Advertising Has Lost the Plot: Same Audience, Online is Cheap, TV is Gold
I generate about 20 million views per month across platforms. A successful TV show, over the same month, often delivers fewer truly useful contacts than people think. In some countries, the difference is price: TV audiences can attract million-dollar budgets, while online, even with a premium reputation and a highly targeted audience, the value drops by one zero.
This is not anti-TV. TV pays me well. This is about how online advertising is priced. And come on, it is not just me. Many top experts, tech reviewers, personal finance educators, doctors, engineers, reach millions of highly interested viewers. Yet their branded placements are often priced like generic inventory.
Digital still treats premium contexts as commodities. TV does the opposite: it makes even average contexts “premium by default” through habits, packages, and list prices. Budgets go where buying feels safer, not where results are more likely.
Take smartphones. One million general viewers is one thing. One million viewers following a trusted smartphone expert is a different product: people compare, ask questions, save videos, and are close to buying. Conversion probability is higher, but pricing often stays stuck on raw impressions.
Media buyers say creators are “too fragmented” compared to TV. That applies to small profiles, not to experts doing tens of millions of views per month, and there are many. Scale exists. Pricing is what lags behind.
In the 1990s: “no one got fired for choosing IBM”. Today: no one gets fired for buying a TV spot, even when the smarter bet is elsewhere. In the end, it’s control.
#ArtificialDecisions #MCC