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The Internet Depends on TV

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What comes first: the cart or the horse? Internet companies rely on television advertising to get web users to visit their sites. 

If you want a real measure of which advertising medium is the most powerful, consider that TV’s biggest competitor, the “dot coms,” will spend almost $1.5 billion this year on TV advertising. The very same companies that try to woo advertisers away from TV and onto their own web sites, rely on TV themselves to build brand awareness. TV still rules the roost.

Trip Advisor website’s V.P. of brand strategy says, “Nothing has the ability to build a brand faster than TV.” EHarmony spends seventy-five percent of its $90 million budget on TV.

Kelley Blue Book relied on web ads for years, then tried TV last year. It’s kbb.com traffic jumped and brand awareness doubled. Web-based advertising has a place in the budget for many advertisers.

Nevertheless, the deep plunge into Internet advertising has been terribly overdone, and an incredible amount of money was wasted. Success begins with brand awareness. It is far too obvious to point out that you can’t sell to people who never heard of you. And now, the ultimate admission that television is the 800 pound gorilla for building brand awareness comes from TV’s principal competitor.

You can create great success if you can get people to a web site. Web site owners realize that TV advertising is the way to get them there.

John Malmo is a Memphis marketing consultant who advises companies on their marketing and advertising. To ask Mr. Malmo your own question, visit askmalmo.com.

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