Television advertising makes a comeback
TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: It seems like everyone on TV is talking about Charlie Sheen. Oh yeah, everyone on TV is talking about Charlie Sheen. CBS is expected to lose millions in ad dollars without its primetime hit show “Two and a Half Men” for now anyway. But the ad revenue loss may only be temporary.
As Marketplace’s Jennifer Collins reports.
Jennifer Collins: This is how CBS CEO Leslie Moonves put it recently:
Leslie Moonves: Advertising is back. My sales guys call me once a week. They can’t sell our shows fast enough.
Moonves says some spots are selling for 40 percent more than they were a year ago. That bodes well for the networks as they approach what’s known as the “upfront market” this spring when media buyers make their big ad purchases for the next season.
Brand strategist Adam Hanft says ad rates — on the whole — could be up as much as 10 percent over last year.
Adam Hanft: Marketers were holding on to a lot of dollars because they were concerned that we might have a double dip and as they feel more confident some of those budgets that were in a lock box, if you will, for a while have now been opened up.
Particularly auto companies. Some nearly disappeared during the recession. But they were back at the Super Bowl in a big way with spots like
Volkswagen’s little Darth Vader.
Brad Adgate of Horizon Media says TV is still best way to reach a large audience.
Brad Adgate: TV viewing is still very strong and clearly there is a long love affair that marketers have with television.
And where might that love affair go next season? Here’s Adam Hanft.
Hanft: People are hungry for escapism. So I do think it will be a lot of frothy kind of high entertainment value, no intellectual stress programming.
Like —
“Two and a Half Men” music.
Oh right. Not that one.
I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.
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