The ad industry is behaving like a 'bunch of kids' being distracted by new toys and switching spend out of traditional media too quickly, according to the latest State of the National report by Roy Morgan.
The research looks at the Australian Media landscape, and according to CEO of the business, Michele Levine, the ad industry needs to stay focused and not get swept up by the latest new thing and truly focus on the end consumer.
Speaking about the rise of programmatic buying and the issue about transparency Levine said: “In the mean time, we've still got keep our heads on straight and say where do I want my ads to be seen.”
“I'm not anti-programmatic buying at all, I'm just saying these are all wonderful tools that allow us to do things, but we can't be blinded by it.”
The overall theme of the latest research was that rapid change has engulfed the industry. Levine said that as an industry it's important to not just focus on the next big thing but rather to focus more on truly understanding the relationship with the consumer.
“I feel we're like kids with a bunch of new toys, we're blurting out things,” she said. “We're blurting out whatever we want faster and faster and faster, I'm not seeing the nuanced learning that's possible.”
She explained that while the measurement piece is there, people aren’t necessarily taking to heart what the measurement is saying, however that will change as the market matures.
The research explained Australians (14+) spend an average 18.8 hours a week watching TV, 12.8 hours listening to radio, and 3.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines.
It found that the average time Australians spend on traditional media activities has declined by 8.8 hours a week over the past decade, but this has been more than compensated by internet consumption.
The average Australian now spends 17.9 hours a week using the internet - 13.4 hours of which is leisure usage, as in, not for purposes, such as work or school.
While digital spend and usage is on the up, Levine said there are still potent opportunities to by had by looking to traditional mediums.
“Roy Morgan data suggests that the ad industry is swapping spend out of traditional media, TV, radio, newspapers into digital too swiftly. While there have been declines in radio, TV, cinema and print, there are still very potent media opportunity to reach target markets,” she said.
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