Clutter, Clutter Everywhere

The issue of clutter was brought up at both the recent AAAA Media Conference and ANA Television Advertising Forum.  AAAA conference chairman Jean Pool (EVP/COO of Universal McCann) cited clutter as one of the major issues that was "severely curtailing traditional media's growth."  Those are strong words!  Being interrupted every six to seven minutes with commercials in a television program is excessive, she said. 

Meanwhile, ANA used polling devices at our recent Television Advertising Forum to get attendee feedback on a bunch of issues.  One question asked was, "What is the biggest threat to the value of television advertising right now?"  Guess what?  Clutter won ... err, I mean lost.  By an incredible landslide.  An overwhelming 48% of respondents said that "too much ad clutter" was the biggest threat.  Left in the dust were DVR ad skipping (17%), declining ratings (11%), inaccurate ratings (8%), and the effectiveness of the Internet (6%).  Meanwhile, 10% said that "TV is fine; there are no real threats."

So what can be done about advertising clutter?  In radio, Clear Channel has reduced clutter via its "less is more" initiative.  Other media sellers are encouraged to step-up with their own solutions, before we kill the goose that has laid the golden eggs.

Comments

[Brokerblogger]

Clutter is not only happening in traditional media, it really is happening "Everywhere". It is even in Internet marketing and advertising.

When will the principles of Yankelovich Partners's "Concurrence Marketing" be adopted by all media and marketers? The consumer IS in control! = http://www.concurrencemarketing.com/HomePage.asp