The Future of TV Commercials: Not as Bleak as Proclaimed

Abstract

Changes in the TV industry and usage patterns create the necessity to reevaluate the production and insertion of commercials into the program. We analyze how industry professionals value the effectiveness of traditional TV commercials and examine if increasingly hybrid advertising formats integrating the commercial message into the editorial content are chosen. Contrary to the common assumption that the classical TV commercial is about to disappear, our structured interviews reveal that it is still considered the most important advertising format and cannot be substituted. The future is seen in integrated intra- and inter-medial campaigns using both traditional and hybrid advertising formats.

Key Words:

• Advertising
• product placement
• sponsoring
• integrated communication
• television