TV Drives Response QI Results S Group More Than How TV Ads Work with Other Media L Result RT Doublesd Its Operating
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6 May 2010 week 18 : TV drives response QI Results s Group more than How TV ads work with other media L result RT doublesd its operating France United Kingdom Groupe M6 publishes Q1 Five is giving away a role revenues in Neighbours Germany Greece IP Deutschland celebrates Alpha TV broadcasts 50th anniversary Greek Idol week 18 the RTL Group intranet 6 May 2010 week 18 Cover: Montage showing direct response to a TV spot via internet : TV drives response QI Results s Group more than How TV ads work with other media L result RT 2 doublesd its operating France United Kingdom Groupe M6 publishes Q1 Five is giving away a role revenues in Neighbours Germany Greece IP Deutschland celebrates Alpha TV broadcasts 50th anniversary Greek Idol week 18 the RTL Group intranet “TV advertising makes things happen” Direct Response is one of the most underestimated effects of TV advertising. Tess Alps explains. Tess Alps, CEO of Thinkbox United Kingdom - 6 May 2010 On this year’s TV Wirkungstag (TV Effective- the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) ness Day) in Frankfurt am Main, Tess Alps, in the UK – which prove that campaigns which CEO of Thinkbox, presented a study investigat- include TV deliver better ROI and business ing response driven by TV advertising. Online, success than those which do not include TV. click-through rates let advertisers know whether their ad is working or not – although Alps was We know much more these days – from careful to point out that “accountability, or bet- neuroscience and psychology – about why TV ter ‘countability’, is not the same as effective- advertising works so well and how the human ness.” On television, such direct feedback is not brain responds to it. TV is particularly strong at possible – or so one might think. Thinkbox set hard-wiring brands, at provoking strong emotions out to find a way to gauge the interest of viewers, and creating long-term memories. Stories and and hit upon monitoring all web activity gener- human gestures are powerful ways to commu- ated by TV ads. Apparently, the number of online nicate; add these to shared viewing in a relaxed searches rises sharply after a TV spot is aired. and comfortable environment and you have the Backstage asked Tess Alps to tell more details recipe for huge advertising success. from this study. Let’s begin with a general question: What is New TV technologies, like flatscreens, HD and special about TV advertising? even 3D, are enhancing the quality of the picture, TV advertising is at the heart of almost all and others like digital recorders and on-demand effective advertising campaigns and its viewing are offering more control and conven- fundamental strengths have not changed. There ience. So it’s not surprising that TV viewing is are several sources of impartial research – for on the rise across the world, even in established example from PricewaterhouseCoopers and European and American markets. How does TV advertising drive response? Thinkbox is the marketing body for commercial TV advertising makes things happen – and TV in the UK, in all its forms. Its shareholders are instantly. Google metrics show us the instant Channel 4, Five, GMTV, ITV, Sky Media, Turner spike in search that TV ads produce. But very Media Innovations and Viacom who represent often TV doesn’t get the credit for the effect it over 90 per cent of commercial TV advertising revenue through their owned and partner TV generates. We believe that TV ads work best channels. Thinkbox works with the marketing with other media, partly because they capture community with a single ambition: to help adver- the response generated by TV advertising. tisers get the best out of today’s TV. The response might come via a print ad with a 3 week 18 the RTL Group intranet Google searches and TVRs for webuyanycar.com Google searches 18 120 16 100 14 12 80 10 TV ads 60 Google 8 6 40 4 20 2 0 0 8 8 8 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 -0 -0 t-0 r- r- r- v- y- b- p- c ul un- ug- Ap Jan Fe Ma Ma Dec-08 A -O Se Ma -J - 3- 2- 0- 9-No 7- 7- 4- 5- 20-J 12 27- 22 06 Searches on Google correlate with advertising on TV unique phone number, a direct mail shot with a We then undertook a very detailed analysis of coupon or, increasingly, a whole range of online seven brands for three months, tracking over marketing techniques: search, emails and click- 175,000 TV spots and all responses via phone able online display. The problem with this is and web (both direct to brand websites and via that responses are often attributed to the wrong search) at 10 minute intervals. This had never medium, the capturing medium rather than the been done before at this level of detail. What it generating medium. People are confusing cause revealed is that ‘instant response’ (ie response and effect. within 10 minutes of a TV spot) is about a third of the total campaign response and is almost as The large media agency we worked with showed high for TV responses via the web (32 per cent that superficial response analysis – often referred of campaign responses) as it is for TV responses to as ‘accountability’ – is undervaluing TV’s via phone (37 per cent). effect enormously. When proper econometrics are applied, all offline media become cheaper and search and online more expensive, but TV’s apparent cost reduced by the most, about 70 Web Phone per cent reduction, bringing its cost down to rival % search. 15 % Immediate 100% response Does TV advertising drive response over the 20 e in per cent % 90s short-term only, or does it also have an effect on long-term response? 80% 25 Our study was able to quantify three levels of 70% n respon response. About 65 per cent of responses are 60g % Across driven by a base of long-term effects, includ- 50% ing brand advertising, of which TV is the major campaign 40 campai % 40 contributor. Of the remaining 35 per cent, which e 30bl a we call campaign-led responses, nearly half (46 r per cent) of these are generated by TV, way 20u ahead of the share of ad revenue TV takes in the UK which is about 27 per cent. Relatively, immediate web response is almost as high as immediate phone response – 33.0 per cent of web response is immediate compared to 37.5 per cent of phone response 4 week 18 the RTL Group intranet Is there are any difference between phone is no point scrimping on buying key search terms response and web response? if they lead to business. Google would say that The study showed that Direct Response TV many advertisers do not anticipate the many (DRTV) – meaning spots asking consumers to search terms that a TV ad provokes; people respond directly to the company – drives more obviously search for the brand or the strapline, responses via the web now than via phone. Any but equally they might search for the music in the advertisers not integrating their web analysis ad, or the location, or the actor. with their TV activity is misattributing a huge per cent of their response and not optimising their How will response develop in the future? Will web activity to capture all the response that their Hybrid TV sets change the rules? TV ads will create. Many patterns of response New technologies are going to make it even were similar by phone and web, such as centre easier to respond to TV ads. Firstly, the grow- versus end breaks and position in break. But ing phenomenon of multi-tasking is one that we there were also important differences in the should be excited about. When people watch patterns of response between platforms that TV with a phone or a laptop nearby they can need to be understood and optimized. For respond instantly to ads, researching products instance, web response has the opposite pattern and even buying them before the end of the ad across the day from phone response across the break. And then the development of broadband- day, peaking in the evening. And also across the enabled TV sets means that TV will have its own week, whereas phone responses are markedly return path at last. Viewers won’t need to go via higher early in the week, web responses rise a search doorway to a brand’s website; they slightly at the weekend. We also found that the will just need to click on a TV ad. Then TV will best response came from brand response TV finally get proper attribution for its effectiveness. ads rather than more single focus DRTV ads. I can’t wait. Even pure brand TV ads with no call to action or contact details were sparking significant web responses. At this year’s TV Effectiveness Day you said that – according to Google – TV advertising drives search, but marketers are not using this well. What do they need to do better? People will respond to your TV ads, whether you want them to or not. There are too many advertisers losing some of TV’s effect by not integrating their website with their TV campaign. If you employ good search engine optimization techniques you will get more branded searches Today, Direct Response TV drives more response which is of course the ideal because you via the web than via phone spend less money on search and you don’t risk generating response for competitors.