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Getty Images Why TV Should Be Part of Every Brand Marketer’s Toolkit

Consumers still love TV, and it’s easier for brands to get in the game than ever before

BY MICKEY WILSON

elevision has long been the go-to medium for reaching audiences at scale. is going away. TV is still worthy of attention The first TV advertisement in the U.S. — a spot for Bulova Watch — aired from brand marketers. in 1941, costing the company a cool $9, Quartz reports. That spot opened the floodgates for the TV advertising industry to grow into what’s now an TV Is Still the Best Choice for estimated $70 billion industry. Reach and Engagement It makes sense that TV commercials quickly became one of the most pop- It’s fair to say that TV content is now being Tular ad media buys among consumer marketers. Nothing captures the attention quite like consumed in new ways. Long gone are a well-crafted television ad. the days when the majority of Americans Even so, TV has a growing number of doubters in the consumer marketing commu- gathered around the living room TV for nity. They may have heard anecdotal evidence that viewer attention is fragmenting across “appointment viewing” of shows on a screens and media formats, cord-cutting is spreading quickly, and younger generations handful of national broadcast networks. are less interested in TV content. Things are changing, it’s true — but it doesn’t mean TV Thanks to the growth of subscription

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cable, the internet, digital streaming, and National networks. In the U.S., the major CONSIDER THIS mobile devices, there has been a signifi- national broadcasters are ABC, CBS, TV Buying Styles cant and obvious evolution of viewership NBC, FOX, CW, and Univision. Inventory and viewing habits. purchased from the major broadcasters Brands thinking about bringing Even so, people are still fundamentally reaches viewers across the country during their TV buys in-house now have and deeply engaged with TV. Live and network blocks of primetime programming, many options. Marketers should time-shifted TV make up 93 percent of all national news shows, and national daytime make sure to ask providers about video minutes watched on all screens, programming. the scale and quality of their according to a 2018 report from Nielsen. The obvious upside to running ads on available inventory, as each And the most popular options for digital national networks is their reach — literally video still aren’t close to TV’s reach; every U.S. household with a TV can poten- works with different sources. according to Nielsen TV reaches 96 per- tially see a spot. But even when CPMs Brands may also want to ask cent of U.S. households, while eMarketer are relatively low, national networks are about a provider’s business rules, reports that YouTube only reaches obviously an expensive option in terms of including guaranteed purchases 58 percent and Facebook 50 percent. raw dollars per spot. and how far in advance spots Despite what marketers may hear about can be obtained. — M.W. millennials and their viewing habits, TV Cable networks. Each cable network reaches remains a huge part of this generation’s con- some proportion of the U.S. households sumption. Today’s average 18- to 34-year- that subscribe to cable or satellite — in old spends more than four hours daily with other words, a percentage of a percentage major events (like the Oscars and Super television content, according to Nielsen. of all TV households. Ads can be placed on Bowl), local broadcasters offer trusted, TV’s effectiveness holds its place as cable networks by working with their direct brand-safe content like local news and second to none in the media mix. Simply sales teams or multichannel video program syndicated programming. Local TV stations put, it works. In fact, Adweek, citing a 2015 distributors (MVPDs). can sell spots at any time on any show study by MarketShare, declared TV “has Logically, there’s no single cable network on their channel — not just the “network the highest efficiency at achieving key per- that can reach a brand’s entire universe of blocks.” formance indicators … like sales and new target viewers. Each offers targeted content Running campaigns on local television accounts. When comparing performance that reaches a subset of U.S. households. can be advantageous because it enables at similar spending levels, TV averaged four CNN, TNT, and ESPN are examples of a more targeted buy by region or munic- times the sales lift of digital.” major cable networks available to nearly ipality. Inventory can be purchased from The idea that traditional TV is losing every cable subscriber. There is also a local stations or their parent station groups. importance in the marketing mix may require world of cable networks with special inter- Programmatic TV platforms can automate setting aside personal biases and experiences est programming, everything from HGTV and streamline the work of buying local TV about media consumption. As The Drum to Hallmark Channel, that are not standard from multiple broadcast inventory sources. reported in its summary of a 2017 Video in every cable subscription package and Advertising Bureau study, “The average reach an increasingly smaller proportion of Multichannel video program distributors. American spends far more time watching live the entire universe of TV viewers. MVPDs are better known as local cable TV and far less time online than advertisers and satellite companies. Providers like think. … Their target viewers are in fact stick- Local broadcasters. The approximately Comcast, DirecTV, and Cox have the largest ing with live television, and view video and TV 1,400 commercial broadcast stations presence nationwide, and there are several online far less often than assumed.” in 210 U.S. metropolitan areas play an thousand other smaller operators that serve important role in distributing content from distinct geographic areas. TV Inventory Sources Each Have the national broadcast networks. Each Cable networks allocate two minutes per Unique Reach and Benefits area’s most powerful stations typically enter hour of ad inventory to each MVPD to sell For marketers accustomed to thinking in into an affiliate relationship with one of the to advertisers. Spots from national networks digital terms, TV will seem like a different major broadcast networks that makes them and local broadcasters are not available ballgame. There are different campaign the local distribution point for their content. from MVPDs, sharply limiting the audience planning metrics and KPIs to learn and National programming is the corner- that they can address. track. Then there’s the challenge of apply- stone of a local station’s content, but the MVPD access to customer data can help ing audience insights from data to TV in- station must also fill the rest of the day with marketers target audiences more accurately. ventory sources in a manner that optimizes programming and advertising. In addition Again, this is an area where working with a campaigns and increases media efficiency. to airing the national networks’ approxi- programmatic TV buying platform will sim- Here are the different kinds of TV inven- mately four-to-six hours of daily primetime plify the process of buying across multiple tory, their capabilities, and their limitations. programming, national news, sports, and media outlets.

