A new Nielsen study published today combines viewers’ purchase data and TV habits and shows just how specific buyers can get when planing their spend. These “buyergraphics” illustrate the complexity of catching viewers’ attention across platforms and times of day. Nada Bradbury, SVP Product Leadership at Nielsen says that:
Marketers are under increasing pressure to prove the ROI of their marketing efforts, and this is further complicated by fragmenting audiences. In some instances, we’ve seen up to 50% of buyers fall outside of any single demographic segment. By connecting the dots between what people watch and what they buy, advertisers will be better equipped to deliver the biggest bang for their buck.
Some of the specifics are interesting, if not totally surprising when you think about it. For example, viewers watching animated shows in the early evening (hello, Simpsons reruns), are clueing in to ads about fast food and buying seven times as much as the average fast food consumer later on. But advertisers only spend about 4% of their budget on early evening animation shows, so even a tiny increase would probably be worth it. According to the study, “they make seven more trips to fast food restaurants over the course of the year than the average fast food buyer.”
Department stores that only spend a fraction of their total $1.5 billion budget on “how-to” shows, but viewers of lifestyle programming make up 46% of department store shoppers. Hey, Macy’s — get on TLC. Same for home improvement marketers, who need to target the people watching the nightly news, which make up about 48% of all home improvement shoppers. You can see the full study here.
