Interactive TV in the UK
New advertising opportunities in comparison
©2001
Masterarbeit
102 Seiten
Zusammenfassung
Inhaltsangabe:Abstract:
Interactive Television (iTV) has been around for several decades. Most people have probably heard the term before. Having started in the USA with some trials it is now conquering the UK. The first interactive services on Digital TV (DTV) have been broadcasted 18 months ago and are continuously growing in number. The four platform providers Sky, NTL, ONdigital and Telewest are trying to make their interactive services as appealing as possible and are, of course, offering new advertising opportunities for advertisers on that new medium.
The aims of this project are to analyse those new advertising opportunities and compare them to advertising on traditional TV and the Internet and find out whether advertising on iTV combines their strengths and overcomes some of their weaknesses. In order to achieve this, the literature review focuses on the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of advertising on traditional TV and the Internet and also provides a good overview over the iTV market in the UK and the current developments.
The UK is leading the way in the development of iTV and is even supposed to be 12 to 18 months ahead of the USA. The market is highly competitive and fragmented with the four different platform providers offering three different forms of receiving DTV, of which satellite is leading in the numbers of subscribers. The predictions of the DTV uptake are very positive and the spendings for advertising on iTV are supposed to be tremendous within the next couple of years.
The results of the interviews carried out with iTV experts from the platform providers, media and advertising agencies show that advertising on iTV indeed combines the strengths and overvomes some weaknesses and has the potential to be more successful than its two closest relatives. Due to the fact that it is still in its infancy and companies are just starting to test this new medium and no success stories have been published so far, advertising on iTV in its current form is not yet the killer application it was supposed to be and the uptake of T-commerce is quite questionnabel as well. It also becomes clear though that iTV does have a great potential and when the technology is creatively used to make ads more involving and engaging it will be big.
Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents:
1.INTRODUCTION6
2.SETTING THE SCENE - LITERATURE REVIEW8
2.1TRADITIONAL TV ADVERTISING8
2.1.1Strengths of traditional TV […]
Interactive Television (iTV) has been around for several decades. Most people have probably heard the term before. Having started in the USA with some trials it is now conquering the UK. The first interactive services on Digital TV (DTV) have been broadcasted 18 months ago and are continuously growing in number. The four platform providers Sky, NTL, ONdigital and Telewest are trying to make their interactive services as appealing as possible and are, of course, offering new advertising opportunities for advertisers on that new medium.
The aims of this project are to analyse those new advertising opportunities and compare them to advertising on traditional TV and the Internet and find out whether advertising on iTV combines their strengths and overcomes some of their weaknesses. In order to achieve this, the literature review focuses on the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of advertising on traditional TV and the Internet and also provides a good overview over the iTV market in the UK and the current developments.
The UK is leading the way in the development of iTV and is even supposed to be 12 to 18 months ahead of the USA. The market is highly competitive and fragmented with the four different platform providers offering three different forms of receiving DTV, of which satellite is leading in the numbers of subscribers. The predictions of the DTV uptake are very positive and the spendings for advertising on iTV are supposed to be tremendous within the next couple of years.
The results of the interviews carried out with iTV experts from the platform providers, media and advertising agencies show that advertising on iTV indeed combines the strengths and overvomes some weaknesses and has the potential to be more successful than its two closest relatives. Due to the fact that it is still in its infancy and companies are just starting to test this new medium and no success stories have been published so far, advertising on iTV in its current form is not yet the killer application it was supposed to be and the uptake of T-commerce is quite questionnabel as well. It also becomes clear though that iTV does have a great potential and when the technology is creatively used to make ads more involving and engaging it will be big.
Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents:
1.INTRODUCTION6
2.SETTING THE SCENE - LITERATURE REVIEW8
2.1TRADITIONAL TV ADVERTISING8
2.1.1Strengths of traditional TV […]
Leseprobe
Inhaltsverzeichnis
ID 4352
Katz, Barbara: Interactive TV in the UK: new advertising opportunities in comparison / Barbara
Katz - Hamburg: Diplomica GmbH, 2001
Zugl.: London, Hochschule, BA Economics, 2001
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2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION...6
2. SETTING THE SCENE LITERATURE REVIEW ...8
2.1 T
RADITIONAL
TV
ADVERTISING
...8
2.1.1 Strengths of traditional TV advertising...10
2.1.2 Weaknesses of traditional TV advertising...11
2.2 A
DVERTISING ON THE
I
NTERNET
...14
2.2.1 Introduction...14
2.2.2 Strengths of Internet advertising...14
2.2.3 Weaknesses of Internet advertising...16
2.2.4
Summary of Strengths and Weaknesses ...19
2.3 I
NTERACTIVITY ON
TV...20
2.3.1 Definition...21
2.3.2 Stages of interactivity on television...22
2.3.2.1 Basic interactivity...23
2.3.2.2 Advanced interactivity ...24
2.3.3 Technological considerations for iTV content ...24
2.3.3.1 Screen Resolution...25
2.3.3.2 Navigation ...25
2.3.3.3 Font dimension, colours, and lines...26
2.3.3.4 Computer and Multimedia standards ...26
2.3.3.5 Audiences ...26
2.3.3.6 Download times...27
2.3.4 iTV in the UK...27
2.3.4.1 The main players Digital Platform Wars...28
2.3.4.2 Interactive services provided in the UK...32
2.3.4.3 A special case: TiVo and other PVRs ...34
2.3.4.4 The iTV market value and advertising spendings...35
2.3.5 Forms of advertising on iTV ...36
2.3.5.1 Broadcast
stream ...37
2.3.5.2 Walled
Gardens ...37
2.3.6 The iTV audience...38
2.3.7
iTV in comparison ...41
Source: Bueno, 2000 ...42
3. METHODOLOGY...44
3.1 I
NTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH DESIGN
...44
3.2 S
ECONDARY RESEARCH
...44
3.3 P
RIMARY RESEARCH
...45
3.3.1 Interviews ...45
3.3.1.1 Sample size and composition ...45
3.3.1.2 Structure of the interviews ...46
3.3.2 E-mail questionnaire...48
3.3.3 List of statements...48
3.4 L
IMITATIONS AND POTENTIAL SOURCES OF ERROR
...49
3
4. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION ...50
4.1 I
NTRODUCTION
...50
4.2 F
INDINGS FROM THE INTERVIEWS
...50
4.2.1 The iTV audience...50
4.2.2 Interest and attitudes of advertisers ...52
4.2.3 Advertising on iTV...54
4.2.4 Audience measurement new possibilities or threats? ...59
4.2.5 Regulations...60
4.2.6 The different players what they think of each other ...61
4.3 F
INDINGS FROM THE LIST OF STATEMENTS
...62
5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS...67
LIST OF APPENDICES...75
LIST OF REFERENCES ...96
4
List of Tables
Table 2-1
Summary of strengths and weaknesses
18
Table 2-2
Differences between Digital Platforms
30
Table 2-3
Competitive Digital Offerings
32
Table 2-4
Advertising opportunities on iTV
35
Table 3-1
Key search words for electronic references
43
Table 3-2
Interview partners
45
Table 5-1
Constraints and Opportunities of iTV
70
5
List of Figures
Figure 1-1
Relation between iTV, TV and the Internet
5
Figure 2-1
Television viewing in GB
8
Figure 2-2
Market share per digital platform provider in the UK
27
Figure 2-3
Number of services deployed per Network
31
Figure 2-4
Development of Interactive Services
32
Figure 2-5
UK interactive advertising projections by device
35
Figure 2-6
Interactive TV Penetration, UK 2000-2003
38
Figure 2-7
Projected Digital TV Take-Up: 1999-2004
38
Figure 2-8
Comparison of effectiveness of the three media using the consumer
life
cycle
model
41
Figure 4-1
Results of the strengths
62
Figure 4-2
Results of the weaknesses
64
6
1. Introduction
"In today's market, numbers are not as important as the
audience's response to the advertisement."
J.L. Rosen, L.A. York, A. Ku, 1999
The purpose of this survey is to give an insight into the new advertising opportunities
on interactive television (iTV) and their effectiveness compared to advertising on
traditional TV and the Internet. The hypothesis of this report, as illustrated in Figure
1-1, is:
"Advertising on iTV is more effective, because it combines
the strengths of traditional TV and the Internet"
Figure 1-1 illustrates the relations between the three media and explains the fact that
iTV has developed as the result of merging traditional TV and the Internet and
therefore might have the potential to combine their strengths and overcome some of
their weaknesses. The aims and objectives of this report are:
·
To identify the strengths and weaknesses of advertising on traditional TV and the
Internet as well as describe the new development on TV, called `interactive
television' and provide a good overview over the iTV market in the UK.
