The short version

Dave Morgan predicted on July 12, 2018: “Data is not going to define the future of successful TV advertising, any more than it has defined digital advertising... Data is not the new oil.” Verdict: Partially right. Partially right. Data-driven buying did come to define TV's growth engine: CTV ad spend reached about $31.8 billion in 2024 (half the size of…

Prediction by

Dave Morgan

On July 12, 2018

“Data is not going to define the future of successful TV advertising, any more than it has defined digital advertising... Data is not the new oil.”

Follow-up

Partially right. Data-driven buying did come to define TV's growth engine: CTV ad spend reached about $31.8 billion in 2024 (half the size of linear), and 43% of US advertisers were pulling linear budgets into programmatic CTV. But his deeper point aged well: "data as oil" hype deflated under privacy regulation, and creative, context and reach still separate winners from losers.

From the High Caliber AI network — see the AI for PR module in the course.