While no one can deny the increasing presence of digital, evidence clearly suggests that TV is not going anywhere in a hurry.
With tighter budgets and increased delivery demands, agencies are increasingly feeling the pressure to do more work with less money.
As a result, the industry is going through a massive re-evaluation. One consequence of this is an increase in project-based work. The other is an increase in the number of multi-discipline agencies. Everyone is trying to make sure that they can give their clients’ everything they need so they don’t look elsewhere. Above-the-line agencies expanding their offering is nothing new, but we are seeing traditionally specialist niche disciplines, expanding to become full-service, self-contained agencies, offering what above-the-line agencies do in addition to their specialist discipline.
This raises a whole host of questions and as usual, the harbingers of “The death of TV” will take this opportunity, as they’ve done with so many, to predict yet another nail in the coffin of traditional above-the-line advertising and as a result the absolute death of TV.
Miraculously, TV advertising turned 60 this year, still reigning king in terms of spend, with a massive grand total close to R33 billion in 2014 – 73% of total advertising media spend, accounting for far more than just a piece of the pie. That’s also about 42 times as much as the total spend on digital for 2014, so while overlap is increasing between the two mediums, the weight in where this is happening is clear. And while no one can deny the increasing presence of digital, evidence clearly suggests that TV is one medium that won’t be switched off.