·
To analyse the effectiveness of advertising on iTV especially compared to its two
closest relatives traditional TV and the Internet and find evidence to either prove
or disqualify the model shown in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1: Relation between iTV, TV and the Internet
TV
Internet
iTV
Strengths
Weaknesses
· Combines their strengths
· May overcome some of
their weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
Source: Author
7
·
To provide an outlook of the development of iTV in the near future considering
the opportunities and constraints identified.
The literature for the topic of the first objective is reviewed in Chapter 2. The
literature review focuses on the elaboration of strengths and weaknesses of advertising
on traditional TV and the Internet. Following those, iTV is explained in detail and the
iTV market in the UK is analysed. It then applies these findings on new advertising
opportunities on iTV to the consumer life cycle model and draws a first comparison to
advertising on the other two media.
The methodology of the thesis is discussed in Chapter 3. The survey method chosen
for the primary data collection was a multi-method approach of semi-structured
interviews and a questionnaire. The sample consists of a number of iTV experts from
the platform providers as well as media and advertising agencies.
The data analysis in Chapter 4 focuses on the aims and objectives laid out in the
introduction. It analyses the effectiveness of advertising on iTV especially compared
to its two closest relatives traditional TV and the Internet and gives an answer to the
question whether it builds upon their strengths and overcomes some of their
weaknesses. It also provides an outlook of the future development of iTV considering
the opportunities and constraints identified.
Finally, Chapter 5 sums up the findings, draws a conclusion and indicates avenues for
further research.
8
2. Setting the scene literature review
"Adapt to the new media environment or die."
Keith Reinhard, CEO of DDB Needham Worldwide, 1994
2.1 Traditional TV advertising
According to Ang (2000, p. 184), "the very corporate foundation of commercial
television rests on the idea of delivering audiences to advertisers"; meaning that,
economically speaking, television programming is first and foremost a vehicle to
attract audiences for the `real' messages transmitted by television: the advertising
spots inserted within and between the programs. The television business, in other
words, is basically a `consumer delivery enterprise' for advertisers. So, in the context
of this structural interdependence of television broadcasters and advertisers, television
consumption takes on a double meaning: it is consumption both of programs and of
commercials; the two presuppose one another at least, from the industry's point of
view.
Considering this, it becomes clear why the tendency of declining numbers in
audiences, as stated by Arens (1999), is the biggest concern of broadcasters and
advertisers these days. According to Arens (1999), this is mainly due to the
development of the Internet. People who spend more and more time in the Internet
need to take that time from one of their previous activities and apparently, most (78%)
people take the time from watching television.
On the other hand, there is also evidence (Sanghera, 2001) that viewing figures are
rising despite competing forms of entertainment. In spite of the proliferation of
alternative forms of entertainment, from the Internet to video and computer games,
Sanghera argues, television viewing in Britain grew over the past three years,
according to media buying agency Carat. Data from the Broadcaster Research Board
(cited in Sanghera 2001) has found that average daily TV viewing has been growing
slightly but steadily since 1997 (see Figure 2-1). In that year, the average Briton over
the age of four spent 3 hours 36 minutes watching TV, in 1998 that rose to 3 hours 37
minutes, in 1999 it increased to 3 hours 39 minutes and last year it was 3 hours and 41
minutes. "There have been a lot of reports insinuating that TV is dying, but that's not
true," says Guy Abrahams, strategy director of Carat (cited in Sanghera 2001).
9
Source: Financial Times (13/03/01, p3)
He adds that the growth has been fuelled mainly by those on the lower rungs of the
economic ladder the C2s, Ds and Es for whom "television is a cost-effective form
of entertainment". But TV viewing among 16-24 year olds and ABs has also
increased. Over four years, between 1997 and 2000, the two groups' daily TV viewing
increased by 11.6 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively. This is surprising, as these
groups have been seen as the driving demographics behind increased use of the
Internet. "This explodes the popular myth that Internet usage encroaches on TV
viewing time," claims Abrahams. "16-24 year olds are fickle TV viewers and
sophisticated users of new technology. Growth in viewing, to a daily average of 2
hours 53 minutes, shows that provided it delivers the right content, television cannot
only survive but grow."
This shows that television is still a very big player in the advertising game. In the next
paragraphs the strengths and weaknesses of advertising on traditional television will
be identified and analysed to give a bigger picture and compare it to the other two
media Internet and iTV later on.
