Making TV Work Like It’s Digital

The advertising world has undergone abrupt evolution throughout the digital age, as have the needs of marketers. This change has led to an intensified focus on performance and growth. In this presentation, Simulmedia’s Chief Data Scientist and SVP of Marketing explain how digital has become successful as a performance driver, and how TV can capitalize on these same digital methodologies to deliver better performance, growth, scale, and optimization through automation.

Summary of What We’ll Discuss

• TV Perceptions vs. Reality: There’s a lot of confusion over what TV does and doesn’t do for advertisers. Watch to learn how misconceptions about TV can be dispelled.
• Where do misinformed perceptions come from? Exploring the outdated TV practices that contribute to current thinking about TV.
• Adapting digital tactics for TV: Proven, performance-driven digital tactics can enhance success in the TV environment.
• Science of effectiveness: Evidence-backed reasons demonstrating why these tactics work, affirming TV as a top choice for advertisers.
• Checklist for marketers: A consultative checklist for driving growth through a digital approach to TV.

Full Transcript

Matt Collins: Hi, my name is Matt Collins and I am the senior vice president of marketing at Simulmedia. I’m joined by my colleague, Nico Ricci, Chief Data Scientist for Simulmedia. Today we’re discussing how to approach television like digital advertising. It’s an exciting time for television advertising with significant viewership increases and drops in pricing, making TV advertising more accessible.

TV’s Perception vs. Reality

Matt: Perceptions about TV advertising are often outdated. While some believe that media buying is expensive and complex, it is now possible to start a meaningful TV campaign for as little as $25,000. Furthermore, a growing number of agencies cater to this new wave of advertisers with affordable creative.

Next steps against outdated perceptions:

• The overly expensive perception is false; today’s ad creatives are more affordable.
• TV is now measurable at multiple funnel stages contrary to common belief.

Digitalization is Revolutionizing TV Advertising

Matt: Digital practices have transformed TV into a data-driven medium. Custom audiences can be created based on customer data, allowing for precise, rapid measurement. Also, AI technologies fundamentally help in planning and decision-making for TV advertising.

Traditional Approaches to Performance on TV Fall Short

Matt: Performance advertising strategy needs to evolve from traditional models due to limited control and often high costs. It is crucial to adopt methods that optimize current plans with advanced predictive techniques.

The Math Behind Measurement and Optimization

Nico: There are three stages for advertisers running TV like it's digital:

1. Measurement of past campaign performances.
2. Prediction of future performance based on measurements.
3. Decision-making/Optimization for selecting the best inventory units based on performance objectives.

Doing TV Like It’s Digital - A Checklist

• Can they offer solutions similar to optimized CPM on Facebook?
• Is there automated buying integrated into networks for ease of planning and execution?
• Is AI employed to handle the complexity of optimizing media plans?
• Can they measure and convincingly link campaign objectives to ad exposures?
• Are they basing audience decisions on custom data rather than demographic info alone?