McKinsey says TV advertisers are paying more for less effective messages

Advertising Age has some bad news for TV advertisers and media buyers. It's all in the lede of the story:

A study is about to give Madison Avenue a fresh pummeling: McKinsey & Co. is telling a host of major marketers that by 2010, traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective as it was in 1990.

That shocking statistic, delivered to the company's Fortune 100 clients in a report on media proliferation, assumes a 15% decrease in buying power driving by cost-per-thousand rate increases; a 23% decline in ads viewed due to switching off; a 9% loss of attention to ads due to increased multitasking and a 37% decrease in message impact due to saturation.

This is a story that has been running for years, but it's only now beginning to hit home. CMO's are spending more money for less reach on TV, and it's all because they don't want to get out of their comfort zones. Until people get a grip on the tyranny of too much, we're going to see more companies follow GM and Ford into losing billions of dollars by not being efficient in how they reach and communicate with their customers. Maybe McKinsey will have better luck convincing them.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, McKinsey, TV, Tyranny of too much