Figure 21: Television Viewing in GB
3,5
3,5
3,6
3,6
3,6
3,6
3,6
Hours
per
Day
199
199
199
200
Year
10
2.1.1 Strengths of traditional TV advertising
In general, traditional television advertising offers the following main strengths:
·
Awareness
TV is the strongest medium to create awareness while, according to Bueno (2000),
at the same time entertaining, educating, engaging, positioning a brand and
inspiring loyalty. When building up a brand or launching a new product, television
is the best medium to create an extensive awareness among the population.
·
Mass audience
Television is the medium, which reaches by far the biggest mass audience.
According to the `Social Trends' (2001 edition) 99% of the UK households have a
television set, which represents by far the highest penetration rate of any medium.
·
Strong impact
Compared to other media, e.g. the radio, which only provides sound, newspapers
and magazines, which only provide visuals - television is the only medium that
offers high quality visuals, sound, motion and colour all at once. Thus, TV offers
the strongest impact and of advertising of all media.
With the development of digital television (DTV) more strengths emerged:
·
Accurate targeting at particular niche audiences (Narrowcasting)
Ads on satellite and cable can be highly effective because they can be targeted
more accurately at particular niche audiences of specialised channels. E.g. sports
programming delivers a 16-34-year-old male audience, which is good, for
example, for certain alcohol advertisers.
According to Rosen, York and Ku (1999)
DTV permits advertisers to pinpoint target groups that are currently impossible to
locate on network television. This distinction is described as verticality. According
to Rosen et al (1999), a vertical network is one that focuses on a single type of
audience. This allows advertisers to target homogeneous demographic groups with
maximum effectiveness.
·
Geographic targeting
Cable advertising can be extremely localised. Rosen et al (1999) argue that
advertisers are able to pinpoint the exact areas where the advertisements are being
delivered.
11
·
Point of sale broadcasting
According to an article by Killgren (2000) BSkyB is now providing separate ad
screens to pubs, which can show ads targeted specifically at the over-18 market.
This is more effective because it is advertising at the point of sale.
2.1.2 Weaknesses of traditional TV advertising
According to Clancy and Lloyd (1999), television advertising has declined in
effectiveness and efficiency over the past decade. What are the symptoms of declining
advertising effectiveness and efficiency? These include:
·
Media fragmentation
In the mid-1960s, most people watched a couple of major television networks,
read a relative handful of magazines, listened to AM radio, went out to see a film
in the cinema and read one or more daily newspaper. For consumers, there were
no cable television networks, no video cassette players, no video games, no home
computers, no Internet and no CD-ROM.
Today, the situation is so radically different that Business Week can run an article
discussing "The Entertainment Glut" (Feb 16, 1998) (cited in Clancy and Lloyd,
1999). Today, according to Clancy and Lloyd (1999) there are several broadcast
television networks, almost 200 cable television networks, hundreds of FM radio
stations, thousands of special interest magazines, an enormous number of video
tapes, video games, and the Internet, which today has more sites than one could
ever visit in a lifetime. The only thing that has not changed is the number of hours
in a day. This shows that the number of people an advertiser can reach with any
one medium is declining continuously.
·
Television fragmentation
According to Clancy and Lloyd (1999) fragmentation means that large blocks of
demographically desirable viewers that advertisers want are becoming rare. To
reach them, the advertisers have to pay a premium. Thus, although the networks'
share of the mass market has decreased, the cost of buying time on network
programs has gone up faster than inflation in the past 15 years as stated in Clancy
and Lloyd (1999). Increased costs also means fewer advertising exposures per
pound invested marketers are spending more and getting less.
12
·
Advertising Clutter
Besides raising their prices, there is evidence (Clancy and Lloyd 1999) that the
broadcast networks have added commercial time to their broadcasts. Viewers feel
too many ads crowd into television programs, and middle pods the groups of ads
that appear halfway through a half-hour program became too long.
Today, television carries 60-, 30-, 15-, 10-, and even 5-second spots, all adding to
the commercial clutter.
·
Zapping
To defend themselves against commercial overload, many television viewers zap
the commercials by changing channels during commercial interruptions with the
remote control, which has become a standard feature. This, of course, was rarely
done 20 years ago, when someone would have to get off the couch to change
stations. According to Clancy and Lloyd (1999) channel surfing is so universal
and pervasive that it is even the topic of some comics. And when women get
together over coffee and complain about the strange behavioural rites of men, their
guys' behaviour with the TV remote is often a subject for discussion. Today, it is
estimated that male viewers zap at least 30% of all commercials and a significant
lower percentage by women as stated in Clancy and Lloyd (1999).
