With 2021 around the corner, marketers and advertisers will be reviewing their budget and mix of spend with increased scrutiny. It is a time for, albeit busy, reflection. TV and SVOD services have seen a surge in screen time throughout the various lockdowns and are looking for ways to continue to engage viewers. However, TV advertising typically involves a big investment in creative and the impact of the campaign can often take time to measure. So where does TV advertising fit into 2021 planning?
While it has and does continue to attract mass audiences and therefore advertising investment to match its power, the decline in linear and explosion in streaming is making TV a more complicated and fragmented medium for advertisers to navigate. However, that very fragmentation creates potential for more opportunities to reach the right audiences in a more cost-effective and engaging way than ever before. But to do so successfully requires a nuanced approach that carefully marries the power of TV with the audience segmentation potential of data – something made possible through addressable TV advertising.
Addressable advertising enhances TV’s power through data and technology, offering brands a range of capabilities, from enabling cost effective incremental reach to targeting households based on specific criteria ensuring the creative and product is relevant for the viewers.
By delivering relevant creative on a platform that consumers trust, marketers can engage audiences more effectively. Addressable TV advertising marries the benefits of data-driven digital advertising with trusted, quality traditional TV advertising to create a modern solution that should be considered as part of any advertising mix to drive ROI for ad spend.
The key differentiator between addressable and traditional TV advertising is the opportunity to make the ads more relevant to specific audiences. Finecast’s ‘Thinking inside the Box’ research found that one in three consumers stated they would be more likely to view TV ads if they were more relevant to them, which demonstrates that there’s an appetite and expectation amongst consumers for relevancy and quality TV ad content – providing an opportunity for businesses to build their brand through strategically placed creative.
The research, conducted by Finecast in partnership with researchers DRG and University College London’s Department of Experimental Psychology, takes an in-depth look into the real efficacy of addressable TV advertising today and how it can be applied to drive engagement and ROI. One element of the research involved in-depth interviews with experts from the advertising industry, who recognised the value of TV but note that changes are needed to compete with digital platforms.
Another part of the research, conducted with professors from UCL, was a neuroscience study that showed when served with TV advertising, respondents liked those ads that were addressable to them almost four times more than non-addressable and had more accurate memories of them. Additionally, participants’ implicit behaviours were also more responsive when viewing addressable TV advertising, and they were much more confident in their memories. The research also found that participants exhibited lower heart rates when watching relevant ads. A lower heart rates is indicative of greater external focus, which in this research demonstrates that participants were more engaged by TV ads addressed to their interests than those which weren’t.
Addressable TV advertising is already being deployed by brands large and small to secure incremental reach with their audiences. For example, Cancer Research UK, the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, incorporated addressable TV advertising into its 2019 campaign media mix. The campaign delivered 30% more efficiency in driving continuous giving donations than linear TV alone – whilst the campaign was also 28% more effective in shifting recommendation than other on-demand suppliers.
With reduced marketing budgets and increased pressures on marketing teams to deliver ROI, the advertising industry has been facing growing pressures for some time – and the pandemic has exacerbated the issue, notably for TV, despite it being such a powerful medium. Addressable TV advertising helps to rectify this by helping brands to unlock short-term results while building long-term brand growth through relevance with consumers on the big screen.
Source: v-net.tv
