The gloves were well and truly off as the battle between TV and digital racheted up a notch or two at a session that explored the collision of digital video and TV.
In television’s corner, on the left of the panel, was Network Ten’s executive GM of Melbourne and the newly named Think TV chair, Russel Howcroft, alongside Nine’s sales boss, Michael Stephenson.
At the other end of the panel, putting up a solid fight for the digital sector, was Facebook head of agency sales, Ellie Rogers. Wedged in the middle – and at times awkwardly –were MCN’s digital partnerships and product development director, Suzie Cardwell, and AOL managing director, Mitch Waters.
Howcroft fired the first shot across the bow, pointing out that 15 million Australians watch TV every day, the average time spent is three hours and its reach is 87% of Australians every week.
“On broadcast TV’s digital platforms, you cannot fast-forward the ads,” he said.
“You cannot block them. You cannot click after a few seconds. Modern broadcast TV remains respectful of the advertiser in its vital role in building clients’ businesses.”
Stephenson chimed in noting that he doesn’t see “these two things colliding ... I see them working together” adding there’s a role for every media channel in the broader media ecosystem.
“The question is what is that role? For me, the pendulum has swung way too far ... in terms of this mass rush to digital media and the romancing that some channels have made to advertisers and agencies to convince them they should invest more of their money into particular channels,” he said.
Stephenson predicted a re-alignment back to TV advertising, a viewpoint echoed elsewhere this week by Seven West Media CEO, Tim Worner, who pointed out major brands in the US have already begun embracing television again.
Nine’s streaming player 9Now has attracted 1.1 million registered users since it launched in February, but Stephenson pointed out the amount of time viewers spend on a stream is, “way below what we thought it would be”.
“The ability to deliver advertising at scale doesn’t exist on that platform yet,” he said.
Rogers, who took a collaborative line, said the way people consume video is increasingly via mobile and that marketers haven’t yet caught up.
In an effort to take the sting out of TV land’s blows, she said “we’re actually playing really well together” adding that the TV broadcasters are Facebook clients utilising Facebook well.
“We need to get over the fact that mobile video is a thing that’s happening and we need to work out how it sits as part of the broadcaster, not instead of TV but how the two platforms work better together,” she said.
Rogers added that the biggest challenge wasn’t from a media agency or broadcaster perspective, it was on the creative side.
“In a world where we have 30-second spots, my challenge to the creative industry is can we lose the nought?” she said, warning “people are on mobile for a good time, not a long time.”
On this point, Stephenson countered with “we have 15s to 30s, they are 100% viewable and not viewed by robots.”
Also on the agenda was the way TV will be bought and sold in future. Cardwell believes TV and digital work best in collaboration and hopes to see progress on a cross-media trading platform.
“On the buy side, the multiplication of trading platforms presents issues for our buyers and us – it creates friction,” she revealed.
“Around that technology and trading space there are multiple issues that need to be addressed.”
Waters agreed, saying it is very difficult to integrate robust TV trading platforms with ad tech digital solutions.
He added that the main challenge in finding parity between TV and digital is around data and measurement.
“The more devices, the whole viewer and viewership discussion, it’s going to be so hard to get parity across all of that and we don’t have a third party body that has a fusion panel that is digital offline and online,” he warned.
“You are going to get multiple people developing their own currencies ... without that central body. That’s a big opportunity for someone who can do it correctly."
Check out other highlight reels for the Media Summit here.
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