ITV's chief McCall bangs the drum for TV at ISBA

ITV's chief McCall bangs the drum for TV at ISBA

ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall used her address at the ISBA conference to make a strong case for the benefits of TV advertising.

Speaking at The Troxy, east London today (6 March), she referred to her experience as chief executive of easyJet to state why they should invest in her medium.

The airline refocused its spend towards TV and large format outdoor as part of the successful relaunch that she spearheaded, McCall told the assembled marketers.

"We could not have repositioned the brand without changing the media plan," she said.

"It didn’t mean we excluded online, it was just about the media mix... We made it a goal not to settle for superficial and short-term attribution."

Digitally-led brands such as Giffgaff and Purplebricks have had success by taking similar steps to balance their media budgets and embrace TV, she claimed.

McCall went to lengths to stress that young people were still watching TV and questioned why there was so much cynicism about this issue. She reeled off viewing figure stats to show that millions of millennials were TV viewers.

The former Guardian Media Group chief executive also took a swipe at Facebook, whose usage figures on 16 to 24-year-olds were found to be overstated last year.

"If that happened in TV, we would have been roundly attacked and condemned," she commented.

McCall also announced that ITV will back a new anti-obesity initiative called "The Daily Mile" to be rolled out through primary schools.

This, she said, would be "far more effective than banning advertising at certain times".

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