“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.
Today’s column is written by Michael Bologna, president at one2one Media.
As the annual network upfront presentations concluded, agencies and advertisers were strategizing on how to best act on the series of announcements, products, tools and data that promise a more effective and efficient approach to television.
On the surface, “advanced advertising” comes across as a simple term, but in reality, it is anything but. Few can argue that better data encourages a more informed allocation and that household-level addressable ad insertion enables refined targeting and reduced waste. Most experts will also agree that improved and integrated systems will allow for better measurement and a streamlined workflow.
However, it is how all these components fall in line in a holistic media strategy that keeps many up at night. There is no single solution that provides a perfect balance of new and legacy practice, but there is a suggested line of thinking that can help one organize the pieces that can fulfill the objectives needed to achieve a particular, holistic outcome.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and TV advertising won’t change overnight, but identifying segments even slightly more granularly while appending third-party data with viewership data – otherwise known as indexing – will surely identify content allocation options that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Consider the application of this knowledge from an inventory agnostic perspective. A minor tweak to a national schedule can go a long way, as can including inventory sourced from outside of the network garden. This type of split strategy can provide both the reach and efficiency needed to achieve the goal.
Addressable targeting on television can be very effective but overtargeting or overinvesting in hypertargeting can be equally as ineffective. Sixty percent of US households can receive a set-top box targeted ad, and our ability to tie that ad exposure back to a sale is a very strong proposition that should not be ignored or taken lightly.
Making an informed decision on the value addressability adds to the bottom-line goal is worth the effort even if the final determination is little or none at all. Dynamic addressable TV ad insertion is here to stay. Despite its perceived complexity, the outcomes are solid, and finding the right place for this tactic within the macro plan is a valuable step forward.
Indeed, a recent Forrester/ANA survey found that 15-17% of advertisers in the US already regularly include addressable or advanced TV buys in their media plans, and an additional 20-30% of advertisers plan to start dipping their toes into advanced and addressable TV techniques this year.
As we enter a more data-driven era of TV advertising, it is important to think of these advanced tactics not as individual campaigns but pieces of one holistic television initiative. Testing is critical, and if the test proves positive, it is important to move beyond that initial phase and introduce the new proven tactic to the larger overall media mix.
While no new television initiative is perfect, neither is our current practice. Holding out for perfection will almost certainly be a missed opportunity.
