ISBA Media Update Conference: Getting More Bang For Your Media Buck
The ISBA’s media conference took place at the Marriott Hotel on the 27th June 1996.
The successfully organised conference had contributions from various media action groups and gave the opportunity to get up-to-date on today’s media scene with the first outlining ISBA TV Policy.
The speech on TV policy was given by John Blakemore, UK Advertising Director for SmithKline Beecham, and had the theme of “Life is a lemon and I want my money back” which, he says, is what many sales people think as “the UK advertisers theme song and our one and only policy.”
With reference to advertising, Mr Blakemore suggested that although it is highly competitive and challenging, it is certainly not a lemon. Also asking for your money back should only be used as a last resort if what was guaranteed has not been given. He pointed out that money given back after a campaign is not much consolation because the original goals were not reached in the given time frame.
The ISBA Broadcast Action Group policy ensures that strong, effective, high quality media environment that is well regulated and fair with as much audience in the commercial sector as possible together with a fair and equitable price which will avoid having to ask for the money back. It is believed that people believe the opposite of this and that the policy is there to drive media owners bankrupt and over the wall.
The point Mr Blakemore brought across was that without the ISBA’s policy there would be a second class environment to promote brands, products and services and must bare credibility in the consumers minds. It was pointed out that with the launch of Channel 5, steps were being taken to ensure the new channel met the new criteria with the key elements being Quality Programming and a significant share of its audience coming from the BBC.
It was highlighted that the UK media scene is in the main with a £2.6bn market that functions smoothly for its size as it is well regulated, well researched and, compared to other countries, is safe. In saying this, he also makes us aware that, like other foreign markets, there is no room for complacency meaning that we need to improve in the other areas particularly in quantifiable proof of advertising and media effectiveness.
The policy to lobby for change in UK legislation with regard to commercial minutage on terrestrial channels was reconfirmed by Mr Blakemore. Total advertising in any one day must not exceed an average of seven minutes per hour of broadcasting and seven and a half in prime time with general objectives being that for the amount of any given clock hour approximate should be as close to the averages stated. There must not be more than 12 minutes of advertising in a clock hour.
There is conflict with the fact that EU guidelines allows 9 minutes per hour. Secondly, there has been no response from certain cable and sky broadcasters asking for minutage to be reduced from seven to nine minutes. Thirdly, ITV are transmitting, to a large degree, more than 9 minutes without any anti lobbying or said reactions on negative effects on advertising effectiveness. The point John Blakemore was trying to make was that there is no reasoned argument or quantifiable facts that 9 minutes every hour will produce negative effects on advertising effectiveness or reduce net loss of viewers and broadcasters and until then the issue remains strongly in the ISBA’s favour that there is no evidence of negative effects. This is backed up by figures showing that in London, 17% of prime time clock hours were 9 minutes or more and in Yorkshire and Anglia it was 29%. This was checked over a number of weeks randomly.
Another area involving audiences was the decline in the commercial sector with ITV in particular. In 1995 adult commercial impacts grew by 20% but ITV decreased by 4%. Facts and data show that this loss is not due to the emergence of new satellite and cable channels. A further 3 and 4% was lost by ITV and C4 this year combined audience share going down. The issue Mr Blakemore noted was that the BBC has actually gained audience share and therefore why can’t ITV and C4.
John Blakemore asks ITV to be brave and responsible by letting the ISBA know what they expect in quantifiable terms to achieve with their £700m investment in network programming and when they hope to stop the BBC’s erosion of their audience.
Contact: Chambers Cox PR 0171 631 5414