For many years, advertising on television has been the effective medium when it comes to convincing consumers what to buy and what products to check out. However, there could be an interesting changing of the guard, according to new statistics from CivicScience.

As reported by AdAge, a new chart from the survey team shows that social media has been providing more of an influence over product advertising than television, almost running neck-and-neck with the popularity of ads on television. The closest point, according to the chart above, came during May-June 2014, when they actually inter-lapped with one another around the 43rd percentile. TV has since regained a little ground, but there’s no question that social media isn’t far behind.

Meanwhile, Internet advertising is a little less well-received, dwelling around the 10th to 17th percentile over the past year. That’s not to say it couldn’t pick up, but there’s no question that social media channels are far more effective.

CivicScience also reported the following findings:

“In 2014, the dominance of TV’s influence shrunk significantly over the prior year. In fact, at times during the year, TV and social media were on par.”

“There appears to be some seasonality to TV ads vs. social media: Warmer-weather months correlated with a rise in social media selection, and the fall TV season with greater TV ad influence.”

“Internet advertising sees a very gradual increase, but far less volatility than TV or social media.”

Social media chatter seems to be playing a much stronger influence, especially when ads have a certain amount of relevance.

While the report doesn’t indicate that TV advertising is finished – the buzz from the ads in the Super Bowl clearly show they aren’t, not by a longshot — they do indicate that advertisers need to have a better understanding of just how powerful social media is affecting perceptions for brands Advertisers who take this into account can develop creative campaigns to help support social media, and generate even more interest in their brands.

More details on the report can be found here.