HOW TO USE UNSOLD INVENTORY TO PROVE TV’S EFFECTIVENESS - ScreenVoice.cz

Transfer Media, Belgium’s sales house for premium thematic and kids channels, worked with DSTRSD media to turn unsold linear TV minutes into measurable single product commerce tests. The goal was to show how unused airtime can support a low effort conversion pilot that brings incremental revenue and gives sales teams concrete evidence on audience response, placement, and frequency.

Transfer Media reflects on this case as stated underneath:

I was looking for a new and alternative way to measure the performance of our thematic channels. We already knew our viewership was strong, driven in part by significant investments from the e-commerce sector. DSTRSD.media enabled us to validate this with precision. By combining AI with advanced digital analytics, they not only delivered deep insights into our audience’s behavior, but also unlocked new opportunities to monetize our unused media inventory. The results exceeded our expectations, and we’re excited to continue developing the project with them.

Stefan Hougaerts, Innovation & New Business Manager, Transfer Media

Unsold minutes as a conversion testbed

The setup used a single product and a single shopfront with a direct path to the web. Viewers were directed through a short URL and a QR code on screen, supported by a voiceover prompt. DSTRSD created a brand called Welmat, with a massage mat as the flagship product.The latter served as the test offer and produced an AI generated spot featuring older adults to reflect the channel audience profile. Creative variants, in particular the voiceover, were refreshed roughly once a week, which allowed quick iteration between tests.

Transfer Media focused on planning and validation: scheduling unsold minutes, checking fit and brand safety, and consolidating reporting. DSTRSD managed product sourcing and creation, ad delivery, ecommerce setup, fulfilment, customer support, analytics, and insight delivery. Settlement followed a revenue share on product margin, with DSTRSD operating the full stack to keep operational needs low for the sales house. Inventory rules were clear: only unsold space was used, and advertiser campaigns kept priority whenever inventory sold out.

Phased tests to establish the model and channel learning

Phase 1 ran on EclipsTV, a Flemish thematic channel with an older audience, to assess whether a focused product could drive measurable response from linear TV. Phase 2 reused the same Welmat spot across additional channels in the northern part of the portfolio. Keeping the spot constant allowed differences in response to be linked to channel mix, placement, and repetition rather than to new messaging.

Across both phases, AI assisted edits supported rapid adjustments. The path to web stayed consistent: QR code, short URL, and an explicit voiceover prompt, which supported clear attribution across placements.

Results that quantified response and informed planning

Between June and August 2025, with roughly one to two unsold spots per day, the initiative generated about 2,500 sessions, an estimated 8.9 percent conversion rate, more than 120 orders, an estimated 3 percent repeat rate, and about 48 percent gross margin on the offer, as reported by the project team. The shared dashboard tracked visitors, click through rate, bounce, revenue per visit, add to basket actions, orders, and basic demographics such as region and gender.

Transfer Media compared these results with GRP outputs from the Belgian TV currency to observe how repetition and frequency related to response. Patterns indicated that conversion tended to rise with repeated exposure and that some channels performed better with consistent creative. These findings provide input for future media planning and packaging.

A format designed for repetition

For this test, the massage mat was presented as the lead product. These comfort led features match ease of use cues relevant to older audiences, which made the offer straightforward to measure.

Transfer Media handled media planning and protected advertiser priority. DSTRSD operated the end to end commerce workflow and delivered insights through a live dashboard. This arrangement was a way to use unsold inventory with limited added workload, while first hand conversion data sits alongside audience metrics to link linear KPIs with familiar digital performance indicators.

The results indicate that unsold minutes can be used as a structured layer for experimentation. Following the two phases, Transfer Media is exploring standardising the format for wider use across its portfolio. Next steps under consideration include curating a small product catalogue, keeping a standard dashboard view for comparison, and defining a default test format with clear flight and reporting cadences and revenue share ranges.

Source: egta.com