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The digital flags are out. In America, Reckitt-Benckiser has hacked $20 million from its TV advertising budget to invest in a new online video ad strategy.
It's big news over there. From 1 April (and no, this wasn't one of those awfully boring April Fool stories conceived by brands that have no discernible humour the other 364 days of the year), Reckitt is ploughing 5 per cent of its £475 million advertising budget into video ad networks.
The man in charge, Marc Fonzetti, says: "We've seen a fundamental shift in consumer consumption and media habits migrating over to digital video." And although he says YouTube has been the catalyst, Reckitt is really mostly interested in professional content.
As you can imagine, the Reckitt news has been greeted by people who like to proclaim the death of traditional media as a sign of the imminent death of traditional media. It's a sign, they say, of a fundamental shift in media dynamics: the death...