TV campaigns become more expensive
TV PRICES Advertisers must be prepared for their TV campaigns to become massively more expensive next year. The planned costs will rise by double digits almost across the board. Depending on the broadcaster, target group and time slot, the planned CPP (cost per GRP) will increase by 20% or more compared to the previous year!FROM MONICA JÄGGI (CONNEX) AND ROLAND EHRLER (SWA)Since 2013, the TV industry has been working with a new TV panel. The audience figures collected still form the basis for pricing TV advertising. Here, the industry agrees that the new TV research provides more accurate data overall than the old panel. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered to this day - and Mediapulse AG is constantly working to optimize the panel. However, the new media usage behavior has not stopped at TV. Many stations are struggling with declining reach and fragmentation is constantly increasing. For example, many households now have more than 250 TV stations and the option of watching time-shifted TV or recording programs. In the digital age, this reduces the chance of reaching viewers with advertising on the various screens such as TV, tablet, PC or smartphone.Costs for reaching target groups increaseAlthough many stations are reducing their gross prices for buying advertising customers, the cost of reaching target groups, or CPP (cost per GRP), is rising sharply in 2015 compared with the previous year. This means that, for example, an advertiser will have to spend much more for 100 GRPs in a given target group next year. At least from the point of view of CPPs, which are calculated on gross prices. The net prices, on the other hand, can vary greatly from customer to customer and depend on the individual contracts.The table shown illustrates the development at selected TV stations. The basis is formed by the plan CPPs in the target group persons 15-49 for the first half of 2015, which are compared with the plan CPPs from the first half of 2014.
In the case of the SRG stations marketed by Publisuisse, as well as TF1, it is well known that the 15- to 59-year-olds form the "price-forming" target group. From this point of view, the CPP price increases are lower. They amount to 5% to 7% at SRF1 and RTS Un and 4% to 10% at TF1. But if this (broad) target group doesn't fit, it can quickly become more expensive for advertisers. In addition, some stations set their planned ratings quite high. As a result, actual inflation will be even higher than planned, as it has been in previous years.Volume discount adjustmentsGoldbach Media (GBM) is also making adjustments to volume discounts and price indices at some stations. At the SevenOne Group, for example, individual discount levels were reduced by 0.5% to 1%. In addition, GBM has adjusted the price indices so that spots with a length of 15 seconds are 5% more expensive, and those with a length of 20 to 29 seconds are 3% more expensive. Similarly, for the 3+ group, a spot with a length of 15 seconds increases in price by 5%, and one with a length of 25 seconds by 3%. Only the discount levels for longer spots become cheaper, a 30-second spot, for example, by 2%.Conclusion: either advertisers reduce their media performance targets next year or they have to increase their TV budget by up to 20% to achieve the same performance figures. The Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA) regards these CPP increases, some of which are massive, by TV marketers as unacceptable and is doing everything in its power to combat the ongoing inflation of media prices in Switzerland. www.swa-asa.ch
