The analysis combines TV ad exposure from six million UK households with the outcome data of matched panellists from consumer online behavioural panel company Measure Protocol.
Evaluating ‘Baby Lantern’
Findings from the proof of concept – dubbed ‘Baby Lantern’ – were presented at Vision 2025, an event hosted by Thinkbox, the UK’s commercial TV body.
Where previously broadcasters were limited to correlating website visits with TV ad exposure, Lantern promises to show a “full spectrum” of TV’s impact on user activity in social media, e-commerce, in-app scrolling, search and web browsing.
The analysis found that:
- Less than half (around 45%) of measurable TV ad outcomes involve visits to brands’ own websites, with the majority occurring in other environments.
- Product category determines the type of outcome: travel brands advertising on TV are most likely to see traffic coming to their own website; for snack brands, most outcomes occur in e-commerce environments.
- Outcomes spike the day after exposure to TV ads and continue for a week and beyond – with social and in-app scroll results, in particular, lasting for a month.
Up to 100 brands are being invited to take part in the next round of testing. Researchers also plan to grow the Measure Protocol panel from 4,000 to at least 10,000 users.
Lantern will also serve as the measurement solution for Universal Ads, a marketplace launching next year, aiming to enable SMEs to place ads across ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Media’s on-demand and streaming platforms in a single campaign.
Why outcomes matter to TV
Ad investment has shifted towards platforms that claim to be able to prove concrete business results. Whether or not that attribution is accurate, marketers – and their finance teams – feel reassured by seemingly empirical proof of outcomes.
As a result – and despite all we know about TV ad effectiveness – sellers of television advertisers are being forced to speak the language of performance through initiatives like Lantern.
Sourced from Thinkbox, Channel 4, ITV, Sky
Source: warc.com