
by Wayne Friedman, Wednesday, August 21, 2013
TV is still the most popular advertising tool for media buyers -- but at its lowest level in three years, according to a new survey.
Chicago-based Strata, the media-buying and selling software company, says TV remains the top advertising medium with 44% of survey respondents saying “they are more interested in advertising" on it. But this is the lowest score in three years.
Digital is now at 35% -- up from 16% a year ago. Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed say advertisers will have greater spend on digital media platforms than traditional media in one to three years. Conversely, about the same number -- 27% -- say they don’t ever anticipate spending more on digital than traditional media.
Overall interest in video also remains high. There is a 61% interest in video -- TV, cable, network and digital streaming -- with 66% saying they are more interested in online video than last year. YouTube is the top online video site for media agencies at 69%. Hulu is next at 35%, and Netflix and social media video site Vine are tied for third at 14%.
Other older media continues to fall -- traditional radio advertising, for example. Eighty-six percent of media buyers say clients were interested at the same level or less than last year -- the lowest rate of interest for radio in 19 quarters.
Forty-one percent of media executives say “client attraction” remains a main goal, with 21% pointing to client spending is the second biggest challenge. Media executives say the ad economy generally looks healthy -- over half of the agencies polled experienced an increase in business compared to this time last year.