Read time: 4 mins
Commercials, whether you love them or hate them…
Aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
In fact, commercials are still as effective as ever.
However, the medium in which the commercials are on has changed as technology has evolved over the years.
According to Statista.com…
“Television remains one of the most popular and effective advertising channels worldwide.
Despite the ongoing digitalization of the advertising industry and the proliferation of online video streaming services, marketers are still embracing the potential of (linear) television for brand promotion.
In the United States, the leading advertising market worldwide, television ranks as the second most profitable advertising medium behind the internet and accounts for approximately one-fifth of total U.S. media ad revenue.
As of 2021, TV ad spending in the U.S. amounted to 66 billion U.S. dollars, marking a return to growth following a drop in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The important part of that piece was that television ranks as the SECOND most profitable advertising medium behind the internet.
And that’s key.
Because too many local small businesses are still embracing the potential of (linear) television for brand promotion as their primary advertising means.
When in fact they should be “embracing the potential” of the internet…
More specifically, video ads!
But before we go any further, let’s take a little trip back in time to see how TV became one of the most effective advertising channels…
The First Radio Ad
Let me set the stage for you…
It’s 1922…
Warren G. Harding was the President of the United States.
The formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) occurred.
Prohibition was at an all time high.
Gandhi was imprisoned by the British for peaceful protests to end British rule.
And on August 28th, 1922 a radio ad hit the airwaves for the very first time…
It was an ad for Hawthorne Court Apartments in Jackson Heights on New York radio station WEAF.
That moment forever changed advertising.
The First Television (TV) Ad
Just 3 short years later on March 25th, 1925 the first TV was invented.
But it wasn’t until July 1st, 1941, nearly 16 years later that the first “TV ad” aired over New York station WNBT (WNBC)…
Before a baseball game between the then Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.
The ad was by Bulova Watches, a company still in operation today and lasted only 10 seconds.
However, it still took another decade or so (into the 1950s) before TV ads became “mainstream” in the conventional formats of commercials to what we’re familiar with today.
The First Internet Ad
Then a little thing called “The Web” was launched on August 6th, 1991…
But it wasn’t until April 30th, 1993 when the World Wide Web would be free for anyone to use.
Just a year later, the first-ever banner ad for AT&T was launched on a website called HotWired.com in 1994.
Since then we’ve come a long way in a relatively short period of time compared to the amount of time it took to go from Radio to Television to the World Wide Web…
In a few short years…
We went from 14400 dial-up modems to broadband internet…
As the internet became faster and faster, so did the development of more powerful bandwidth hungry websites…
Or what we started to refer to as Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 transformed the internet from static HTML web pages to full-blown dynamic, interactive web applications.
Which quickly allowed social media websites to pop-up like MySpace in 2003…
Then Facebook in 2004…
Followed by YouTube in 2005.
In 2007, Facebook launched its ads platform…
And in 2009, YouTube started allowing ads in seven different formats.
However it took another 8 years (in 2015) before you could publish a video ad on Facebook.
Fast forward to today where we have extraordinary capabilities to reach billions of people through Facebook and YouTube video ads.
The Wave of the Future
And if history has taught us anything…
It’s that we must embrace the next shift in media.
Not to mention the fact that “TV” is now being streamed through the Internet…
With more and more ad-free paid streaming services launching what feels like nearly every day.
With that being said, traditional TV ads are becoming less and less effective…
Plus it costs way more to air and reaches far fewer people than video ads on social media.
Which is why I believe “TV ads on social” are the wave of the future!
That’s why it’s shocking to me that you really don’t see TV ads on social media.
However, I believe that it’s simply because local businesses have not embraced the change yet.
And that’s the keyword, “yet.”
It’s coming like it or not… (actually it’s already here, they just don’t know it yet)
And it’s our job as Local Small Business Consultants to educate them.
And honestly, what’s not to like about it?
It’s cheaper.
It’s more effective as it allows you to reach a much wider (or tighter) audience.
It’s a WIN-WIN in my book.
So why not be one of the first to help local small businesses get their traditional tv commercials on Facebook and YouTube?
I’ll ask you again, why not?
Exactly! 😉
1. Free your time and scale your Digital Marketing Agency without increasing your workload by getting easy to sell recurring clients in 8 weeks or less here.
2. Build better, faster “Hybrid Sales Funnel Websites” which are proven to reduce bounce rate and generate more leads & sales here.
3. Easily schedule & recycle 18,000+ images in over 101+ niche/industry specific image packs here.
4. Use these high quality professionally designed social media image packs in over 101+ niches/industries here.
5. Level up your knowledge through training programs & done-for-you digital assets specifically for Local Small Business Consultants and Digital Marketing Agency Owners here.
6. Turn your social media profiles into lead generating landing pages here.
7. Remove the complexity, confusion, and overwhelm when it comes to connecting all the tech with sales funnels, email marketing and paid ads here.
Here are some shortcuts to my socials and other important information… 😉