Television advertising growth is returning; not that it had ever begun to regress in the first place.
TV marketing body, Thinkbox has outlined that growth in addressable advertising and the sophistication and scale of the metrics involved, is only leading to further invigoration for Television.
While print has regressed, online has witnessed exponential growth over the last five years, not however at the expense of TV.
Research and Strategy Director for Thinkbox, Matt Hill, hailed the growing relationship between TV and online, while stressing the need for businesses to not take rigid approach to advertising, he argued: “Online needs Television to succeed.
“There is now a brilliant relationship between TV and online, combining the power TV has to build brands and drive sales through direct response activation media and the power of search and upscale with online.
“TV drives a large contribution towards search growth, with brands seeing a third less overall search without Television.
“All forms of video work together, data provided by the IPA states that ads which feature within on-demand drive the highest number of KPI successes.”
Gains made in measurability have led to buyers, advertisers and brands cross-collaborating and increasing inventory.
This invigoration has arrested the relentless ascent of online to complete market control.
Notwithstanding TV’s ability to act as a more cost-effective means of achieving more impressions, conversions and sales per-pound invested, addressability and targeting ensures TV offers the best of online alongside the optimal elements of TV itself.
Hill continued to add that addressable, interactive and programmatic is essentially win-win for businesses, he added: “With brand building it is imperative you speak to everybody.
“Through addressable means you can target your desired customers and also commandeer other audiences too you may not have identified: it helps with scaling, with buying more outside for free.
“Data matching with companies like Sky with their inventory has resulted in activation changes, you can now monitor not just who is watching, but what will be the most effective conversion.”
With essentially free exposure traditional brand awareness campaigns have been deemed under threat, however this could not be further from the truth given the successes of brands like John Lewis and Sainsbury’s in recent months.
The link between facilitating complete autonomy and reliance on success has been established; newer databases and growing inventory ensure automation is becoming cheaper and more accessible to all companies.
Start-up and SME’s now have the ability to enjoy the dependability and guaranteed success of TV-attractiveness is stark in comparison to more expensive and ambiguous times with linear TV.
Strategic expert, Hill, stressed the tide was firmly turning with the extent of media acquisition and measurability swinging to such a degree- online may begin to lag. He mused: “The market should open up now, TV is more attractive to smaller businesses; the print decline has assisted this.
“Rather than door drops, you are now advertising on Television at a much higher density, so will naturally be more effective.
“Of course some niche brands like McLaren will use the more specific traits of Adsmart, limiting inventory deliberately to target those who are positioned to buy their products.
“However the growth in the main means small businesses are appealed to it.”
Aside from the ability to target more specific audiences online, measure KPIs more efficiently and maintain awareness, recent analysis by the IPA has revealed online display to be the poorest of all media performers- including print and TV.
Ultimately because the purpose of online is to maintain brand awareness and convert visitors into customers, the scale and depth of data online is vast and amiss with guarantees.
Hill emphasised the inherent failings of online were because of the success of TV and its perception in the public eye. He maintained: “There has been a growth in search, but ultimately that captures demand and does not create it.
“TV’s market share has remained static at around 30%, while print has declined.
“The metrics TV has to improve targeting and programmatic based advertising have made it more effective.
“At a time where online has been maligned by measurement fraud and issues around companies owning data, challenging times may lie ahead; not that we like to predict these patterns.
“Businesses themselves know how to track audience behavior and TV viewing, so TV will be vital as we get better at evaluating spend.”
Facebook have high hopes of wrestling some of TV’s great market share of major sporting events and broadcasts, however Hill feels this is something that will ultimately falter with the growing reliability of TV analytics. He said: “While Facebook videos are available, they are not pre-rolled and guaranteed value.
“The ability Television ads’ have to be seen is unparalleled and far more effective given the expectation that TV has advertising implemented, unlike online where it can be surmounted.
“Ultimately though specially produced video content can live anywhere.
“TV though offers professionally generated content; we like content with options; choices, on demand and TV supplies that.
“It is also very cyclical and native to what a consumer desires, some Television shows like Gogglebox are growing, not declining, which is crucial to the success of TV.”
Ultimately though the mass investment at times to deliver success on TV boils down to media buying and time available to saturate your markets.
The Strategic Director continued by adding that creative delivered by production companies like Space City, who can visually enhance your ad to situate within your brand ideology, does not compensate for shortage of investment. He said: “There is a new tendency to rely on a great creative idea and not want to put the media budget behind it.
“It is important whatever business you are to get your ad seen as much as possible.
“John Lewis and Sainsbury’s to an extent are renowned for their top creative and its associated TV campaign.
“It has received a billion impressions across it entire campaign on TV and just 20 million through online views.
“You simply cannot undervalue buying, it is as important as creative; it drives frequency, engagement and quicker up-scaling.
“The measurability of addressable on Television is such that you can chose to increase the length of your campaign, based on the success of the creative.
“Ultimately, the more budget you choose to risk, the more money you can expect to make.”
Online ads statistically perform 20 per cent better when supplemented by TV, with the performance of TV only looking upward throughout 2017.
