Yet another upfront season is starting, but nothing is going to be the same as it was.
The market is on the precipice of major change. It’s not simply that what we now call linear TV is being consistently replaced by over-the-top and advanced TV delivery systems. Nor is it just that data-driven audience targeting and programmatic buying are shifting the media conversation. These shifts are certainly significant. But the upshot of this disruption is a transformation in the way advertisers actually measure the success and impact of their TV buys.
That doesn’t mean the upfronts are going away any time soon. They remain crucial for media planners and buyers as they determine the cadences of their ongoing campaigns. And brand marketers, as well, need to get their annual download of what programming is happening and what new media opportunities are emerging.
But everyone is under greater pressure to demonstrate ROI and return on ad spend. And that extends far beyond the kinds of upfront negotiations that have generally defined this time of year. They’re going to need to show that their TV ad buys are driving the specific intended actions of their campaigns.
In other words, you need to know that the person seeing your TV ad is taking action and buying your product. And that requires insights into their unique journeys and behaviors. Unfortunately, many buyers, planners and brand marketers aren’t there yet.
The challenge of TV attribution
We recently held an Adweek webinar on The New Age of Television Measurement, where our guest speaker Justin Fromm, VP of business intelligence at ad industry specialist Advertising Perceptions shared findings from a study they did for Cuebiq on the TV measurement landscape.
It was pretty clear that media buyers and planners face three key pain points when it comes to measuring TV success. First off, they’re challenged to determine what the incremental lift is for their brands by channel. Next, they need to know if their media mix is driving people to the store. And lastly, they need data they can use the improve the performance of their campaigns.
There were several important takeaways from the Advertiser Perceptions study:
1. Advertisers need to ask more of their TV attribution solutions. You need to work with partners to leverage attribution so you can approach strategy and planning in new and innovative ways across your entire media mix.
2. Offline intelligence is an attribution enhancement. It’s critical to measure and track how people behave in the real world, not just online. Store visits tell a broader, more actionable story that goes beyond simple ROI.
3. Work with partners who can deliver privacy, granularity, scale and ease-of-use. Your investment in an attribution measurement solution needs to hit these marks if you want to leverage its full value.
4. Don’t settle. More than a quarter of advertisers are regularly using measurement tools to understand the campaign performance, but many feel that they have “settled” with their TV attribution solutions. Asked what they’re looking for in a solution, marketers pointed to transparent and verifiable reach and frequency data, better consumer identity data, and a focus on a faster turnaround.
What offline intelligence has to do
That last point is perhaps the most important. When it comes to mapping viewership to the effectiveness of your ads at driving people to a store, you can’t simply settle for good enough.
At Cuebiq, we want to ensure that you get a rich and accurate picture of your target customers’ offline journey. That’s going to help not only in measuring the ROI of your TV campaign, but you can go a step further and actually understand what drives consumer loyalty.
We measure offline behaviors using a double-verified approach. First, we leverage the accuracy and precision of our anonymous location data to establish a visit to a physical location. Many other location data providers stop there, but it important to go the extra step. So, next, we determine the dwell time for each visit to filter out “fake visits” of other consumers who may be merely passing by or may be just passing through.
For planners and buyers measuring their TV plans, this double-verified approach tells you if a visit was a real visit and whether or not the journey was in line with what you expected it to be. It can also uncover behaviors that can impact your media spend. For instance, a QSR restaurant might find that a certain ad triggers visits and purchases to its outlets ahead of the dinner hour. Planners can then look for available pods that align with that time of day.
So as you and your team approach the upfronts this year, ask yourself about how you’re going to measure your success? Then look at your attribution solutions and determine whether you’re going to settle or soar.
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Valentina Marastoni-Bieser (@VBieser) is the EVP of Marketing at Cuebiq.
