With 100 companies showcasing streaming media, numerous booths touting interactive television, and a slew of Internet-based exhibitors, last week’s National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB) convention in Las Vegas underscored the fact that new creative challenges are fast emerging for the advertising industry.
New media will also likely help stimulate a different kind of challenge for commercials that run on traditional broadcast/ cable outlets—as referenced by Sumner Redstone in his NAB keynote address. Redstone, chairman/CEO of Viacom Inc.—which is about to merge with CBS—said that if broadcasters adapt properly, they will be at an advantage in the brave new media world. He reasoned that broadcasters can invest in Internet-related ventures, will continue to offer the highest caliber program content, and have an ongoing profit stream that dwarfs that of any so-called emerging medium.
Still, Redstone acknowledged that broadcast television audiences have eroded—a point also articulated by Howard Stringer, former president of CBS News, and now chairman/CEO of Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Professional Company. Stringer related that the difference between his first NAB years ago and this year’s convention is that now, audiences are measured in terms of nine clicks, as compared to the big three networks’ 90 share of yesteryear.
But Redstone sees an inherent advantage in that transition from 90 share to nine clicks. "As television and the Internet converge, the number of news and entertainment options for consumers will increase even more drastically than we’ve seen in the last decade," Redstone said. "This just makes our [broadcasters’] ability to reach a mass audience more and more valuable.
"Thus, the broadband revolution, far from sounding the death knell of traditional media, actually means that broadcasters and cable networks with established brand strength will reap disproportionate gains," he continued. "Fragmentation? Bring it on! Because ultimately it will only increase the margin between the major broadcasters and the hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other media hopefuls trying to stand out amid all the clutter."
Redstone said this year’s Super Bowl generated $150 million in revenue for ABC—three times more than the leading content Web site made in all of ’99. Indeed, the price tag on Super Bowl ad time continues to escalate disproportionately—and that seems to be happening with other major television events as well. A significant premium will be put on shows that can deliver mass audience and a shared experience for American television viewers—particularly as such programming becomes harder to come by in the new media landscape. Going hand in hand with sponsorship of big Nielsen number-generating fare will be big-ticket spot production budgets, and a creative quandary to match.
Despite the megabuck expenditures, recent Super Bowls have hardly been a bastion of great ad creativity. A frequently offered explanation is that with the stakes being so high, advertisers tend to adopt a safety-first, appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator approach. However, especially in an age of fragmentation, such thinking needs to be abandoned. Breaking through the clutter becomes all the more imperative precisely because the stakes are so high. In some respects, that challenge is at least on par with the importance of developing ad forms that are relevant to new media.
