Digiday+ Research: Clients of agencies are more likely to invest CTV than TV

Digiday+ Research found that more than two-thirds (33%) of agencies reported that clients spend at most a little on TV advertising. They are also more likely to spend on CTV rather than traditional TV.

Marketing agencies are focusing on TV advertising as they approach Super Bowl weekend. Digiday+ Research surveyed more than 100 professionals in the industry to determine where TV, both connected and traditional, falls in marketing spend.

Digiday's survey revealed that more than two thirds of agency professionals (69%) believed their clients spend at most a small amount of their marketing budgets on TV. This number has remained relatively steady since last year.

32% of respondents to the survey said that agencies are most likely to ask their clients to allocate a small percentage of their budgets to television (including connected TV). This is a significant change from the third quarter 2022, where only 28 percent of agency professionals said that their clients spent a small portion of their marketing budgets on television. The largest percentage of survey respondents (32%), said that their clients had spent no TV budgets in the first quarter last year. However, 29% of those who said they had spent a significant amount on TV were close behind.

Notably, the percentages of agencies that said their clients spend a significant portion of their marketing budgets on TV has been steadily falling since Q1 2022. It was 29% in Q1 2022, 25% in Q3 2022, and 21% this quarter.

Digiday's survey results showed that the majority of respondents were somewhat confident that TV will drive marketing success for clients. This was 29% in Q1 2022, and 30% in Q3 2022.

However, this year, 31% of Digiday's survey respondents said they were only slightly confident that TV would help them market their clients. This is compared to 19% a year ago, and 16% six-months ago.

Digiday found that a lower percentage of agency professionals said they were very confident in TV's success in marketing. This is compared to last year, where 25% of respondents said they were confident with TV in Q1 2022 (24%) versus 25% in Q3 2022 (25%).19% of respondents said this in the last quarter. The percentage of agency professionals who claimed they were very confident about TV's marketing success rose to 15% in Q3 2022. However, only 9% of respondents stated that they are very confident with TV. In Q1 2022, ten percent of respondents said they were very confident with TV.

Digiday asked agency professionals to compare their clients' marketing spends on traditional TV advertising and connected TV. It turns out they are more likely to spend money on CTV.

Eighty-seven per cent of agency professionals whose clients spend money in TV marketing stated that they spend at most a small percentage of their budgets on TV. This seems like a lot. This is not the case when you consider that 97% of agency professionals said their clients spend very little on CTV.

The largest percentage of agency clients who spend traditional TV is 43%. This compares with 19% who spend a modest amount on TV and 26% who invest a lot.

The largest percentage of people who spend on connected television also spend a small amount of their marketing budget there (38%), however it's a smaller margin. More than 25% of agency professionals whose clients spend money on TV advertising (27%) invest a moderate amount on CTV and almost a third (32%) spend large amounts on CTV.

Twitter has been the platform marketers use to get real-time marketing information during the Super Bowl. However, it has seen a shift in leadership and an exodus of advertisers over the past year. The question is: Will this affect its value?

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