The TV Shift is Real

The TV Shift is Real

Television viewing habits continue to shift. Have your advertising expenditures shifted too? It’s time to examine the trends for your business.

200 Channels and there is nothing on

The TV shift is real in 2017 and will only continue in the years ahead. Television viewing habits have been changing for years and as consumers, we really don’t care how we get our video content.

But for businesses that have relied on television advertising to be the lifeblood of their business, they may find themselves on life support unless they wake up and make some changes.

Saturday night my wife and I were taking care of 3 young ones, grandkids ages 8 months to 4 years old.

The parents are around 30 years old.  Neither watch local television.  Disney Junior is the channel of choice when the boys are up.  When the parents get to watch the TV in the family room, they are selecting something from Netflix.

Saturday night after the boys went to sleep, my wife and I were flipping through the line up and finally settled on HGTV for a little while, not because we wanted to watch it, but because of all the options that were coming up, it was the most viewable.  No offensive language in case we were visited by the grandkids coming downstairs for a snack and nothing that required an investment of uninterrupted time like a movie.

Granted my wife and I are Baby Boomers and we grew up with local television and later cable networks, but the past few years the networks decided that Friday and Saturday nights were not worth programming and they usually fill the prime time hours with reruns or fluff.

I’ve got a story I wrote about Baby Boomers, media and marketing coming up in a couple of days that talks about how to effectively reach us and invite us to spend our money with you and it has some information from Mediapost that should be eye-opening.

Right now, I have another Mediapost article in front of me that has some disturbing news for the television industry and if you are spending money advertising on TV, read on…

It’s titled: Good News, Bad News For TV, Video And Advertisers

The author went beyond the short term, headline grabbing information and dug through 3 years of data and here’s what he wrote:

Good News for Traditional TV – Adults spend more than five times as much time watching traditional TV than watching video on all other screens combined. Those under 25 spend about twice as much time with traditional TV than with other screens.

Bad News For Traditional TV – Two years ago, adults spent 10 times as much time, while those under 25 spent four times as much time with traditional TV. The gap between traditional TV and video on all other screens has been cut in half over the past two years — and continues to narrowing dramatically. This is also the first time I can recall when traditional TV viewing was lower in the first quarter than the fourth quarter of the same season.

In summary:

  • the big screen is still watched more more than our small screens (phones, tablets and laptops).
  • the drop in viewership of traditional TV, both cable and local has accelerated faster than nearly any other advertising medium in history in just the past two years. I can not think of any other advertising medium that has had a 90% decrease that survived.
  • the future is not very bright for traditional TV.  While the quotes above mention the under 25 year olds, I also know that the 25 to 40 year olds are following that same pattern of ignoring the TV networks, especially the local channels as I’ve witnessed in my own family.

Here’s more from the Mediapost story:

  • Good News For Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime

  • Good News For Mobile Video

  • Bad News For TV Advertisers – DVR and time-shifted viewing remains solid, particularly among traditional TV’s main audience —viewers 35+. But live viewing, which is the only way advertisers can know who is exposed to their commercials, is declining sharply, particularly among younger viewers.

Now where I live, in a conservative city in the midwest, Fort Wayne, Indiana, change is a little slower than on the east or west coasts of our country.  That may be why business are continuing to use the local television stations, even when they have challenges with justifying their return on investment.

I met with a local business owner recently that told me he spent over $50,000 for two years advertising on of our more popular local TV stations and could only track one job, worth a few hundred bucks from that expenditure.

You probably noticed changes in your viewing habits over the recent past.  I noticed a few years ago when the Emmy awards were featuring more and more programs that were not on ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC and that evolved to shows that were not even on cable. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon received 125 nominations for the next awards.  ABC, CBS & NBC together only have 115.

UPDATE: After I wrote and published this article, a couple more articles arrived in my email.

The young adults time spent watching TV is dropping fast.
Infographic: Young Americans Turn Their Backs on Traditional TV | Statista You will find more statistics at Statista

So what are they watching?  Take a look.
Infographic: Smartphones Beat TV for Young Adults in the U.S. | Statista You will find more statistics at Statista

The viewership habits have been changing for some time. Pretty soon the businesses that advertise on traditional TV will also change.  Because the TV Shift is Real.

Is Traditional Media Dead?

So really…Is Traditional Media Dead?

I’m going to look at this subject from a marketers perspective.  And a consumers viewpoint. And focus on just one piece of the traditional media, daily newspapers.

