Gordon Borrell, Founder and CEO of Borrell Associates, laid out a dramatic change in local advertising recently at the Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference in New York. “The digital future has arrived,” he announced in his opening statement which was reported on by Radio Sales Today.
His recent predictions about the future of digital media were supported by research including results from the RAB/Borrell Benchmarking report.
What did the report find?
According to the article, the company found that
- broadcast television declining 8.6%
- newspaper revenues declining 7.4%
- local radio advertising revenues will grow 2.6% in 2015
But digital advertising revenues are projected to increase up to 23.7% in 2015
So what?
So, Borrell insists that the growth of online advertising will require companies to separate their sales teams, with digital sales standing on its own, if they want their revenues to grow.
And at that same conference, Clark Gilbert, CEO of Deseret News Publishing Company and Deseret Digital Media, also made a compelling argument for a separate digital staff. The RAB article points out that when he arrived at the company 7 years ago, the newspaper, television, and radio sales staffs could also sell digital advertising.
That was before Gilbert made big changes.
He since moved digital sales to a digital only team and today their digital revenue exceeds their television and radio revenue combined.
Gilbert recommends that 33% of your total revenues should be coming from digital. Giant print publisher, Forbes Inc., digital revenue is at 60% of their total income, which means that if the printed newspaper industry disappears, Forbes will survive. One final goal agreed to by conference attendees is that 60% of all digital should be mobile ready.
The numbers are astounding and the change is swift. Change has always been difficult and, until now, the difficulties could be overcome over time. But we’re living in the digital age now, and it does not allow for the luxury of time. Now means now.