Digital Killed The TV Star?

So television is old media and a dying element of the marketing mix? Well certainly there is a fall in absolute viewing figures and in weekly consumption especially by younger demographics. But that's only part of the story.

Amidst a polemic in a recent post, Robert Scoble reported "I’ll tell you what executives from big companies (like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, GM, and others) who were at MSN’s own advertising conference told me. An influencer is worth THOUSANDS of times more than a non-influencer."

This hardly earth-shattering insight was being used as a plea on behalf of blogging as a marketing tool which is fine by me, but we should not forget that television can be a far more serious influencer than any blogger.

Consider the UK equivalent of Oprah's book club. Titles featured on this segment currently occupy positions 1,2, 4 and 6 in the bestsellers list and executive producer Amanda Ross is described as the most powerful person in publishing.

Consider the advice given by Simon Cowell to the manager of UK success Katie Melua who's currently trying to "break" America - "Mike, don't believe anything they they say here. You don't have to tour for two years, you don't have to work radio slowly, you just have to get on a lot of television."

It's TV advertising that's dying, not TV.