Suggesting that media is past due on shifting its focus to online promotion, a new study reveals that broadband users are spending nearly half their spare time online – and the other half becoming paler and fatter.
“Many broadband consumers go online for entertainment, and to talk about entertainment with other fans. Marketers need to leverage that interest and focus on catalyzing a conversation now, instead of just talking to their fans via traditional advertising channels.”
The younger crowd, whom advertisers love because of all that disposable income, are especially reachable online. Nearly half (48%) of younger users say they learn about new entertainment through user-generated sites like YouTube (a fair rebuttal to media companies' tendency to guard their content so iron-fistedly).
In contrast, only a quarter of these younger broadband users say they learn about new entertainment through television. And that makes sense considering most of us pick just a few channels to watch and stick with them (a la carte programming anyone?). It will be especially interesting to watch what happens once television and the Internet are fully converged.
With this major sea change in mind, Media-Screen is encouraging marketers to more aggressive to move their ad dollars online.
"Currently, the proportion of advertising resources devoted to the Internet (about seven percent according to ZenithOptimedia) is nominal relative to the value it generates in interest and engagement among fans," said Crandall.
"We have found that consumers, on a typical weekday, spend more than 40% of their time consuming media online. As more of the population goes online and there are more marketing channels, it will be imperative for the entertainment industry to know how to effectively allocate marketing and advertising dollars."
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