Ads Review - Broadcast vs Digital

One of the key differences between broadcast ads and digital ads is that customers can’t skip broadcast ads. This is why, in my recent ads reviews, it became very clear that digital ads simply had to sell the product within the first few seconds. Virtually all of the digital ads from the world’s top brands followed this format. Show the product, introduce a tagline, show a call-to-action. That’s the digital format. 

Broadcast ads, on the other hand, are different. While viewers may have the option to change the channel, they don’t have the option to skip the ad, which changes the landscape entirely. This is why you’ll see broadcast ads focus a lot more on brand marketing, instead of performance marketing. They’re looking to increase brand lift and sell you something over the long term. 

Digital ads have a direct response component–by nature of them being digital, they have links that can be clicked. Because of this, digital ads look to drive action. Their goal is to create an offer compelling enough to convince someone to click on the link, away form the media they’re consuming. 

Broadcast ads have no direct response component. You can’t click on a TV. Some broadcast ads try to push offers on their website by inviting customers to a specific link, but the conversion there is likely very low, since not many are doing it. More often, broadcast ads want to inspire a feeling around their product, so that the next time consumers see it, they’re reminded of that feeling.

Largely, in the history of advertising, there were no links to click. This lead to brands heavily investing in brand marketing. The landscape of advertising was such that if brands didn’t tell a story, and incite emotion, no one would remember their ads. As time went on, this lead to higher quality advertising, as brands created more and more creative ads to compete. 

Recently, there has been a major boom in digital advertising. I was in the Facebook ads game before the government cracked down on it. It was the wild west. Ad space was outrageously cheap, targeting was so easy, and creativity wasn’t a pre-requisite for success. I ran plenty of successful digital ad campaigns with mediocre creative assets. This leads to a race to the bottom. Those who spent the most, regardless of great creative, were successful. 

I think there’s a middle ground to be found here. Now that the digital ad space is much more regulated, and ad spend isn’t so cheap, brands will start to invest more creativity into their digital ads. They’ll create ads that inspire action while still appealing to the emotions of customers. It’s just that so far in the digital age, there hasn’t been a real need to walk that line yet. 

Thanks for reading these riffs on advertising. I hope you have a great day!