·
Zipping
Zipping means the fastforwarding past commercials while watching recorded
programs on a videocassette. This already became a growing problem with the
development of the VCR but now reaches its peak with the spread of the PVR
such as TiVo and HomeChoice. Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research
(cited in Swann 2000), predicts that the PVR will lead to consumers watching 8
per cent fewer commercials by 2005 and 50 per cent fewer by the end of the
decade.
·
Flipping
Flipping is changing channels to some degree rather than watching a show from
beginning to end. This trend grew with the advent of cable television and the
increase of the number of channels, according to Rosen, York and Ku (1999).
13
·
Rising costs
At the same time, the decline in network broadcast television audiences has not
been reflected in the prices the networks charge advertisers. Robert Coen, who
tracks advertising media spending for McCann-Erickson (cited in Clancy and
Lloyd 1999), estimates that the network collected $14 billion in ad revenues in
1998, 5.5% more than in 1997. But total ad spending is pegged at a 6.8% increase,
so the networks are lagging slightly, whereas advertisers spending on cable are
projected to grow by 13%.
·
Costs per thousand
According to Clancy and Lloyd (1999) virtually all television advertising is
bought on the basis of the cost per thousand people exposed CPM and some
demographics sex and age, figures based on A.C. Nielsen syndicated audience
data. Television media buyers tend to assume that programs are simply "neutral
carriers", Clancy and Lloyd (1999) argue if the demographics are the same, one
program is just like another.
But "we are beginning to discover these broad demographics descriptors just don't
work anymore," says George Hayes (cited in Clancy and Lloyd 1999), senior vice
president, media director of McCann-Erickson Worldwide, New York. "Indeed,
there is almost no connection between demographics sex and age being the most
common and product consumption."
More and more brand variations are emerging which are targeted at different
segments. But those differences, can't be found using demographics, according to
Clancy and Lloyd (1999).
14
2.2 Advertising on the Internet
2.2.1 Introduction
In 2000, 26 million European consumers learned to surf the Web creating a critical
mass of 72 million Web users worldwide by year-end according to a report by
Forrester (2001). The result? The net has become an obligatory communication
channel in the marketing mix of large European advertisers.
According to the leading advertisers interviewed by Forrester Research, Web
advertising delivers on its promises. Integrated online-offline campaigns, Net
penetration increase and superior targeting are driving today's market, and new
technologies like broadband will help sustain its growth. Dot-coms intend to increase
their online advertising spending from 30 per cent now to 38 per cent of their total
advertising budget in 2003.
The types of Internet advertising currently available are websites, banners,
sponsorship, content partnership, advertorials, interstitials, microsites and classified
advertising. For a more detailed description of the different types, see Appendix III.
Of course, some of the online advertising opportunities are very different in nature,
size and design opportunities and it is hard to generally compare and evaluate them
but for simplicity reasons, the next chapter identifies the more general common
characteristics of advertising on the Internet, divided in strengths and weaknesses.
2.2.2 Strengths of Internet advertising
·
Truly interactive medium
More than any other medium, the Internet allows consumers to directly interact
with an advertiser, thereby establishing future relationships. This is extremely
important when thinking about the current trend towards Relationship Marketing,
One-to-One Marketing and CRM.
·
Enormous audience
By the turn of the century, the Internet is expected to reach some 400 million
people according to Arens (1999). The Internet is also the only true global
15
medium, providing information and commerce that is immediately accessible from
around the world.
·
Immediate response
Internet advertising offers the opportunity of an immediate response from
consumers that cannot be rivalled, except through personal selling as stated in
Arens (1999). Products and information are available on demand by the consumer,
providing instantaneous feedback for the advertiser.
·
Highly selective targeting
The highly selective targeting realised through the Internet is unmatched by any
other medium. There is evidence (Arens 1999) that through purchasing keywords
and employing cookies, advertisers can reach potential consumers exactly when
they are in the market to buy.
·
Affluent market
According to Arens (1999) 65 per cent of Internet users have household incomes
of $50,000 or more, compared with 35 per cent of the US population. Seventy-five
percent of Internet users attended college, compared with only 46 per cent of the
US population.
