Now that Oprah’s tweeting, your grandmother has a blog, kids are downloading their favourite shows and movies, and we all have Internet access on our phones, it’s tempting to believe the hype that standard TV advertising is going cold. That TV’s bigger, more interactive, more world-wider cousin has given it so many wedgies it can’t even sit right anymore, much less engage us. But put those defibrillator paddles down. This medium has as strong a pulse as ever. If you believe a new study, it’s possibly in the best shape it’s ever been in.

According to Adweek, and a massive study completed by the Advertising Research Foundation, not only is TV as a marketing medium as effective as ever, but “it is possibly even increasing in effectiveness when it comes to building sales.” This is based on 388 case histories from seven different research agencies.

Heresy! We all know TV is dying a slow but certain death, that no one sits on the couch watching the tube anymore. Just like a hundred years ago everyone knew the newspaper would die when radio came around. And fifty years ago, that radio would die when TV came around. The study continues, “…among 25 touch points measured between 2004 and 2007, TV moved from seventh to fourth in terms of people impacted per $1,000 spent…TV was No. 1 in terms of raising awareness.”

What does this mean? No doubt there are massive shifts happening on the media landscape, and the power of the web can’t be underestimated. And as we move forward, the web, and harnessing its incredible power, is more and more a part of every marketing plan. But perhaps one thing we can take away from this study is that we can’t get caught up in the new to detriment of the tried and true. There’s still a place—a valuable place—for TV in today’s marketing mix.

Then again, this study was done four months ago. TV? You OK?

A graduate of both the Film & Television and Media Copywriting programs at Toronto's Humber College, and a multi-award-winning copywriter, Brad Dykema has worked at advertising agencies across the country and beyond. Brad's career has taken him on a journey from his native Toronto's Communique Group to Vancouver's high-profile PJDDB, to Amsterdam, where he joined the ground-breaking StrawberryFrog, and then back to Canada. Throughout, Brad's work has consistently been recognized for getting clients noticed and achieving their objectives. Since settling in Halifax, he has established himself as one of the region's most award-winning copywriters, collecting dozens of Ice Awards for work done at trampoline, Extreme and Colour. The extensive list of clients Brad has worked on includes notables such as Nova Scotia Tourism, New Brunswick Government, Microsoft, Sun-Rype, Alexander Keith's, McDonald's, Telus, Credit Suisse, Atlantic Lottery, EastLink, Workers' Compensation Board, and Aliant. His work has been recognized with an impressive list of awards from Marketing, Bessies, New York Festivals, ICE Awards, Extra Awards, Advertising and Design, London International Advertising Awards, Archive Magazine, Applied Arts and more.