Over two years ago, ThinkBox wrote a Newsroom press release titled, Why TV remains the world’s most effective advertising (1 – ThinkBox 2020)explaining how the power of television advertising remains resilient when looking at the figures in The Global TV Deck. The global databank includes figures from 26 countries and contains TV’s reach, popularity, resilience, trust and impact, and effectiveness. In their piece, through the use of compiled and available data, they realised the following:

“TV reaches approximately 70.1% of Europe’s population daily, and the average daily viewing time is 3hrs 39mins.

TV, in all its forms, is the world’s favourite video. TV accounts for 90% of the average viewer’s video time.

TV is the most trusted form of advertising and remains most likely to make consumers laugh, move them to tears or trigger emotions. Using the example that, in the UK, 42% stated television is where they are most likely to find advertising that they trust, in comparison to 6% for YouTube and 5% for social media” – ThinkBox 2020, The Global TV Group.

However, much can change in two years, and it is now reasonable to ask the question again in 2023, does TV remain the world’s most effective advertising?

Since the report’s release, the number of social media users worldwide has drastically changed. In 2020, the date of ThinkBox’s piece, there were 3.9 billion worldwide social media users; however, this figure has not remained stagnant; instead, it has continually increased every year. There were 4.26 billion users in 2021, 4.59 billion in 2022, and 4.89 billion forecasted in 2023. And this is set to only rise with it projected to increase to nearly 6 billion in 2027 (2 – Statista 2023).

Most Popular Social Networks – 2022 https://www.instagram.com/statisticsanddata/

The popularity of Social Media is indisputable, especially since COVID-19, which saw headlines on How COVID-19 Has Changed Social Media Habits and how the UK’s internet use surges to record levels. One cannot play down the power of Social Media and its prevalent role in many people’s lives; however, one can point out that the amount of users a platform has does not always negate how effective it is at advertising. While it is one measurement and an especially important one at that, The Global TV Deck has already proved that there are several ways to measure the power of advertising so let’s break it down again but with updated statistics (all sources referenced below).

Popularity:

Recent figures show: Short videos and viewing sessions on social media add up throughout the day, however, total viewing time doesn’t come close to the time spent with streaming TV. (3 – Magnite Research 2023)

TikTok averages 32 minutes per day of viewing time, Snapchat 31 minutes, and YouTube 19 minutes. By contrast, streamers are watching over 2 hours of TV programming each day. Streaming TV’s combination of sustained viewing and premium quality content offers a high-impact, controlled, brand-safe environment for video advertisers. (4 – Magnite Research 2023)

Resilience:

Recent figures show: One of the reasons for TV’s resilience is its ability to continue to reach audiences at scale and deliver ROI (7 – Shaun Austin, Savanta, 2022). However, powerful and effective creative is critical in order to leverage the benefits that TV advertising can bring; especially since consumers saw an average of 41 ads a day this year (6 – Statista, 2022).

Trust and Impact:

Recent figures show:

Trust: Ads within TV content are trusted more than ads on social media – When asked about ad trust on TV and social, our research shows TV to be the definitive winner, with a 26-point advantage. Q: To what extent do you find the ads on the following platforms trustworthy? TV (including streaming) = 75%, Social Media = 49% (7 – Magnite Research 2023)

Impact: Research from Rakuten Advertising has shown that globally, an average of 60% of viewers stated they can correctly identify an ad 24-hours after seeing it on CTV (8 – Rakuten Advertising 2022).

Effectiveness:

Recent figures show: TV advertising investment in the UK increased by over £1 billion (€1.2bn) in 2021 to reach a total of £5.46 billion, an increase of 24 per cent on 2020 (and 11 per cent up on pre-pandemic 2019). This represents a record level of investment in TV advertising. The previous high of £5.28 billion was in 2016 (9 – Advanced Television 2022).

(1) https://www.thinkbox.tv/news-and-opinion/newsroom/why-tv-remains-the-worlds-most-effective-advertising/

(2) https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

(3) https://www.magnite.com/research/eu5-streaming2023/

(4) https://www.magnite.com/research/eu5-streaming2023/

(5) https://savanta.com/knowledge-centre/view/the-power-of-creative-five-golden-rules-to-design-tv-advertising-that-drives-profitability/

(6) https://www.statista.com/statistics/486685/number-of-tv-ads-seen-daily-in-the-uk/

(7) https://www.magnite.com/research/eu5-streaming2023/

(8) https://blog.rakutenadvertising.com/en-uk/marketing-strategies/the-power-context-recall/

(9) https://advanced-television.com/2022/03/09/data-record-year-for-uk-tv-advertising/