·
In-depth information
Advertising on the Internet can provides in-depth information about a company
and/or its products. Aside from sending e-mail, the vast majority of Internet
activity involves gathering news or conducting research, according to Arens
(1999). Commercial web sites provide detailed information about products or
services to information-hungry consumers.
·
Rapidly growing industry
Internet advertising represents a rapidly growing industry that provides
tremendous profit opportunities for the savvy direct marketer. According to Arens
(1999) the Internet is expected to continue its stunning growth for some time,
particularly as the children of today grow up with the technology and become the
consumer of tomorrow.
·
Reaches B2B
The Internet reaches business-to-business users when television and radio often
cannot while they are still at work, according to Arens (1999). Consumer
advertising can also reach these business users over the Internet.
16
·
Advertorials
There is evidence (Arens 1999) that advertorials are effective tools for advertisers
and often incorporated into WWW publications. An advertiser can place its name
into an article to build credibility and increase exposure. With clever use, these
advertorials can provide anything from tips and tricks on product use to new
recipes requiring a certain product.
·
Virtual storefront
Catalogue companies have exemplified the profitability of direct-mail campaigns,
which can be replicated by Web pages on the Internet according to Arens (1999).
Today's most commonly purchased online merchandises are computer products,
travel arrangements, and entertainment-related products.
2.2.3 Weaknesses of Internet advertising
·
Untested medium
The Internet is plagued by a lack of knowledge of advertising effectiveness,
market research and standardisation of measurements for both ad exposure and
pricing. Although the medium promises enormous profitability, many unknown
factors prevent advertisers from spending millions of dollars in an online
campaign as stated in Arens (1999).
·
High targeting costs
Targeting costs can be among the most expensive relative to any other medium
because of the precision of the targeting criteria according to Arens (1999). As
with all other media, the more selective the targeting criteria, the higher the costs.
·
Slow downloads
Slow downloads may still hamper users from the full online experience. Data
transfer times must reduce tremendously and computer processor speeds must
increase before advertising on the Internet can realise its fullest potential
according to Arens (1999). Also, unlike radio and television, the Internet
technologies themselves are in perpetual development and growth.
17
·
No mainstream medium
According to Arens (1999) the Internet is not yet a mainstream medium, most
likely due to the high cost of personal computers and the technology impediments
for may people. For these reasons the elderly and poorly educated are
underrepresented on the Internet.
·
Inappropriate placement
Ads may be inappropriately placed on the wrong Web page. While online ad
networks allow advertisers to place banners on millions of personal Web pages,
the sheer number of these pages prevents effective policing for content. An
advertiser may thus be inadvertently associated with content inappropriate to the
company as stated in Arens (1999).
·
Security and privacy concerns
There is evidence (Arens 1999) that security and privacy concerns still prevent
many users from engaging in online purchases, although with time these fears will
likely be allayed. Until the Internet proves itself to be a safe place for financial
transactions, it is unlikely to be accepted by a xenophobic public as a viable
medium of commerce.
·
Global marketing limitations
Although advertisers can easily reach the international market, the Internet is not
nearly as pervasive in other countries as it is in the United States according to
Arens (1999). Many countries are hampered by the high cost of local telephone
services, and developing countries simply lack the technology infrastructure to
provide Internet services to the public.
·
Format restrictions
For most of the Internet's short history, advertisements have been squeezed into
the thin, rectangular strip that appears across the top of the screen on a typical
website. But unlike television commercials or advertisements in newspapers and
magazines, the so-called banner ad has usually failed to earn enough revenues to
meet the cost of providing the material that viewers want to see.
This problem seemed to be so big that in late February of this year, the Internet
Advertising Bureau, a trade group for web publishers, announced voluntary
guidelines for seven new advertising formats that bear a closer resemblance to the
shape of advertisements seen in traditional print media than to the puny banner,
according to an article by Tomkins in the Financial Time.
18
·
Failing response rates to banners
According to Tomkins (2001), less than 0.5 per cent of viewers now click on
banners. This has left many mainstream advertisers unconvinced that they are an
effective medium.
·
Dull creative work
While it is possible to find examples of banners containing good creative work,
most of them are dull. The reason is simple according to Tomkins (2001). It's a bit
like radio the creative work for Internet advertising tends to be given to the
junior teams because there's not much money involved. The cost of producing the
average television commercial is somewhere around £200,000 plus, whereas the
average Internet banner costs more like £500.
