Digital appears to have finally reached a tipping point in being able to attract brand budgets away from television. According to IAB data, in 2015, digital continued to gain share and close in on the total spent on all television advertising–broadcast and cable combined.
Critical audience mass, ad formats that can tell brand stories, measurement capabilities that brands and their agencies can use to compare performance to television and the rise of mobile have all contributed to digital’s ability to slowly but surely chip away at TV ad spend. The interactive timeline below charts Google, Facebook and Twitter’s moves to bring brands and television budgets to their networks.
Why focus on these three companies? Why not others like AOL and Yahoo? Well, Google and Facebook dominate digital ad sales — estimated to capture 85 percent of every dollar spent on digital in the US, according to Morgan Stanley. Twitter’s ad revenues might still pale in comparison, but it pioneered marketing digital — and Twitter specifically — as the “second screen” complement to TV, and as such a natural partner for both broadcasters and brand advertisers. What about Snapchat? A nascent Snapchat earns a couple of mentions here, including the recent news that it is opening up to third-party buying and expanding ad placements to run between Stories.
The timeline:
Click on any of the months to walk through Google, Facebook and Twitter’s efforts to win over brands & TV budgets, from AdWords’ launch in 2000 to today.
Timeline developed by Tim Peterson.
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