It’s the run-up to Christmas, which means the return of several flagship programmes from the big broadcasters.
Over the last couple of weeks, ITV have relaunched the X Factor, where ratings continue to slide: 15 adult TV rating points (TVRs) in 2017 vs 16 adult TVRs in 2016. The Great British Bake Off has found a new home on C4, which has seen it deliver C4’s biggest show to date on launch night, with 8.72m viewers tuning in – albeit down on BBC Bake Off figures, which launched with a viewership of 13.58m. So what does this type of programming offer as opportunities for performance advertisers?
Rather than broadly booking at a station level, the targeting and testing of ‘hero spots’ (occasional higher rating impactful spots in a balanced schedule) can offer a great opportunity to be associated with key programming and drive performance in-line with an advertiser’s core TV schedules, thereby offering additional levers to scale ad spend.
Key considerations when looking to test would include
- Targeting of spots with relevant content and high penetration of core audience (product/ audience association, whilst reducing wastage)
- Initial testing to focus at a regional/ micro level, as opposed to booking at a national level to reduce risk before scaling nationally
- Understanding the most efficient audiences to trade against and compare against costs of the core schedule. You can then understand if the increase in costs has the opportunity to deliver the required uplift in response to drive a cost-efficient response – typically we see visit response rates (RR%) increase c. 3-5x higher in peak vs. daytime
- Although the rise of dual-screening has enabled advertisers to divert from typical daytime schedules, understanding the macro impact of these spots will also be beneficial, as typically response tails are longer when compared to daytime advertising
- Understanding the softer metrics as larger impacting spots will generate increased cut-through and potentially improve other key performance indicators (KPIs), including consideration and improvements to acquisition channels
- Aligning of online channels: make sure your PPC and retargeting have uncapped budgets to help harvest incremental demand
Additional benefits to consider would include:
- Ability to launch new TV campaigns, generate big impact, without breaking the bank
- Test new creatives to understand quickly if the advert is driving the desired response
- Reach incremental audiences in a cost-effective way
- Outsmart the competition: take ownership of core audiences, whilst being perceived as being large spenders and market leaders
All Response Media Viewpoint
The balance between efficiency and volume will continue to be the age-old battleground, although a smarter deployment to how we evolve advertisers’ spend into the larger, traditionally more expensive areas will be the key to success, helping grow their businesses further.
