Turner Touts Study Showing TV Ads Rule

TV not only works but is the most effective advertising medium even in an increasingly digital era, according to a new analysis.

The analysis was performed by research company MarketShare on behalf of Turner Broadcasting and Horizon Media.

MarketShare looked at the marketing done by major advertisers from 2009 to 2014 and found that television advertising effectiveness has not changed and outperforms multiple digital and offline channels at generating sales or creating new accounts.

Premium digital video created by TV programmers also out-performed short-form video from non-premium publishers, the study found.

Some marketers have been shifting marketing dollar to digital because it is perceived as being a more precise target with less waste, and because it is easier to track user interaction with marketing messages. MarketShare, in its report says there is ample interaction data generated by TV advertising that would enable marketers to optimize spending. Those interactions include in-bound call, store visits and website traffic.

“Video consumption has radically changed over the last few years,” Howard Shimmel, chief research officer, Turner Broadcasting, said in a statement. “We are aware of those shifts and Turner has a clear vision in programming content to meet the evolving viewer demands across all screens.  We funded this analysis due to advertiser concern that TV effectiveness in driving ROI had decreased. This analysis clearly demonstrates that TV ad effectiveness remains powerful and has not diminished, maintaining its leadership strength over other forms of media.”

“Our clients need our continued perspective on the effectiveness and efficiencies of video options across multiple platforms,” said Eric Blankfein, chief of Horizon Media’s Where unit. “We have seen the quantified contribution of television to positive business results. Horizon’s proprietary suite of planning tools and analytics has uncovered many of these hypotheses, and we are glad to see them drawn out through this detailed analysis served to confirm our perspectives.”

Horizon Media handles Turner’s media buying account.

A copy of the MarketShare report can be found here.

(Photo via Ervins Strauhmanis's FlickrImage taken on Sept. 19, 2014 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.