Youtube vs. Television

The importance of selecting the right medium is something the marketing team at Ford were certainly mindful of when they released their Shelby GT350R billboard Ad in 2015 with a catchy punch line.

“Let the kids pay for their own college.”

This Ad not only demonstrated the power of expression over simply putting the car’s performance upfront, but also how the same product can be promoted to very different target audiences through selecting the right message and the right medium.

Shelby GT350R Advertisement — 2015

The same applies for choosing between TV and Youtube.

These are two different mediums advertisers have been using to showcase their brands to audiences with Youtube proving to be far more engaging than traditional television advertising.

Youtube impressively has a reach of 1 billion views per day. Moreover, it has an extremely engaged audience reflected by a 95% advertising viewability and 95% advertising audibility as per data from a 2017 Google Study.

Adversely, TV is declining as reflected by a 2017 study outlining the shift of television viewership to other platforms. In the same year, monthly viewership dropped from 76 hours and 55 minutes to 64 hours and 21 minutes.

Despite being the largest video consumption source according to Nielsen, traditional TV is still rapidly declining, particularly amongst ages 18–34.

So why do TV advertisements still exist?

Given the stats and consumer behavior, many people believe that television is dead, however, this isn’t the case.

While advertising on TV may not appear engaging at first, a misconception is that large companies choose either or, when in fact, many benefit from a hybrid model: TV + Youtube (and/or other social media platforms).

There are several reasons large companies continue to advertise on TV.

Different Demographics

Going back to the Shelby, an advertiser may choose a certain platform for their brand to reach a specific audience.

The Shelby slogan paired with the signage as the medium made it the obvious choice to target older, wealthier people — the kind that usually would buy the car for their kids instead of theirselves.

The same applies to television, which has the best penetration with older, wealthier targets.

Effectiveness

If you missed it on social media, then you might catch it on TV, and that makes it successful in combining the different mediums.

In addition, platforms like Youtube build consumer profiles too well for their own good, showing users only specific ads they believe appeal to them. This means the advertiser might miss out on showcasing new messages, or ads the consumer doesn’t realize they would be interested in as they haven’t been exposed to it.

Television on the other hand doesn’t stick to such a detailed algorithm and therefore, the ads continue to be more heterogenous.

Legitimacy & Prestige

Television fosters a sense of legitimacy and prestige for the advertiser. Advertising on television incurs higher costs than platforms like Youtube and still has a higher visibility.

This is apparent from companies that have spent their entire advertising budget on single Super Bowl ads.

Television is here to stay

On a surface level, it may seem that television is dying, however, it has merely lost some of its engagement due to the saturation of advertising mediums.

Instead of looking at television as a sole advertiser, companies should implement it as part of a larger 360 campaign.

This is because it’s still a great way to reach a large number of people and can greatly contribute to the campaign when combined with social media’s more strategic and specific approach.

Sources:

1. Shanet, Laurence. “Why Do Big Companies Still Advertise On TV Instead Of Social Media?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 Mar. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/03/01/why-do-big-companies-still-advertise-on-tv-instead-of-social-media/?sh=4b60d7b0dd41.
2. McKay, Bob. “Council Post: The Future Of Media Buying: YouTube Versus Traditional TV.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 16 Jan. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/01/16/the-future-of-media-buying-youtube-versus-traditional-tv/?sh=1f49aeab2675.
3. Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: Five Years of Network Ratings Declines in Context.” The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Sept. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/five-years-network-ratings-declines-explained-1241524.