Digital is in the ascendancy and traditional media are “dying” – that has been the stock industry narrative for the last few years.
But Jan Isenbart isn’t buying it, and he says the TV industry needs to start telling a more confident, more truthful story that communicates the real picture.
“In the last years we’ve heard a lot (about) ‘TV going down’, ‘no one’s watching TV anymore’, things like that – which is not true,” says Isenbart, chief research officer at German media sales house ARD-Werbung Sales & Services, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
“But … television is still performing today and reaching millions of people every day and delivering on sales, on brand building everything.
“Others are not there yet where we are today, but they’re just claiming to be the future. We have realized actually that TV is probably the only medium that delivers on both sides of the funnel – on short-term sales and activation on the one hand, and a long-term brand building and also long-term sales effects on the other. It’s a very, very strong combination.”
ARD-Werbung sells ads for networks including ARD itself.
Isenbart’s German market makes clear the challenge of digital advertising. By his own admission, roughly 30% of German consumers run internet ad blockers, as many consumers have an aversion to tracking. And ad inventory is also more scarce, limited by regulation, than other major markets.
But all of these factors add up to a sales pitch for TV, Isenbart suggests.
“In TV, we do have a smaller ad load, less clutter – due to regulatory reasons mainly,” he adds. “So we don’t have that much of a consumer issue in TV yet.”
This interview was conducted at the EGTA New York meetings hosted by Viacom. EGTA, the Brussels-based trade association of international television companies, is the sponsor of this Beet.TV series. For more videos, please visit this page.
