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Christopher Parks
COM-310
Instructor Ursula Wefers
16 February 2015
A Power Struggle: TV vs. Social Media
The birth of social media was the turning point for advertisers. Eight years ago,
marketing professionals would probably say that there is no better way to reach an audience than
by TV. At that time, they were probably correct. A study now shows that about 60% of
Americans prefer watching TV on their mobile devices versus their TV sets (Kalla, 2014). The
replacement of traditional TV’s with smartphones and tablets allows the viewer to watch
advertisement in snippets. If a customer were to watch a program on Hulu or Amazon Instant
Video, they will be occasionally interrupted with commercials. The major difference is that
streaming sites generally limit their commercials to 1 minute per break, or 2 commercials. A
traditional 30 minute TV broadcast would have 22 minutes of programming and 8 minutes of
commercials. That is why I chose to ditch my cable box and buy a streaming player. I can watch
the programs I usually watch, but with less annoying commercial breaks. If I choose to watch a
program via YouTube, sometimes it gives me the option to actually skip the ad. I think that is a
signal to advertisers that traditional methods for marketing are no longer effective and a lot of
people, including myself, cannot tolerate being inundated with advertisements. What was
effective 10 years ago, no longer applies.
TV advertisements call for a lot of money. On average in 2010, a TV commercial on
network TV during primetime hours (7p-10p EST) cost between $100,000-$200,000 (Weprin,

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2010). What these advertisers could choose to do instead is create lower budget campaigns and
have a creative idea that goes viral. Apps like Vine and Snapchat are viewed by a very young
demographics, while YouTube and Facebook skews slightly older, but all have the opportunity
to create a huge buzz around a brand if it’s clever enough. I’ve viewed many Vines that haves
hundreds of thousands of hits that are created by high schoolers with a very sophomoric sense of
humor. They have created a buzz around their own brand, namely themselves. Advertisers could
take note of this trend and try to create more authentic, engaging advertisements. Red Bull, who I
used to see time and time again on TV, now puts a lot of effort in to their online campaigns.
They have a Facebook account with apps, games, and videos, attempting to make it an
interactive experience for the viewer. Young people have short attention spans and can barely
tolerate a 30 second commercial. The way they can reach this younger generation is through
social media. To reach a wider audience, advertisers can still create 30 second TV commercials,
but should strongly consider how that commercial can be used to go viral, e.g. cut ads into
snippets to be put on Vine, create a game and place it on Facebook, or create memes to post on
Reddit.com.
There are many options to choose from, but in my opinion choosing the TV format over
internet is a huge mistake. Like the data shows, more Americans are viewing programming via
their smartphones and tablets and no longer require off-air or cable television. Advertisers need
to take note and realize that the real money awaits them in the internet domain. There are
techniques for creating a large following on Twitter and Vine and word-of-mouth is a powerful
tool.

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Works Cited
Kalla, S. (2014, September 25). Majority of TV Watchers Prefer Phone Or Laptop To The Big
Screen - Cord Nevers. Retrieved from Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susankalla/2014/09/25/small-screens-mean-big-bucksthey-
dominate-tv-watching/
Weprin, A. (2010, October 18). How Much Does it Cost to Buy an Ad on the Primetime
Broadcast News Programs? Retrieved from TVNewser:
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/how-much-does-it-cost-to-buy-an-ad-on-the-
primetime-broadcast-news-programs/36726?red=tn