Media debate: When and where TV-online integration makes sense

SALES DIRECTOR
Conrad Tallariti
Regional sales director
DG MediaMind

Media, especially video, is on the precipice of immense change, where everyone with a stake in the game—service providers, content producers, device manufacturers, and advertisers—are affected. 

The array of video-capable devices on the market, from feature phones to smart TVs, means the way we watch video will never be the same. 

While the most popular device to watch video content on is still TV, many are switching to online and mobile technology. Mobile video is particularly prominent in Asia-Pacific, where 74 per cent of online consumers report watching video on mobile phones at least once a month, and almost 40 per cent do so at least once a day. 

This trend is only going to continue to grow globally. 

Integrating online and broadcast is definitely a key trend. This is now possible with the convergence of TV and online technologies and platforms, such as those provided by the recently unified DG MediaMind. 

The technology infrastructures involved will slowly but surely become more readily available in this region, and we’ll start to see more multiscreen campaigns.

Is convergence only applicable to major markets like China? If anything, China as a percentage of population will linger behind smaller markets like Singapore and South Korea as the infrastructure is not there to support the shift outside the major population centres.

MEDIA MANAGER
Chiradeep Gupta
Manager, global media, categories & partnerships
Unilever

A consumer doesn’t interact with media in silos. The interaction of a channel feeds off its exposure to another and hence the execution and the thinking behind the execution have to be seamless. 

Thinking of media in silos is the wrong way to build memorable cross-channel experiences. I am not in favour of using the word ‘integrating’ with specific channels and media, as it connotes a sense of disintegration in the first place. Specifically in China, with the rapid fragmentation of media and the rising cost of TV this intent has been fast-tracked in some agencies and will soon be the order of the day. The planning is already harmonised and buying is getting there in phases

As spends on new media platforms grow this will be the trend and it doesn’t hold true of only markets like China, but across markets where digital/new media/channels have reached a threshold level of spending.

MPM DIRECTOR
Stone He
National MPM director
SMG China

The integration of TV and online video has become the main trend of advertisers’ planning and buying. Online video ad revenue increased dramatically in 2012, according to iResearch. What is significant is that the time audiences in China’s third- and fourth-tier cities spend watching online video is even greater than in tier-one and-two cities, according to the Yangtze Study by Starcom MediaVest Group. 

SMG employs a video-neutral approach to maximise client’s spend through more effective reach-based video media buying across screens. Not only adopting this approach for budget allocations, we feel our teams need to be restructured to buy video in this new approach. We began to educate traditional TV buyers last July them on the online video landscape in order to optimise fluidly across video screens starting with successful integration for clients P&G and Mars Wrigley.