Mad Men 2.0: Web Advertising overtakes TV Advertising in UK

If you watch Mad Men, the TV drama about a 1960's Advertising company, there is a subplot about the rise of a TV advertising group within a larger more traditional media based Ad company. The shift from Print to TV advertising in the 1960's was the last great upheaval in Adland, and most of the great Ad agencies of today were the ones who bet right then. Many great names at the time fell by the wayside. However, Adland is undergoing another upheaval now, from TV to the Web. And if one was going to call a day when the writing on the wall became clear, today may as well be it. From the FT:

The internet has overtaken television to become the UK’s largest advertising medium, according to a report by PwC for the Internet Advertising Bureau.

Spending on online advertising grew 4.6 per cent in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period last year to reach £1.75bn, driven largely by search engine advertising.

By contrast, overall advertising spending fell 16.6 per cent. As a result, online’s share of the total grew from 18.7 per cent in the first half of last year to 23.5 per cent, ahead of TV’s 21.9 per cent.

Although its probable that TV advertising will rise again for a while (the 17% drop is recession based) its clear that soon Web advertising will be the dominant form of Ad spend - which is only rational as its increasingly where people - especially the sort of people advertisers want to reach, i.e. those with money - are. The reason for its success is feedback loops and that most boring of things, ROI:

Online advertisers are able to discern more precisely than from other media how many people have seen a commercial and whether they have made an immediate purchase. This “accountability” had helped online increase its market share.

In other words managers are still extremely keen to see which half of their advertising budget works, and drop the excess. The lesson for this generation of Mad Men was clear some years ago, but this is pretty much the sign that the game is up and the play from now on is to make the best effort one can not to be left behind in the TV to Web transition, as many great old newsprint based agencies (who are thus no longer with us) did in the 1960's.

Its also very strong proof (if more was needed) for the TV industry that the Web will force the same structural changes on them that it has forced on newspapers and radio - There, but for the bandwidth, they go. Follow the money, as they say.