Commercials Make a Comeback

As the upfront advertising market for broadcast and cable television repeatedly slipped in recent years, the conventional wisdom on Madison Avenue was that TV advertising had had its day. Digital advertising had arrived, pundits said, with its more efficient targeting of brands and more elegantly trackable methods of reaching consumers.

But a resurgent upfront — coupled with new research suggesting that TV advertising is simply more engaging than digital — shows there’s still plenty of life left in the 30-second spot. This past spring, broadcast and cable networks sold $18.6 billion worth of advertising, a 4.5 percent uptick amounting to about $800 million, according to the research firm Media Dynamics.

“Digital is an important part of the mix,” allowed NBCUniversal chief executive Steve Burke during a second-quarter earnings chat with investors. “But if you have a major product launch, you have to look at big events on broadcast and cable television that can provide reach and depth.”

Big-brand advertisers — concerned about the ability of the internet to reach mass audiences with quality programming — are returning to TV, says Ed Papazian, president of Media Dynamics. Advertisers are also bothered by digital ad blockers. Like TV advertising, which has had its challenges with the DVR, digital is maturing into problems of its own.

“What we are seeing,” Papazian observes, “is partly a reaction to the many issues plaguing digital media, which until recently was seen as a potential alternative or supplement to linear TV.”

And TV ads might have an engagement advantage over digital, as well.

According to a recent study conducted by Hub Entertainment Research, 62 percent of viewers who watched shows like The Big Bang Theory, Bones and Family Guy could recall more than half of the commercial sponsors for the shows they’d just seen. That recall fell to 47 percent for tablet viewers, 46 percent for smart phone watchers and 45 percent for those using personal computers.

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, Issue No. 8, 2016