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FIGURE 1 team, an increase more than 2.5 times TV Reaches a Greater Percent of the U.S. Population over the previous year’s number, Adweek Than Other Media reports. At first this shift focused on digital buying. Now purchasing of traditional media like TV and radio is starting to move in-house, too. Robust programmatic TV platforms place buying power and, impor- tantly, control in marketers’ hands. Many of these offer the scale, transaction automa- tion, and data-based targeting benefits of their digital cousins. These platforms have made buying TV easier, more informed, and more efficient by giving marketers the technology and data to optimize their media buys. Why shouldn’t brands bring media buying in-house? If anything, the challenge is less about technology adoption than cultivating the expertise to handle it. And sources: TV, 2018 Nielsen Total Audience Report; YouTube, 2018 eMarketer Global Digital Video Viewers report; some fear that programmatic technology Facebook, 2018 eMarketer US Social StatPack can exact an “ad tech tax,” though the size of fees charged by platform providers varies widely from partner to partner. Nevertheless, media buying looks set to become a new core discipline for adver- tiser brand management departments. Connected TV. Connected TV is delivered buying partners that have special expertise, As one Adweek op-ed recently put forward, through streaming boxes like Roku or Apple software, and market power for aggregating “The self-serve, auction-based model TV, gaming consoles, or devices with built-in purchases on behalf of multiple clients. is where our industry is headed … with internet access such as smart TVs. Just as it’s possible to watch TV in more the right technology and partnerships, Advertisers typically like the concept of ways and on more devices, marketers can it’s only a matter of time before it becomes connected TV. Because programming is now buy it in more ways, too. Options are the norm.” delivered over an IP connection, connected now available for bringing media purchas- TV makes it relatively easy to target and ing in-house while conferring many of the TV Remains a Great Choice for sync campaigns across devices. The poten- advantages of working with an agency. Brand Marketers tial audience, however, is limited by the An investigative report by the ANA Between the plethora of inventory sources size of the provider’s installed base, making found extensive evidence that rebates on and an expanding set of buying options, it very difficult to reach more than 20 to media paid to agencies are not automati- engaging target audiences with TV adver- 30 percent of the U.S. TV audience. Like cally passed back to clients. While stopping tising is easier than ever before. Advertisers MVPDs, these vendors cannot insert ads short of declaring the practice illegal, the can confidently reach a highly engaged into any national network or local broadcast report did call out the issue of pricing trans- target demographic in a brand-safe station content, which is almost half of the parency: Are brands fully aware of how environment. Thanks to programmatic TV content consumed. agencies are compensated? Should they platforms, marketers can even buy it them- share in these rebates on large aggregated selves with nearly the same ease as buying Options for Buying TV purchases? How will they even know when ads on social media or search engines. Agencies still deliver value for marketers, they have been part of a buy? With TV more popular and easier to buy but there are now viable alternatives. As a result of asking questions like these than ever, brands and agencies that want Practically since the inception of TV, the and the availability of programmatic buying to expand their reach beyond digital media vast majority of ad transactions have been platforms, many brands have elected to have a clear runway for using the power of the domain of agencies that specialize in move some or all of their media buying to TV to fulfill their goals. the practice of media buying. With so many in-house departments. Thirty-five percent television inventory options, marketers have of brands had moved a portion of their Mickey Wilson is the CMO at WideOrbit. You traditionally opted to work with agency programmatic digital buying to an in-house can email her at [email protected].

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WideOrbit can help your brand get started with broadcast TV. CONTACT US Contact us today to learn how. www.wideorbit.com © 2018 WideOrbit Inc. WideOrbit® is a registered trademark of WideOrbit Inc. (415) 675-6700 Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 1810