Marketing 3 min read

Social Media Killed TV Advertising

Burhan Bunardi | Shutterstock.com

Burhan Bunardi | Shutterstock.com

Trust us, your social media ad campaign is the right way to go. For decades now, marketers have heavily relied on TV advertising to promote products and brands.

While TV advertising is still the go to place for most marketers, the trend appears to be changing. We’ve watched ad revenues for individual content creators like YouTube skyrocket over the last decade–and there’s no end in sight.

If you’re on the fence about committing to a social media ad campaign, this article will change your mind.

Why The Change?

Last year, for the first time ever, digital ad revenue surpassed TV ad revenue. A report by Ad Age shows $72.5 billion USD was spent on digital ads in the United States compared to $71.3 billion USD that was spent on TV.

The difference may seem marginal but the gap is only projected to widen from here in favor of digital ads.

Mobile Dominance

People are spending more time on mobile. U.S. consumers spend averagely 5 hours daily on their mobile devices compared to an average of 2.5 hours spent watching tv.

In 2015, a report by Common Sense Media found that teens were spending a whopping 9 hours daily on various social media platforms.

Teens spend 9 hours a day on social media.Click To Tweet

https://youtu.be/mHcsbW068Mo

Shift in Ad Spending

More and more companies and brands are cutting down their TV ad budget.

Last year Under Armour shifted their marketing budget split from what used to be a 70/30 split between TV and Digital ads to a 50/50 split for both.

Adidas ditched TV ads for Digital ads to Engage with Young ConsumersClick To Tweet

Earlier this year, Adidas Chief Executive Kasper Rorsted told CNBC that they were ditching TV advertising as young consumers were engaging with their brand on mobile.

“It’s clear that the younger consumer engages with us predominately over the mobile device” – Kasper Rorsted

The youth is our future after all–and they seem to more interested in social media.

The Future is Engagement

Initially, social media was mostly represented by text content like LiveJournal and MySpace–but it has evolved quite a bit since its inception. TV was predominant because video content is more fun and easier to consume.

Now, with video traffic projected to make up 82% of consumer internet traffic by 2021, almost all social media platforms are focusing on video content with one key element: interactivity.

Facebook is in the middle of launching their own original TV shows. They are reportedly paying up to $3 million USD per episode for center piece shows.

Both Snapchat and Instagram are providing more tools to create and share video content and everywhere is adding LIVE features to the mix.

Social media allows consumers to engage with video and live content in a way traditional TV is unable to.

When traditional TV wants more engagement on shows, they turn to social media.

Future of Ad Spend

Traditional TV advertising has peaked, and the social media advertising journey is just beginning. It’s an uphill spend for digital ads from here on out. eMarketer projects TV ad spending to drop below one-third of the total media ad spend by 2020.

How do you think social media killed TV? Will there be a revolutionary, rejuvenating tech for TV engagement?

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  1. Michael Ayer July 26 at 9:13 pm GMT

    TV ads are not yet dinosauric, you can thank big pharma for the billions that underwrite shows that the over 60 watch. The TV is that big thing in my parent’s living room, right? Ha!

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