by Paul Slack

This week we have info about television, apps– and some chatter about the millennials which is all kind of related….

Digital advertising passes TV

Since the invention of the television, TV advertising revenue has been rising every year…and no, not just due to inflation. We said it has been rising….until now. For the first time in its history (except during The Depression when nothing was selling), global television advertising revenue actually fell last year. The long touted TV advertising apocalypse has arrived.

On the other hand, digital advertising is on the rise and two different studies show that digital will soon surpass television in yearly revenue – by 2018 at a minimum. It is happening even faster in the U.S.

While they don’t think TV advertising growth is not totally dead, it is only expected to rise due to events like presidential elections, the Olympics, and Worldcup Soccer championships – when networks jack up the prices.

At the same time, this info is not really surprising – since stocks of cable and network companies have fallen and the numbers of cable channel subscribers are dropping off (including big boys like ESPN who lost 7 million subscribers). On-demand, subscription services like Hulu and Netflix are on the rise. Even Amazon is trying to get in that game – and those still on cable can zoom through commercials without seeing them at all.

Overall, advertising spend is still growing – just not in TV – all the growth is in digital. Digital media is expected to rank in $68 billion in the U.S. next year, while TV is number 2 at $66 billion.

The U.S. is by far the biggest advertising market with China coming in number 2 at less than half the revenue and that isn’t expected to change any time soon.

We got this from The Hollywood Reporter, which we are pretty sure used to be in print….

Point is: What’s this all about? It is about how you advertise, but something bigger too. This kind of stuff happens because of generational changes. Video killed the Radio Star – well digital is killing broadcast. “They” say that TV advertising isn’t falling fast but no one really expected print advertising free-fall either. It dropped from $65 million per year in to 2000 to a pre-1950 level over just 10 years.

What it’s really about is that the millennials act different. They don’t sit on the couch with the family and watch TV. They have never been tied to a schedule and can do everything while walking around. A lot of them even watch more YouTube than TV…on their smartphone.

You have to reach them – and if you aren’t one of them, you might need to get out of your comfort zone and figure them out. While you are at it, figure out your digital advertising strategy.

Instagram restricts platform access to third-party app developers

Instagram is becoming stricter with its third party app developers. Apparently this has nothing to do with the fact that a couple of weeks back, a third party Instagram app was removed from the app stores because it was stealing passwords.

Actually, they didn’t really say why but it seems fair right? After all the Instagram platform is…Instagram’s. Of course the third-party app guys don’t think it’s fair…and Instagram has an ulterior motive.

Most of the third party apps that will be affected are “viewers” which let users browse or see posts from a notification center or other special tricks…but guess what? That cuts out advertising views – and advertising revenue right? Which Instagram is trying to sell a lot more of.

Not surprising then that Instagram says “certain” apps will still have access – such as those aimed at advertisers, publishers and content sharing apps.

Reportedly, the change will have a bigger effect on Windows users as the Windows / Microsoft version of the Instagram app apparently doesn’t work that great.

Instagram is allowing current developers to submit their app for approval until June but after that, they may be gone “bye bye”.

This mashup of Instagram info came from Mashable and TechCrunch.

Point is: Instagram is the 3rd most used social media site (behind Facebook and Pinterest) but Instagram’s demographics are a bit different and it is really growing. Facebook and Pinterest kind of have an across-the-board spread but 55% of Instagram users are under 30.

Kind of weird that Instagram has only recently figured out that they need to push advertising. And of course, they are keeping it easy for advertisers, publishers, and content sharers to keep developing apps on Instagram, including television advertisers who can simply port those 30 second ads right onto Instagram, ditching the TV.

Even though it’s early to say, Instagram ads apparently work– especially if you have something for the under-30 crowd right now – and don’t forget that they won’t be under 30 forever. Since this thing is worse on Windows, it’s a good thing that there aren’t that many Windows phones or MS app users. Bad thing is that you need to learn anyway.

If you don’t really know what Instagram is…sign up and then think real hard about an Instagram strategy…

Microsoft makes it easier for businesses to build apps

Microsoft just launched “PowerApps”. This is a new service that lets just about any business easily build an app for use inside that business. It’s built on the Microsoft Azure platform which is made more for the guys in IT – and has a lot of other uses as well but PowerApps lets any employee build an in-business app.

Right now, it looks a lot like it is mainly for managing data – sales, inventory, resources, that sort of thing. You can connect data from Office, Dropbox, Salesforce and other stuff which you can share within a team – across the board without being hooked to a desktop or having to pull from multiple sources – the app does that for you.

There aren’t a lot of apps that can do this for you so being able to develop your own – especially if you don’t have to bug IT for it, is a big bonus for some businesses. Employees can be mobile and the company can still control access to data.

You can learn about apps crunching data at TechCrunch.

Point is: Well, two – A and B. A is more interesting but B is more important – or is it the other way around?

A.    This deal is done by Microsoft first for a reason…they still have most of the computer market and while millennials may be ok with using only mobile devices on iOS, Android or even Chrome – a lot of the GenXers aren’t. GenXers are middle management and above now and are still making the rules. A lot of them are not ready to let go of their Windows laptop.

While Microsoft has been the BIG guy in the room, they also see the coming tidal wave of changes. They are hoping that by building Microsoft Apps and MS phones, they can recruit millennials…at the same time, maybe by using Microsoft Apps, the GenXers will get used to the new tech. Microsoft needs millennials and GenXers need Microsoft…which came first? Doesn’t matter – your stuff still has to look good on BOTH computers AND mobile.

B.     Even though this new Microsoft make-it-easy-to-build deal is only for “in-business” App development right now, sooner or later, someone is going to come up with an “App to Build Your Own App”. Kind of like WordPress did for websites. Until then, you can read “Building Apps for Dummies” – just kidding (ok maybe we aren’t kidding because there are books and apps for that!) or you can have someone build one for you.

But should you? For most businesses, the answer is no. Even though having an app may be cool – if it doesn’t really do something great for your customer, you don’t need it and you are wasting your time and money.

Next up: Online shopping – for most people that means Amazon, for a lot of businesses that means Shopify…but what about Facebook?