But first, a history lesson…

Television adverting has been around since 1941. We’ve had 68 years to perfect it.
Radio advertising has been around since 1922. We’ve had 87 years to perfect it.

This is what TV advertising looked like in the 60’s (after 20 years of experience)

The first McDonalds Commercial:

This extremely offensive commercial from the 50’s for jello

Or this Cheer commercial:

And Today…..

We know what makes a great commercial.

We know the *secret sauce* of elements to deliver ROI.

We know how to measure the effectiveness.

We know how to test prior to airing.

We have 60 years of testing and success that drive high ROIs.

Digital is Like TV was in the 60s.

We have limited learning on what makes great interactive.

We’re continuing to learn the *secret sauce* for ROI.

There are debates about how to measure effectiveness.

We’re still deciding on the measures, so we can’t effectively test in advance.

We have < 10 years of learning.

Traditional Media has great ROI because 60 years have been spent perfecting it.

We need to invest in analysis.

We need to get the measures right.

We need to try lots of different things to see what works.

We need to recognize that digital is constantly evolving.

As digital becomes more important we need to invest in better understanding the medium and the drivers of ROI. The internet provides a much richer medium to communicate and the potential is so much greater than traditional media. We’re still in the early years and have a lot to learn.

Thoughts?