Going Down

It's a recurring theme for regular readers of this blog, but it seems that further evidence is arriving that traditional tv (and the agencies that serve them) are rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic (to borrow hackneyed phrase curently being used about our prime minister).

Jupiter has just reported that it estimates that $8bn of $74bn US TV commercials are lost to DVR shifting. But everyone already knows that much of that $74bn is wasted anyway...

I met with the head of new media at one of the world's largest news organizations last week, and he was telling me that he doesn't have enough inventory (ie ad slots) to deliver all the online video ad booking they have. I have heard similar reports from other video orientated sites. Apparently, the majority of these ads are booked directly rather than through an agency.

Soon, services from companies like Spot Runner and Visible World and technology from Narrowstep will cut out the agencies completely.

US agencies have woken up and smelt the coffee and have come from nowhere in the last few months to adopt new technologies such as video advertising, whilst UK and European agencies are really behind the times. A common complaint is 'we haven't cleared the tv commercials for broadband'. Duh!

Why is it that the advertising world is so slow to adopt technology when it's such a core element of their industry ?

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