Irwin Gotlieb, former chairman and CEO of GroupM, offered the opening keynote at the Advanced Advertising Summit. Interviewed by B+C senior content producer Jon Lafayette, Gotlieb stressed that the TV advertising world faces serious challenges.
“Are these the best of times? Hell, no,” he said.
With the streaming players joining linear networks in the advertising forum, Gotlieb spoke about the immense amount of content, driven by the streamers, facing consumers. “The stuff that is produced is not readily discoverable — the streamers don’t run the promo schedules that the linear [networks] do,” he said. “How do you get to the point of knowing what you want to watch?”
He also noted the challenge of different measurement systems on linear and non-linear. “If you don’t have proper measurement you don’t have the basis for doing transactions,” he said.
Gotlieb assessed the state of the streamers, including Paramount Plus, Max and Hulu, but suggested taking Netflix and Prime Video out of the equation. “How many of them are making serious money?” he asked, noting how they are more likely to report finally stopping “hemorrhaging capital.”
Gotlieb mentioned GroupM gearing up for addressable ads back around 2008 to illustrate the in-fighting that’s long been part of the industry. “We literally faced resistance everywhere,” he said, amidst a prevailing sense of, “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”
“Here we are in 2024,” Gotlieb added, “ill-prepared.”
The Advanced Advertising Summit is part of NYC TV Week, hosted by Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV. Advanced Ads happens September 9, Next TV Summit takes place September 10, Hispanic TV Summit is September 11 and 40 Under 40 happens September 12. The first three events take place at etc.venues in midtown Manhattan, and 40 Under 40 is at 230 5th.
Gotlieb was not entirely pessimistic about the industry. “Television is the most efficient and effective marketing tool that has ever been developed,” he said. Streaming, for its part, “should be the overall answer to the long-term health of the business but for the fact that the industry isn’t prepared for it.”
Gotlieb said the TV players have to focus on raising the tide so all entrants gain, more than stealing a viewer or two from the competition. “If the ecosystem isn’t healthy, nobody in the ecosystem will do particularly well,” he said.
The technology is out there to fix the issues, he said, but the fix is complicated.
“It’s not the technology that’s missing,” Gotlieb said. “It’s the industry cooperation.”
