Short Form Set to Decline 33% in 2019

After two years of growth in 2016 and 2017, short-form DRTV spending declined 9.56 percent in 2018 and is expected to decline a whopping 33.22 percent this year.

This is just one of the many surprising findings in DRMetrix's newly released AdSphere 5 x 5 Industry Study. The study covers five years (2015-2019) and five industry segments, including short-form, five-minute and long-form/infomercial advertising.

While the news isn't great for short form, there are some bright spots in the report. Odd formats other than 30s, 60s and 120s are "growing by leaps and bounds," according to a press release out today:

"Specifically, airings of 45-second spots grew a staggering 583 percent in 2018 while 180-second spots grew a whopping 487 percent and 75- second spots grew 185 percent ..."

You can download a free copy of the complete report here or by clicking the image below.

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AdSphere Passes 50 Million Airings

On Sunday, AdSphere passed a new milestone: 50 million airings detected.

To celebrate, DRMetrix will be releasing its first "5x5" industry study, which stands for five years (2015-2019), five industry classifications. The study will debut at the PDMI West show in San Diego next week.

I previewed some of the study's findings in a post last week, including the finding that in 2018 "more than $12.3 billion of national ad spending went to TV commercials that ask consumers to take action."

'Act Now' Style Ads Hit $12.3 Billion in 2018

Our industry has come a long way since the bad old days of 800 numbers and mail-in addresses for checks and money orders. Today, companies of all sizes and brand strengths are utilizing our selling methods, and response mechanisms have evolved beyond Web addresses to SMS short codes and app store logos.

So just how popular has "act now" advertising become? Quite popular, according to a new study by DRMetrix:

[M]ore than $12.3 billion of national ad spending last year went to TV commercials that ask consumers to take action, such as by visiting a website or going to an app store. Moreover, that amount represents an increase of nearly 17 percent over the previous year.

The information comes from a recent press release teasing the results of a study DRMetrix will distribute at the upcoming PDMI West show in San Diego.

"Of the $45.5 billion spent on national television advertising in 2018, about $28 billion is attributed to national cable," DRMetrix CEO Joseph Gray told me. "That means, at $12.3 billion, consumer-response advertisements represent nearly 44 percent of total market dollars to the national cable industry.

Gray added that if you look at ad units instead of spending, our style of advertising represents "more than 50 percent" of total 2018 of airings.

What about pure-play DR? How big is that segment? According to the release:

[T]he study finds that 4,751 distinct brands used consumer-response TV advertising formats in 2018. Fully 40 percent of those used traditional direct-response techniques of the kind that allow advertisers to track consumer response back to specific networks, dayparts and programs.

For additional details, check out the full announcement here.