Lots of businesses rely on traditional media and advertising options that have been the mainstay for decades.  Radio, television, yellow pages, magazines and newspapers were the big ones.

Every one would get a phone book that included a yellow page section that businesses would pay for ad space so you and I as consumers could find a plumber or lawyer or whatever we needed that we didn’t already have.

The internet replaced the relevancy of the printed yellow pages as cellphones replaced land lines and printed phone books that were updated months in advance and published once a year became obsolete.

(I’m still listed in the printed phone book white pages with an address that I moved from 11 years ago and a phone number I disconnected 3 years ago.)

But let’s focus a second on the other printed form of advertising that is updated nearly every day.

Your local newspaper.  A decade ago I predicted the death of their business model at the same time our local papers built a new multi-million dollar press and building.  It was a stupid idea, but it didn’t kill the paper.

Last month a friend of mine who comes into the Firefly Coffee Shop everyday to do crosswords and drink a Venti cup of coffee told me he is in the Sunday newspaper.  Jim is his name and Jim is in his 70’s. He told me that his picture was in the business section.

While Jim was looking around the coffee shop for a copy of the Journal-Gazette Business section to show me the picture of him, I sat at my laptop and found it and the story.

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Jim was surprised that I could find nearly any story from the printed copy of the newspaper on their website. Here’s the irony:

Jim did not read the story in the newspaper and so he did not know the context of the picture except the picture was of two women and he was in the background.  The headline read: Youth also flavor local java scene and it was about the increase of millennials visiting coffee shops.

As both technology changes and generations age, there is a shift in the way the public consumes media and gathers information.  Many newspapers allow you to read a limited number of articles online free but the goal is to have you pay with an online subscription.

The newspaper business model is broken and attempts to fix it appear futile. The company I work for, Federated Media sold off the one newspaper they owned this year because it was not profitable. At least compared to the other media assets under the company umbrella.  Without my personally speaking to the Dillie family that owns our company, I still know that the newspaper was a prized piece of the portfolio of media interests, and the sale of the paper was strictly a business move that they wished they didn’t have to do.

Mediapost shared some stats about newspaper revenues that include:

Gannett reported an 11.7% year-on-year drop in its third-quarter ad revenues and a 6.4% drop in its circulation revenues

Print advertising revenues for the three months that ended on September 25 fell 14.8%, led by a 35.1% reduction in national print advertising and a 19.1% reduction in preprints.

On the positive side, they shared this:

Digital advertising revenues were up 6.2%, compared to the quarter a year ago, Digital-only subscriptions grew 45%.

However:

Gannett plans to lay off roughly 350 employees, or around 2% of its total workforce of about 18,700.

Gannett, which is the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, with a portfolio that includes USA Today and more than 100 local publications

Layoff announcements like this are not new. They are continuous. These are not like the old layoff announcements companies used to make about temporary layoffs.  These jobs are not coming back.

The online version of newspapers is not capable of supporting financially the printed version.

The short story on these and other numbers is that the newspaper business is still trying to stay alive but when they finally do find a formula that makes it possible to survive financially, it will be a tiny fragment of what we have now in 2016.  And what we have now in 2016 is a fragment of what the newspaper industry was 20 years ago.

As a consumer, I don’t need the printed paper to stay informed.  If the online version goes away, we’ll have other online news sources that don’t have the burden of overhead.

As an advertiser, the number of print readers I reach by ads in the newspaper will continue to grow old and die.  I went to a funeral of a 95 year old this fall so we may be living longer, but like my friend Jim who is in his 70’s and his picture is in the paper, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Thoughts?  Questions? Comments?  Let’s talk.

 

WOWO’s Baby Boomer Listeners are Online Too

A great article from Mediapost that I read this week was about Baby Boomers defying certain stereotypes, especially when it comes to tech and online activity.

Numbers show that Baby Boomers are a valuable customer that you can reach online

Numbers show that Baby Boomers are a valuable customer that you can reach online

Since 1/2 of WOWO radio’s huge audience is the Baby Boomer generation, it makes sense to share this with you and as WOWO is my radio station that I work for and it also helps explain what I shared earlier regarding Why Does A Radio Guy Also Sell Digital Marketing Solutions.

