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July 2006 - Strategy Magazine
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Time & space
TV alarmists are tilting at windmills

by Rob Young
page 106

The 30-storey wind turbine that rises above Toronto's lakefront stands as a constant reminder that Ontario's electrical "grid" is in transition. Canada's TV medium is transitioning in a way that has an uncanny resemblance to Ontario's power system. Television is a "grid" with its own share of emerging technology not to mention quixotic windmill tilting developments wrapped in a transitioning regulatory environment.

The majority of today's TV marketing efforts employ conventional, mass technology and tactics in order to reach the consuming public just as the vast majority of the public have their energy needs satisfied by conventional means - gas, coal, water, nuclear. But standing on the horizon are harbingers - mobile reception, Internet delivery, PVRs, PPMs, diginets in the case of TV - smart meters, windmills, solar panels, biomass, and vented methane in the case of energy generation. Just as both sectors pray for firm regulatory direction, the regulators' indecision grows.

Media pontificators have created a rich and imaginative lexicon to describe our shifting landscape. We are in the middle of "crackling change," "holy grails," and "attraction economies" as we move to "relationship models," and "consumer engagement." And with each newly borrowed phrase, our industry becomes increasingly frantic. Media directors compete for larger shares-of-media-soothsaying-voice. Marketers drop inspirational bombs, which capture attention but deaden the landscape.

As much fun as this all seems to be, it is not without its downside.

With each new radical pronouncement, confidence in the TV medium declines. With decline in TV confidence levels, comes decline in the funding bulwark for most of this country's marketing, media and measurement infrastructure. The last two "Ballester/ICA Canadian Ad Agency" studies have disclosed a shift in allegiance away from conventional mass media by advertisers.

A most recent phraseology, which has entered with a bang, is the characterization of TV as a medium transitioning from "conventional/mass model" to "relationship model." As best I can determine, those promoting the need (or predicting the shift) are referring to how media journeymen plan, measure, price, evaluate, tactically schedule and place commercial messages and finally, determine if it's all worthwhile.

The implication, and inherent confidence breaker, is that the industry needs to hurry up, upgrade the skill sets, think in new ways, and make those TV media dollars work harder by building relationships with consumers instead of just dropping commercial messages on amorphous consumer blobs.

But the industry has been quickly evolving along these lines for years. Target groups have moved from broad age segments to narrow demographics to product and brand user segments. Canada's "Unity Project" as well as new software offerings from Telmar and IMS allow buyers to conduct TV commerce using product user ratings. Specialty and diginet channels provide media planners with the means to reach self-selecting lifestyle defined target groups. Direct response buying tactics and tracking software continue to upgrade and allow for relationship measurement. Econometric models that measure return-on-TV-investment have been in use for 10 years. They're fast, easy and painless. Reach, frequency and basic opportunity-to-see ceased to be our primary evaluation tools long ago.

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