interested in, was conducted by Strata, a media buying and selling software firm.
Dive Insight:
Digital is eating into TV's share of the advertising market, but agency clients appear to be lagging behind in the shift.
Digital ad spending is projected to surpass TV ad spending in 2017, according to eMarketer. TV spending is expected to total $70.6 billion this year, while digital will reach $68.82 billion. By 2020, those numbers are forecasted to flip to $105.21 billion for digital and $77.17 for TV.
TV networks, like David Levy, president of Time Warner’s Turner cable unit, don't believe that will be the case. Levy told the Wall Street Journal that ad dollars are about to begin flowing back toward TV as it adopts elements of digital advertising, such as analytics and audience targeting.
“There was a quick move of a lot of television dollars going to digital, basically a CMO was saying ‘I want to try new things. I want to try Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram – I want to try all these ad hoc opportunities around the marketplace,’” he said.
While TV is making strides to become more like the digital experience, digital is also becoming more like TV, with social platforms Facebook and Twitter making live streaming video a point of emphasis this year.
