In our weekly series with iSpot.tv, we highlight the best TV ads of the week measured by digital share of voice. As always, advertisers spend on TV because they want to market to certain TV-watching segments of audience. But as ad creative becomes, well, more creative, and viewers treat this creative as sharable content, an advertiser’s budget can go a long way.
iSpot.tv’s technology allows brands, agencies, and networks to “track in real-time paid TV media and related earned digital activity across social, search, and video.” iSpot.tv synthesizes this information into a “digital share voice” metric, which is the basis of our weekly post. And, as TV shifts toward programmatic buying, information like this becomes even more valuable.
For more on programmatic buying, shifting ad budgets, and how advertisers are leveraging digital share of voice data, we spoke with iSpot.tv Founder and CEO Sean Muller:
Lost Remote: How have advertisers been leveraging digital share of voice data from iSpot.tv?
Sean Muller: Advertisers use digital share-of-voice data to understand how their TV ads are performing compared to their competitors. By performance, we mean the earned digital activity generated by each ad across social, online video and search. This helps them understand which of their creatives are working, and also understand on which program and TV network those creatives are performing the best, and then make adjustments accordingly.
LR: What impact will the rise of programmatic buying in the TV space have on advertising? Do you think this is being over-hyped or is it going to soon be the norm?
Muller: TV wants to become programmatic like digital. But there are two challenges: One is that you need the real time data on ad performance to support programmatic decisions. We’re solving that piece. Then you need the infrastructure to support the programmatic inventory and activity. I think you’ll see the implementation of programmatic buying grow progressively, first in the cable space, then later to the national TV networks. None of this is going to happen overnight, it’s going to be a progression over many, many years.
LR: As more budget shifts from linear to digital, how should advertisers reshape their video advertising strategy?
Muller: Generally speaking, there isn’t a big shift in budget between linear TV and cable to digital. It’s more about the shift in TV consumption. That’s what’s going to dictate the shift in budget. The real question is not whether budgets are shifting from linear to digital, it’s is whether it is shifting from premium to short form, and that’s not happening. There’s no below-the-fold autoplay on TV. Budgets go where premium content goes. It’s not just about eyeballs. You need the premium experience to support it.
LR: What are some of the direct results you’ve seen from brands with large ‘social action’ numbers (as part of their larger digital share of voice)?
Muller: First, when you have a large social reaction, you have a big amplification effect on your TV ad. Second is it means your creative is resonating in some capacity, be it negative or positive. Views are important, but social actions have bigger amplification effect. When you share and ad on social, people see that more than if you just hit play.
LR: What should we be looking out for in the digital video advertising space that not many people are talking about right now?
Muller: Digital video has a real opportunity to reach into TV, but only if TV ads and video can be measured in an accurate, timely and consistent manner across screens. People aren’t talking enough about the connection between digital video advertising and TV ads. Everyone’s talking about what shows are being watched on TV, but not enough dialogue about what ads are being watched. TV ratings don’t apply for ads. There’s no ratings or engagement ratings for advertising. It’s all panel based and impression based. That’s because everyone is caught up in digital. You need to look for TV to be measured more like digital video, in terms of viewability and accuracy.