I started my career in the long, long ago, when the only reach medium was linear television. Ratings were high, rates were higher, and response was highest. It was a glorious time.

Before the dark times. Before the Facebook.

Once Facebook emerged as a true direct marketing tool, the entire landscape shifted. You can test different versions of copy, color schemes, spokespeople, and anything else you wanted to a very board reaching audience. Television wasn’t the darling anymore. 

As Facebook grew, so did the rest of the digital world. Programmatic, addressable, SEO optimization, CTV, tracking data, platforms, apps. It was enough to make your head spin.

Brands and advertisers were testing newer and more targeted mediums, leaving traditional in the rear view.

Digital was getting a bigger piece of the advertising budget, and those budgets were growing by double digit gains. There was no end in sight. Until there was.

Over the last two years or so, there has been a definite slowdown in how brands are spending their digital dollars. It’s slowing down to the point where we haven’t seen spending at these levels since the height of the housing crisis.

Now don’t get me wrong. Digital spend is still in the billions, so it’s not like the sky is falling. But double digit loses is still double digit loses.

Not all is gloom and doom for the medium, as CTV still shows a steady climb, and will continue to climb (if the analysts are right, which they usually are). It’s been said 100 times and will be said 100 more, but more and more consumers are making CTV the norm. As that happens, advertisers and brands will continue to follow them and pour more money into the medium.

First it was linear, then Facebook, and now CTV. What else can we do? What else can we create? Whatever it is, rest assured that advertisers will jump on and ride till those wheels fall off as well.

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