Is Reach Really Valuable?

Seth's Blog: Meatball Mondae: Millions of channels on AdWords

I had a quick but interesting conversation with a television general manager regarding media value, specifically broadcast television compared to the internet. He told me it's simple to show why broadcast television is still more impactful and valuable as a marketing tool compared to internet options. Broadcast television reaches 99% of all homes an average of nearly 30 minutes a day. The internet reaches 70% of all homes an average of 7 minutes a day. I was not sure his numbers were accurate, but nonetheless I suggested his metric for evaluating value may be inaccurate. The GM challenged me, so I explained.

I asked him if he could tell me the name of the most successful (by revenue and profit) advertising company in the United States. It took him a second but he told me Google. Correct. Why, I asked, within a span of 10 years was Google able to overtake every media company in the United States in revenue and profit? That part is simple. Accountability. Reaching 99% of all households is of less value than reaching the right prospect with the right message at the right time. That's valuable. The link above goes into detail about the changing value metric.