By Vicky Chang, VP of Media at Tatari
TV buying has entered the data-driven age. Rather than guessing who is watching what, brands have access to more viewership and audience data than ever before. This means that even the biggest brands can turn TV into a performance channel, where each buy drives actual results.
Of course, there’s more sophistication to this than simply finding a program that attracts a target demo. Some networks or publishers attract a higher response rate for the same demo or audience compared to others. This is one reason why brands can no longer simply target demos the way they have in the past.
This is especially true as we head into a paradigm-shifting upfront season. Brands need a nimble approach to buying that flies in the face of how TV has been purchased for decades. While partners of all kinds – including vendors, agencies, and ad platforms – are still an important part of the TV advertising business, brands need to make sure that their agencies are helping them take advantage of all of the benefits on offer.
Here is a list of questions to pose when making a TV buy in this modern buying era, before brands make their major upfront investments this year.
What channels are available to me?
Another way to word this question is, “How nimble are you?” Many agencies traditionally executed TV buys by locking in eight networks in their annual upfront buy and committing brands to those networks throughout the year. With the explosion in viewing choices, brands committing to only eight networks could miss a massive swath of their audience.
Further complicating things is that when brands do indeed hit their audience, they may see different response rates across different networks or channels. Why keep buying the one with the low response rate?
The answer to the question is that nearly every channel out there is available to them. TV viewership is bifurcated, but that means that brands can now take advantage of intelligent, cost-efficient tactical buys across a slew of networks, streamers and FAST channels.
What data are you using?
The idea of targeting, to many brands, equates to hitting a very broad demo with ads. A brand may do well with women over the age of 45 with high household income. The agency then looks at inventory that goes against that audience and books those ad units.
That’s a very limited use of data. It’s now possible for brands to leverage their own first-party data to better understand who is actually converting on their app or website, then use that insight to scale up the TV buy. This, combined with other third-party resources, leads to a more scientific and accountable approach that puts results forward.
What’s my scale?
Audience and data help determine scale, which drives the success of the buy. Hyper-efficient targeting can achieve results, but brands need to do so at a certain level in order to impact their bottom line. The goal of TV advertising is not to run one single campaign that drives results. It’s to build sustained success that helps a brand grow its customer base and revenue. Data determines how each incremental dollar gets spent.
What about guaranteed inventory?
Most larger agencies will push brands into non-preemptible inventory (NPE) with the promise of lower pricing and steady pacing, but in many cases, brands don’t need those criteria. In some cases, more nimble brands can clear consistent budgets on networks by simply bidding, as opposed to making the NPE buy.
Secured inventory does make sense in some cases, such as achieving added value to existing sponsorships and integrations. It also may work best during tighter parts of the quarter, when its harder to clear biddable inventory. However, this is still a matter of using NPE inventory in special use cases, as opposed to a blanket strategy across the media plan.
Anticipating the answers
When brands pose these questions, they need to be ready to investigate the responses. TV buying is evolving well beyond the set-it-and-forget-it model. Tried-and-true tactics like upfronts still have a place, but more nimble buying can help brands sustain the kind of performance they need to thrive.
