Reality TV is making advertisers switch budgets.
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Search has become ubiquitous and brand advertising is the future for online are the key points delivered by AOL’s Jeff Levick, AOL President, global advertising and strategy, at his keynote Engage 2009 address.
Levick believes that “Now is the first real opportunity for building brands online” and “reality TV is making marketers switch budgets.” He added: “The future of online is brand advertising, as we currently move into a critical stage for digital”.
In his speech, which outlined five characteristics of the digital landscape, Levick argued that marketers – particularly within the consumer goods sector – can no longer rely on TV to provide them with a safe environment within which to advertise.
“Brands are steadily running out of places to control their brand”, he said and referenced a quote from a senior marketer at P&G, who told him that more than ‘60% of network programming will be reality television and I can’t put my brand there’.
Levick believes that the life cycle of online is entering its third stage: the first, between 1990 and 2000 was about getting people online, between 2000 and 2010 it was all about connectivity and platforms; beyond this, the “third act” is all about content, because people are consuming more online.
For Levick the real opportunity for advertisers in the next decade is as co-creators of content to drive growth through brand building – especially across multiple platforms of mobile and video. He described the challenge for marketers as “niche is the new mass media. In online there isn’t a massive panacea where you invest in five properties and you’re done. The real opportunity and also challenge for brand advertisers is to define these niche audiences.”
He argued that brands have yet to figure out what the right “media cycle” is and that in the future there will be “lots of campaigns and creatives and formats. We’re back in the infancy of the internet.”
1980s fitness icon Mr Motivator opened the Engage 2009 with a breathless morning workout for the sell-out 650-strong audience of advertisers, media owners and industry movers and shakers.
It was a hard act to follow for IAB CEO Guy Phillipson whose buoyant opening address on the shape of the online industry was complemented by his florescent shell suit.
