Why Internet Advertising Companies and TV and Radio Advertising Agencies Should Love Each Other

Traditional media are often the best way to get a customer’s undivided attention, but has its downfalls

Why internet advertising companies and television and radio advertising agencies should love each other.

Internet advertising companies should love traditional media such as television and radio advertising agencies and vice versa instead of feeling competitive and stealing away each other’s; clients. Why? They support each other and they need each other as part of a new media consumer communications ecosystem.

First of all we must observe and accept the reality of the market that has already resulted in large, traditional agencies setting up and or acquiring internet agencies, and internet agencies invariably getting involved in the purchase of traditional media.

From a content and structural standpoint there can be little argument that the way traditional media are consumed by the general population is different from the way internet media are consumed and the convergence of the traditional and internet platforms are resulting in multi-platform, multi-screen media consumption making both media forms a part of the normal life of consumers today.

For example, watching TV with an IPad on your lap is getting to be the new normal of TV viewing.

Finally, using traditional media to help direct consumers to internet media and using internet media to be part of the traditional media creative appeal lets both disciplines use each other to have an enhanced, synergistic effect on the ultimate effectiveness of the advertising campaign.

Traditional media are often the best way to get a customer’s undivided attention, but has its downfalls

Television advertising, for example, draws customers in both visually and audibly especially when they want an effortless form of entertainment but, while efficient, TV requires sizable cash expenditures to achieve sizeable reach levels. If the advertiser knows exactly who they want to reach and reach scale is not critical, internet advertising companies can be a more affordable alternative for companies

The planning and buying disciplines are different for traditional vs. internet media and not easy to do both at the same time with the same people.

Today, currency media audience studies for traditional media can be used to provide traditional media buyers a precise guide to media purchase levels and scheduling against matchable buying targets presented by the media. These buyers will use their special negotiating skill to improve the efficiency of these buys against the defined targets. Planning for internet media today is not as precisely matchable as with traditional media. Behavioural targeting can be on more in-the–moment criteria than many planners are able to match. In additional the engagement levels of internet are potentially greater than with traditional media but the quality of that media performance data may require more trust than with traditional media.

These differences are coming closer together as traditional media such as television and radio advertising become more digital and therefore more capable of more refined targeting but for the moment they are different.

Why Internet advertising companies may have slight advantage

Internet media have a lower out of pocket cost then most traditional television and radio advertising which makes them immediately more appealing to many local advertisers. This lower cost and the ability to make more in-the-moment ad placements relative to the buying decision gives a slight advantage to the internet agencies but smart advertiser know that brand building and direct response type advertising are best used in combination