·
Ad-blocking software programs
There is evidence (Tomkins 2001) that these days web users can eradicate Internet
banners altogether by using one of the many available ad-blocking software
programs, such as AdSubtract, AdWiper, AdFilter and the Internet Junkbuster
Proxy.
·
Human brain can scan out ads
According to Tomkins (2001) the most sophisticated ad-buster is the person sitting
in front of the screen. The human brain of any regular Internet user can mentally
scan out anything that has the shape of a conventional banner.
·
Spamming
The Internet was always held up to be cutting-edge, yet, according to Tomkins
(2001) it is aping the old media by spamming people with advertisements they do
not want to see for products they do not want to buy.
·
Click-through-rates
Online ads are measured on instant response, the click-through-rates. This might
not be an appropriate way of doing so, since posters are not measured on that
either, yet they are proven to be effective, according to Harvey (2001).
19
2.2.4 Summary of Strengths and Weaknesses
Table 2-1: Summary of strengths and weaknesses
Truly interactive
Medium is untested
Enormous audience
Highest targeting costs
Immediate response
Slow downloads
Highly selective targeting
Not yet a mainstream medium
Affluent market
Inappropriately placement of ads
In-depth information
Concerns about security and privacy
Rapidly growing industry with
tremendous profit opportunities
Global marketing limitations
Reaches B2B users
Restrictions to banners
Advertorials
Too small to submit a full message
Virtual storefront
Dull creative work
Ad-blocking software programmes
Human brain can scan out ads
Spamming
In
tern
et Ad
verti
si
n
g
Click-through
rates
Strengths Weaknesses
Strongest medium to create awareness Media fragmentation
Reaches a mass audience
Television fragmentation
Strong impact
Advertising Clutter
Targeting at particular niche audiences Zapping
Localisation Zipping
Flipping
Rising
costs
Declining
effectiveness
Tr
adit
ional TV
Adve
rt
ising
Costs per thousand
20
2.3 Interactivity on TV
"The television is on the verge of making a significant leap
from a passive broadcasting medium into a world of interactive services."
Neil Dodgson, Datamonitor, 1997
Today, we are all participating in the beginning of a new media revolution brought on
by incredible achievements in communications technology. We're talking, of course,
about digital interactive media and the information superhighway.
To understand the dramatic affect this is having on marketing and advertising,
imagine for a moment what life was like before radio and TV. Back then, if you had a
product to sell, you made your appeal to the consumer directly, mainly going from
door to door. If the person did not like what you were offering, the door was being
slammed in your face. The consumer was in complete control of the selling
environment. Then along came radio and, 30 years later, TV. At that point, Arens
(1999, p. 504) argues "marketers had a captive audience, people who would willingly
pay for an evening's entertainment at home by simply sitting through the
commercials". Advertisers prospered as well as consumers, as they all participated
in a rapidly growing standard of living.
Keith Reinhard, the chair and CEO of DDB Needham Worldwide, (cited in Arens
1999, p.504) acknowledged the sound of all the slamming doors in a 1994 speech:
"Our consumer society is undergoing a fundamental power shift from the marketer to
the consumer". Reinhard pointed out that consumers are becoming "active
controllers" of the messages they see and hear. His message to the assembled agency
people was to "adapt to the new media environment or die," because there are always
plenty of other people just waiting for their chance to help marketers reach and satisfy
this new type of in-control consumers.
Meanwhile, technology keeps on going and going and going. It's already given us the
personal computer, the cellular phone, the Internet and the WWW, fiberoptics,
satellite communications, CD-ROM, and the software to make it all simple enough for
virtually anybody to use. And on the launching pad, about to blast off and become
really big, is interactive TV.
A couple of years ago, most industry analysts viewed the Internet as a competitor to
traditional TV. Now, they complement each other. According to O'Driscoll (2000),
Details
- Seiten
- Erscheinungsform
- Originalausgabe
- Erscheinungsjahr
- 2001
- ISBN (eBook)
- 9783832443528
- ISBN (Paperback)
- 9783838643526
- DOI
- 10.3239/9783832443528
- Dateigröße
- 613 KB
- Sprache
- Englisch
- Institution / Hochschule
- ( Middlesex University in London ) – unbekannt
- Erscheinungsdatum
- 2001 (Juli)
- Note
- 1,4
- Schlagworte
- interaktives fernsehen neue medien werbung
- Produktsicherheit
- Diplom.de
