7
minute read
Jan. 20, 2021 | by Mary Ventresca
PATTISON Outdoor
Vice President – Marketing & Business Development
Early on in the pandemic, traditional television viewership reached impressive highs as Canadians were homebound due to lockdowns. However, this resurgence wasn’t as long lived as broadcasters were hoping for. In fact, according to Nlogic,” The % of live viewing in prime time for conventional stations has reverted to 75% (Q1 2021) …whereas it peaked at 85% during Jul-Sep 2020.” (Impact of COVID-19 on TV Viewing, April 27, 2021)
It was no surprise that as the public returned to activities outside of their homes, they would spend less time in front of their TVs. In fact, the increase in traditional TV viewership was really an anomaly and the return to declining viewership was simply the continuation of a trend that was in place well before the pandemic. It’s been reported that as much as “50% of Linear TV watchtime has disappeared among Canadians under the age of 55 in the last decade.” (Streaming Media, June 2021)
Exacerbating the ongoing decline of TV viewership is the degree to which consumers of all age groups have trialed subscription services such as Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime and AppleTV.
“…four in five Canadians are TV streamers, which remains very popular with Gen Z and millennials, but 68% of baby boomers also used the platforms in the past year.”
There are game-changing implications to this development which are not likely to reverse even after we’re through the pandemic. And these implications bode well for Out-of-Home becoming the lead media channel of the 2020s decade to deliver what it always has, namely: broad reach, mass impact and wide geographic coverage.
OOH can also lead in reaching light TV viewers who are heavy subscribers to these ad-free content platforms. According to Vividata Fall 2021, of subscribers to steaming services:
- 68% have noticed OOH advertising in the past week
- Are more likely to have taken an action after seeing an OOH ad than the average Canadian
Utilizing OOH to reach this desirable consumer audience which tends to skew younger as well as adults with high household incomes, will prove significant as advertisers can’t simply shift their former TV spend over to the subscription services as they remain advertising free. And while some will cite Connected TV (CTV) as the natural replacement for traditional TV viewers, the platform has nowhere near the scale required to be considered mass reach.
Also notable is a main reason for the increase in streaming services: According to multiple surveys, consumers indicate being ad-free is an attractive feature they find worth paying for.
“…nearly three quarters of both Canadian streamers and non-streamers agree that there are too many ads on traditional TV.” (Streaming Media, September 23, 2021)
In fact, nearly half of Canadians who subscribe to streaming services also use ad blockers on their web browsers citing: there are too many ads; ads are annoying; ads are irrelevant to them. (Vividata Fall 2021)
Erosion of Television Viewership results in Erosion of the Former Power of TV Media
Historically, TV and OOH were paired on a media plan given their complimentary and amplifying benefits to advertisers such as: top of the funnel awareness, excelling at brand-building, driving creative resonance and achieving effective levels of reach quickly. The decline of television viewership also results in the eroding of its efficacy for advertisers, especially with: mass scale and brand building measures.
OOH’s strengths in these key areas remains unaffected by the increase in streaming services and in fact, OOH has served as a mass awareness, brand-building platform for Amazon Prime, Netflix, AppleTV and Disney+.
As advertisers reconsider their television strategies in light of the growth of streaming services, we encourage them to take a page from those actual services (as well as many other brands) and look outside to the physical world where OOH, a long-standing proven media channel, lives and thrives along the consumer’s path to purchase.
Powering Canada’s Out-of-Home advertising with 24,000 Out-of-Home displays across the country and counting,
we connect brands and businesses with Canadians in their local communities, at multiple touchpoints.
Reach out to us to find key Out-of-Home placements for your product or service in markets across Canada.
Powering Canada’s Out-of-Home advertising
with 24,000 Out-of-Home displays across
the country and counting,
we connect brands and businesses with Canadians in their
local communities, at multiple touchpoints.
Reach out to us to find key Out-of-Home placements for
your product or service in markets across Canada.