Broadcast Television: Still No. 1 At CES

It isn’t lost on app designers, Internet content developers, over-the-top providers and device manufacturers that consumers love television.  According to Nielsen, on average, Americans continue to spend more time watching television than with any other medium.

To satisfy that attraction, the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show was overflowing with TV technology — from the biggest, thinnest flat screens to the smallest mobile DTV smartphones; from the deepest, color-rich OLED pictures, to jump-off-the-screen 3D experiences; and from TVs in cars and refrigerators, to TVs you can literally talk to. Smart manufacturers with gorgeous, smart TVs were all the rage at CES.

And it isn’t lost on advertisers that television — smart, connected and mobile — is the place to reach and engage their most coveted consumers. Agency executives attended CES 2012 en masse and used the confab to introduce their clients to emerging advertising opportunities driven by screen technology. There was much buzz about Group M’s Irwin Gotlieb personally leading tours of the show floor for over 40 agency execs, and the sheer number of attendees from Digitas, JWT, MEC, Mullen, Razorfish and SapientNitro, just to name a few. 

Digiday.com enhanced its CES coverage by inviting agency execs to share their experiences and impressions from the show floor. Brandon Berger, chief digital officer, Ogilvy & Mather, made it clear that CES is now an essential stop on the annual agency conference tour. “Formerly, CES focused on the devices that were transforming the way that we engage with the world,” he said. “But now, the devices are everywhere and CES has evolved to become a place where we meet, we imagine and we get inspired. For the first time, CES is less about electronics and more about the consumer.  Technology simply enables the seamless convergence of content and marketing in consumers’ lives, making it richer, more engaging and delivering value…. After all, the future of marketing isn’t about hardware and software. It’s the realization of the breadth of ways we can creatively engage with our consumers.”

For the creative, forward-thinking marketer there was an abundance of innovative ways to reach television-loving consumers, and TV broadcasters were squarely in that game with mobile DTV. Local television broadcasters received front-page coverage for their initiatives to turn smartphones, tablets and laptops into portable TV sets that receive live, over-the-air, digital TV signals:

• Broadcaster consortiums, Mobile Content Venture and Mobile500 Alliance announced technology and device partnerships with companies including Elgato, Expway, LG, MetroPCS and Samsung. 

• Mobile DTV was demonstrated live with signals from Las Vegas TV stations on smartphones and iPads.

• The Mobile 500’s dongle beta test and MCV’s Dyle consumer roll-out took shape for imminent announcement.

Because mobile DTV is live, not streamed, and viewers won’t need WiFi, 3G or wireless data plans to watch broadcast TV on-the-go, there was great interest in its consumer appeal. And new opportunities for advertisers to reach consumers with on-air, banner and interactive ads right in their hands were enticing. With mobile DTV, marketers will have the opportunity to establish the deepest connection with consumers through the reach of television, their relationship with local news and entertainment, the interactivity of the Web and the intimacy of personal devices.

Following last year’s CES, I contributed a Sales Office column to TVNewsCheck titled, “Stations Shouldn’t Give Away Mobile Ads.” The message in that column is even more relevant this year as advertisers turn their attention to multiscreen ad opportunities and MCV and Mobile 500 begin rolling out Dyle and dongles. To quote myself: “Broadcasters should seize the opportunity to bring mobile DTV to market as quickly as possible and monetize this valuable asset from Day One.”

Abby Auerbach is TVB’s EVP and chief marketing officer. All about sales and advertising, Sales Office appears once a month in TVNewsCheck through the cooperation of the TVB, which solicits the columns from its staff and members. To see all the columns in the series, click here.