Here’s a few highlights:

  • Of the many misconceptions about baby boomers, perhaps the one most perilous to marketers today is that those in the demographic aren’t tech savvy. In fact, according to a 2016 Boston Consulting Group survey, boomers’ top 20 favorite brands include Amazon, Apple, Dell, HP, LG, Samsung and Sony. In my own personal experience as a Boomer, I use Amazon weekly and have bought products from Dell, HP, LG and Samsung. (Sorry Apple & Sony).
  • …contrary to stereotypes, aging doesn’t cause us to lose long-term memory. Instead, the change is a reduction in memory recall. For marketers, repetition is an effective way to ensure messages are properly processed and later recalled. This is why the Custom Audience Targeting with Digital Display Ads I offer works well, just like the ads I air on WOWO for my advertising partners.
  • In fact, a study by visual engagement analytics firm Sticky found that baby boomers engage with digital ads significantly longer than do millennials. Again, this explains the success I’ve seen with my advertising partners who are inviting older adults to their websites.

Want to know more?  Let’s talk.

How Many Customers Are You Losing Because of your Website?

How Many Customers Are You Losing Because of your Website?

I come across lots of businesses with crummy websites.

They are:

  • old and dated
  • not completed
  • hard to navigate
  • not mobile friendly

Pick any one of the above and you are losing business because:

  • customers can’t reach you
  • your old site casts a negative image on your company
  • customers will find a site that works for their needs and wants

Last week I read an article from Mediapost regarding the mobile shopping experience.

Mobile, in case you don’t know is the term used to describe accessing the web on a device besides a desktop or laptop computer.  It could be a smart phone, a tablet, or any devise that a customer can use while walking.

I’m here to help you stop losing those customers.

I work for Federated Media in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Specifically for WOWO Radio, the most listened to station in this city.  But I also have under my belt, another division called Federated Digital Solutions.  This team has been growing and growing and growing over the years by scooping up the most talented folks from other firms along with the brightest graduates and recruiting a few of us who have experience in both traditional media and new media.

Federated Digital Solutions began as a supplemental service offered exclusively to our radio clients but we have expanded and now also offer our services to anyone, anywhere in the U.S.A.

Contact me and we’ll see how to help you… but hang on a second.

The solution to those old clunky websites that are not mobile friendly?

We have that too and it’s pretty simple and has legs.  Ask me about it.

Still not convinced you need to update your online presence?  Read the Mediapost article that caught my eye:

Mobile Shoppers Need Better Customer Care Or They’re Out

 

According to new research from Contact Solutions, 30% of shoppers chose physical stores for less than half of their everyday shopping, while 52% do more than half their online shopping with online retailers, and 30% shop on mobile at least as much as they do on a computer.

Consumers are shifting a significant portion of their purchases from retail stores to the web at an ever- increasing pace. According to Forrester Research, U.S. online sales will top $400 billion in 2018, and nearly $1 trillion worldwide, says the report.

Consumers have high expectations for retail care when shopping via a mobile device, says the report, and if those expectations aren’t met, 71% say they’ll abandon the experience entirely. But 75% of shoppers say the ability to get “customer care” impacts their shopping experience, says the report.

However, 55% of respondents struggle at least 20% of the time when using a mobile app to shop. Separately, 43% say they have come to expect no customer service at all from mobile apps.

Mobile Owner Response to In-App Shopping Difficulties (Share of Respondents)
Response

% of Respondents

Close app and abandon cart

51.3%

Go to web using desktop or laptop

36.9

Go to store and shop

11.5

Call customer service

8.2

Source: Contact Solutions, October 2014

In fact, 77% will be more likely to return to the app, and 95% say “great customer experience” will make them more likely to do business again. The study found that 92% of shoppers say it would be helpful to have customer care automatically provided within an app to help complete a task.

Consumers have less time, are more price conscious, and have access to more information than ever before, and that’s changing buying behavior, says the report. As a result, consumers are shifting a healthy portion of their online purchases from the web to smartphones and tablets. Mobile shopping has arrived.

Some key findings from the study include:

  • 3 out of 4 shoppers shop online, and 30% of shoppers shop on a mobile device at least as much as they shop on a computer
  • 1 out of 10 shoppers already prefer mobile apps exclusively for their online shopping
  • 16% consumers say they struggle with mobile shopping apps at least half the time, and 38% of respondents said they are disappointed with the inability to get help within a mobile app
  • 51% abandon the cart and close the app (lost purchase) when they struggle in a retail app, and 20% stop using the app entirely
  • 55% of consumers say they struggle at least once every five visits

John Hibel, Director of Marketing, Contact Solutions,says “… customers using apps more frequently for shopping… when they encounter problems… cannot get the help they need… results are disastrous for retailers…

For more information from Contact Solutions, please visit here.