It’s undisputed that TV is an incredibly effective marketing channel and unmatched in terms of sheer reach. But advertisers’ expectations of TV are changing. Brands demand better targeting, more active management of buys and timely analysis of TV efforts. For agencies, it means measuring and optimising TV just like digital.
When talking to agencies that want to ensure better TV planning and buying for clients, I tell them that they have to start by thinking differently about:
Linear TV Itself: Gone are the days of planning, buying and gauging TV success based on GRP or audience data. Linear TV is now optimisable. With the right analytical tools, TV can reach target audiences with tailored messages, and advertisers can know who’s watching and when, measure impact and optimise spots while on air.
Short-Term Impact: Knowing the immediate effect of TV is crucial because day-of response is a reliable indication of overall campaign impact. Clients also expect firms to know the networks, days, times and programmes that generate performance, the type of customers responding and the best media buys for driving engagement.
In-Flight Changes: Optimising TV requires active management of media buys – and this is a big change for some agencies. Same-day analytics used to measure short-term impact can also find underperforming spots. Leverage more flexible buying opportunities and make day, programme, network, genre, creative or daypart changes to improve the efficiency of on-air spots.
TV Measurement: Agencies must prove that media is driving client KPIs. Doing this quickly with digital is the norm, but it hasn’t been with TV. By analysing spot performance, historical media plans and key business events, agencies not only show how TV drives consumers, but also how it interacts with other marketing channels.
TV Strategy: Negotiating a reduced CPT is great, but does it mean anything if the campaign doesn’t meet its objective? TV strategies shouldn’t be about reaching an untargeted, mass audience. They should be based on attributable response – the actions generated. Leverage performance data to plan more efficiently and get in front of the right people, in the places and times they’re most likely to respond.
Long-Term Effect: While same-day data measures the short-term and campaign-wide value of TV, it also helps identify long-term brand effect. Quickly quantify the impact TV has on client KPIs and uncover relationships between TV and other online/offline channels. Predict the impact of marketing investments, optimise spend and give your clients definitive proof of TV’s influence.
By treating TV like the optimised marketing channel it is, agencies can decrease CPA for clients, prove that TV is meeting or exceeding quoted campaign targets and ensure that all buying and planning efforts result in maximum response. We regularly hear from agencies about how measuring and optimizing TV led to increased budgets, attracted new clients and even retained existing ones that were thinking of moving on.
And it all started by thinking differently …
Calum Smeaton is the CEO and founder of TVSquared, which is used by more than 350 brands and agencies in 46 countries to measure and optimize TV. With TVSquared, agency customers, on average, double their clients’ TV budgets by improving TV efficiency between 20-80%.
