Will “Online” Be The Only Advertising In The Future?

Lauren Mittleman, Account Strategist, Client Services

I love TV commercials, it’s true. I am the kind of person that rarely fast-forwards through them even when I am watching a show on DVR. Strange in this day-in-age, I know, but I admit that I love offline advertising! However, as shows move to full episode viewing online, and my cable/DVR bill continues to be astronomically expensive, I find myself willing to forego the variety of commercials in order to watch my favorite shows online with only 3 commercial breaks by the same advertiser.

And just as I have begun to accept this new way to “TV watching,” the world seems to be changing yet again. According to The New York Times this week, technology is moving in such a direction that soon my cable box will be superfluous. In the future, cable signals/systems will automatically be transmitted directly through the internet and visible via any standard media player, allowing any and all TV programming to be watch on PCs, mobile phones and more. No longer will you have to visit CNN.com to get your news, rather just flip on the CNN channel and watch from the comfort of your own laptop or via phone during your commute.

So with television soon sending signals directly through the internet, I pose the question – what will be the difference in offline and online? Will there be an “offline” world anymore? And even more so, how will this affect the nature of commercials?

I don’t have an answer for any of these, but as an online marketer, I am beginning to believe that the sky’s the limit for online advertising. With online multi-tasking at its highest, worlds will truly collide and the convergence of advertising methods will continue to excel. Display advertising has potential to take on a whole new meaning when running during online versions of television, and search will have the ability to recreate itself with up-to-the minute ads based on aspects within each video frame of the show. I know this might be the extreme, and there are advertising avenues within this new format that have yet to be created… But until the day this is amongst the public, I will continue to wonder, is the extinction of true TV commercials right around the corner?

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