The reality is that there is increasing competition for consumer attention, and it’s beholden on broadcasters, distributors, media and creative agencies and clients to recognise we all need to rise to meet the challenge. What was refreshing about this panel in particular, was that each speaker came from a different corner of the ecosystem.

Nicola Lewis, who I work closely with at GroupM, gave the perspective of media buyers responsible for the  strategic investment of clients advertising dollars; Paul Nagy from VMLY&R offered the creative view from the perspective of creating the campaigns that clients rely on. Valente, a recent convert to the TV world after many years spent in out of home media, provided a  broadcaster perspective and Tyler Fitch from Tubi, an ad-supported streaming platform, delivered a streaming distribution perspective.

While each has a wildly different day job and expertise - the end goal is the same: a sustainable ad-funded content ecosystem, delivering quality content and experiences for audiences and solving business problems for advertisers.

Whether it’s on linear TV, BVOD, OTT streaming platforms or beyond, consumers want premium quality content they can access on their terms. There is more content than ever, and many more avenues to access it. But if the ads created and aired alongside and within the shows don’t actively engage and entertain viewers as much as the content they are there for – well, then we’re in trouble.

On a day where measurement, the TV distribution model and technology was front and centre, Nagy’s creative view was a welcome and different perspective.

“There is an obsession with audiences, which is correct, but there’s a difference between sitting in front of an ad and watching one,” he observed.

“The idea of a captured audience is like a mild summer - it’s a thing of the past. I totally agree TV and screens have a bright future, but now clients are starting to realise many of their ads are being seen but not remembered, until they do something interesting. We should be obsessed with audiences, but we should be just as obsessed with creating marketing content that can engage the audience.

“Interesting ads get more engagement and work harder - we need to be making engaging ads that stop people looking down at their phone,” he said, reemphasising that there is a big different between someone seeing an ad and actually remembering its message.

Sharing a story of his teenage daughter watching a top-rating show on Apple TV and going back and restarting it several times because the distraction of her phone meant she wasn’t giving the show her full attention, he illustrated the challenge that content creators and ad-makers share.

“If an engaging piece of top shelf content like that can’t hold her attention for half an hour - what hope do marketers have if they are doing boring advertising that is not interesting at all?”

And that is the challenge. If the content and the ad content being pushed down the pipes doesn’t engage and entertain the viewer – does it matter if a million sets of eyeballs saw it?

In the face of these well-documented changes in consumer viewing behaviours, Nicola Lewis, GroupM’s CIO, was clear on the need for strong planning across channels to get the most out of clients' media spend and reach the right consumers wherever they are to achieve the end goal – growth.

“The future is bright for TV in this country. TV is still a multibillion-dollar industry and the amount of money the networks spend on creating content is phenomenal, and they are creating some amazing content. Audiences are shifting, we know that. But when we look at the total sum of eyeballs, whether it’s in the TV environment, linear, BVOD, VOD, and other channels – the consumer is still there. They’re just in a different place.”

Many clients, she says, have a multi-tiered approach to TV, taking advantage of different ways into premium content, whether that’s in the form of ad spots, integrations, event activation and beyond, which show new creative approaches that are actively engaging audiences, not just chasing reach.

Lewis referenced a session earlier in the day, where Ten’s chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey, had talked about the role of premium content in a world where the consumer has more choice about what, where, when and how they watch. “If you want audiences to go looking for content, you have to invest in premium content,” McGarvey said,  jokingly adding that while people talk about ‘cheap reality TV’ – it’s a misnomer. “There is no such thing as cheap reality”, she said, because it’s a vast investment in production. 

Touching on this, Lewis said the investment in premium content formats is paying off for advertisers and the broadcasters: “Whether you personally like it or loathe it, reality TV offers great integrated opportunities for clients … In GroupM we’ve seen a lot of clients come back into TV integration and sponsorship - because the broadcasters are investing a lot of money in premium content, and the content is great.”

This is where the benefit of close collaboration between broadcasters, media agencies and creative agencies plays dividends and results in ad-funded content that genuinely engages viewers and becomes part of the viewing experience.

What the diverse perspectives in this discussion highlighted, with great insight, is that whatever part of the television, media, or marketing ecosystem you fall into, the end goal is the same. And that is hitting the right audience, with the right content at the right time – whether that’s an ad or the programme itself – to solve the clients’ business challenge.