Advertising fails to find a Media Mix.

Digital and traditional advertising are failing to complement one another effectively, according to part two of the STRATA quarterly survey of major advertising agencies. STRATA found that although digital is playing a larger role, the category still faces substantial obstacles in aligning cohesively with campaign goals. Despite some years of experience with digital, clients still do not fully comprehend the value of this form of media.

As indicated in part one of STRATA’s quarterly survey released earlier this week, all forms of media made a solid comeback during the first quarter, which represented a positive return for advertising. However, the digital category while strong overall, did stumble. Survey respondents indicated that digital’s two leading obstacles are a lack of advertiser demand and channel effectiveness. Channel effectiveness appears to be blocked largely due to insufficient digital measurement (51%), followed by merging digital and traditional advertising in the managerial process.

The STRATA survey highlighted the fact that agencies are still in desperate need of tools to effectively measure digital advertising. More than half (51%) noted that current digital measurement platforms fall short of meeting campaign needs, with 59% illustrating that their clients didn’t even truly understand the value of digital advertising. Furthering the argument that digital struggled this quarter, 93% of respondents noted that clients are not actively requesting new advertising venues such as the iAd, Google TV and Apple TV.

“Advertising is back on track, but merging digital and traditional media is still a major issue,” said John Shelton, STRATA CEO/President. “Agencies are being actively challenged by clients to provide true ROI figures, but they don’t have the tools to fully report digital and traditional advertising results together. Agencies are also struggling with selling certain digital advertising to clients, as most are currently unimpressed with the reach of such new avenues as location based advertising, iAd and Google TV.”

For more information at http://www.strata.com