TV commercials haven't changed much in decades. All major advertisers have a process for developing TV spots, and they use research to maximize their results. But online advertising is hard. The best online marketing campaigns often combine rich media, sponsorships, sign-ups, standalone Web sites, email, and banners. Putting these programs together is daunting, and many advertisers don't have the in-house expertise to supervise their development.
Online advertising is unproven.
Traditional advertisers know that television advertising works. For established brands, results from copy-testing research, combined with reach and frequency calculations, yield good estimates of how a particular campaign will affect sales. But because online advertising is so new, few companies have developed benchmarks to reliably predict its ability to drive purchase. Consequently, companies are unwilling to divert money from TV, seen as a safe bet, to the Internet, perceived as a risky one. Of course, these challenges need to be put into perspective.