Time to start embracing the GRP, reach and frequency, three martini lunches, handshake deals, whatever it takes. Because TV is beating digital by playing the same old low-tech games.
At least that’s a takeaway from a new survey released by the Association of National Advertisers, which found that 47 percent of marketers increased their TV budgets since 2009. That’s during a brutal recession and during a time when online media consumption ballooned.
For executives from the digital media world, this should be eye-opening. Marketers still love the sight, sound, motion and brand impact, despite all of its targeting shortfalls and lack of interactivity. During a panel session at Digiday’s Digital Publishing Summit in Bonita Springs, Fla., on Monday, MediaKitchen CEO Barry Lowenthal lamented the idea of the digital media industry adopted TV’s the GRP as “sad” and “backward.” It will be even sadder if the digital ad industry doesn’t start commanding a bigger share of dollars. Fights over metrics will seem backward at some point.
More in Media
Why brands like Gap Inc. and Staples are inviting their employees to be creators
August 6, 2026
Companies are scrambling for creators. Turns out they already employ them.
Media Briefing: The case for and against markdown for AI bots
August 6, 2026
Markdown is becoming publishers’ latest AI optimization tactic, raising questions about the scraping tradeoff.
People Inc. CEO: We’re not turning off Google crawlers yet
August 4, 2026
People Inc. won’t cut off Google’s AI crawlers yet, citing its continued dependence on Google search traffic even as referrals decline.