Back in 1962

This past Saturday night, I took a fun little trip with my wife and another couple — to the airport — the TWA hotel at JFK to be exact. While there, I chanced upon this little gem featured below. ??? #3 is what startled me and inspired this post. You see, back in 1962 there were only 3 TV networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Back in 1962, 90% of the entire US population focused their attention on those 3 networks and limited number of channels. The only communications mediums that competed for their attention were radio and print, which definitely didn’t hold as much interest for the average American as television. TV was king. ??

Back in 1962 there was no Internet, no smart phones, and definitely no social media. 

So, it was a golden age for advertisers. Imagine having a captive audience -- 90% of the entire US population -- watching your ad. All you had to do was spend massive amounts of money to get it on one of those three channels. And, no matter how expensive it was to run a television ad in 1962, it was worth every penny. Because everybody watched it.

But we don’t live in 1962 anymore. We live in 2020 where we have access to what seems like an unlimited number of channels on TV -- if we even have one. And, even if we do own a television set, we don't watch TV live anymore. Now, we record it with DVR and fast-forward the commercials. And, if we ever happen to see a commercial, we instinctively pull out our phone and scroll our social media, check our email, or reply to a text.

We also have the Internet, which has toppled TV as the main channel of our communication, including unlimited and seemingly infinite choices of websites to browse, platforms for content consumption and communication, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram etc., devices for accessing the Internet (computer, tablet, smartphone), and other channels where we increasingly spend most of our downtime such as podcasts and streaming networks, such as Hulu and Prime. Rather than fall asleep to the evening news or late night TV, more of us are throwing on a podcast or dozing off to Netflix.

So, it might surprise you to learn that TV advertising costs haven’t come down since 1962. In fact, they’ve gone way, way up since then. Crazy, no? 

Look around you. Where are the eyes and ears of consumers today. We all know their eyes aren't on TV or billboards. They're usually staring down at a mobile device. "All these damn kids walking around staring at their phones all day!" you shout angrily, but it's you too. You're just as guilty of this. And, when they're on those phones most are communicating or browsing content on one of the dominant social media platforms of today --- YouTube (2 billion monthly active users as of this writing), Facebook (2.37 monthly active users and 1.62 billion daily active users), Instagram (1 billion monthly active users, 63% of whom login every single day), Twitter (330 million monthly active users), LinkedIn (over 575 million total users, 260 million monthly active users, and about 156 million access it daily), TikTok (700 million daily active users), and several others.

Of those platforms, YouTube (owned by Google), Facebook, and Instagram (owned by Facebook) have been the fastest to roll out a user-friendly and accurately targeted advertising product which can reach a large number of people and track data insights and results down to the most minute detail. And, unlike TV ads, Facebook/Instagram ads have no price floor minimum, can earn you more impressions and elicit the desired actions at a fraction of the cost, and enable you to track response and gain new data on your target audience in a way you never could with television/radio/print/outdoor.

Even crazier than the fact that TV ads are going up while consumer attention has shifted away from TV and over to social mobile platforms is the fact that you’re still spending on traditional advertising while questioning and debating whether or not it’s wise to run ads on platforms where people are actually likely to see and respond to them!

As a business you have two choices. You can follow the conventional wisdom and tradition and what you know or you can follow the eyeballs and ears of your target audience and the market. 

Follow consumer attention and you have a chance of soaring high above the competition. ?? Be slow to adapt and you might find your company a relic of a previous age, as much a part of history as 1962.