It’s not difficult to find a digital doomsday prophet proclaiming that the end times for traditional TV are nigh. And yet, the numbers tell quite a different story. The recent Nielsen multi-screen video consumption report showed that 92 percent of Kiwis still watch television on a weekly basis an average of around 20 hours a week. And these figures are further consolidated by the ASA ad spend figures, which showed that television remained the largest contributor to overall ad spend over the course of 2014 (TV contributed $614 million while the interactive category placed second on $589 million).
And while it is true that the interactive category is catching up quickly, with the gap in annual ad spend now narrowed to only $25 million, the advertising budgets remain large enough to give creatives the slack to produce some of their best work in the channel. And this was again seen at the Axis Awards this year, when the ‘Mistakes’ TVC by Clemenger BBDO picked up the grand prix for the best piece of creative work produced over the last year.
So while it’s true that times are changing, the creative skills that deliver the best TV ads are now also being used to create online videos, which often stretch well beyond the the 30- or 60-second remit of a standard TVC. And this is evident in the growing prominence of online videos in our TVCs of the Week rundown every Tuesday.
As has been the case in previous years, we have whittled down the numerous weekly winners since our last survey to 52 contenders, from which an overall winner and the People’s Champion will be selected.
Check out the stories from last year’s winners:
- Overall winner: ‘Mistakes’ by Clemenger BBDO for the NZTA
- Craft winner: ‘Blazed as’ by Clemenger BBDO for the NZTA and ‘Born to defy’ by DDB for Steinlager
- People’s Choice winner: ‘Born to defy’ by DDB for Steinlager
The ad at the top of the pile when voting closes on Monday 3 August will be given the People’s Choice award. Feel free to share the love—and the link—to bump up your numbers. But it’s restricted to one vote per device.
So mash your finger below to vote for your five favourite ads of the last year.
To balance out the People’s Choice award, which, I’m sure you’ll all be surprised to learn, tends to favour the larger agencies, we will also gather together a panel of esteemed experts, gurus and juggernauts to choose our overall winner and a craft winner.
