Television has come a long way since its beginnings. And with today’s boom in streaming services, OTT entertainment choices, and the ubiquity of smart TVs, there are more opportunities than ever for advertisers to target their messages to reach their ideal audiences on their televisions using addressable TV, a major category of fast-growing advanced TV.
Will Clayton, SVP of Digital Product Management with Wiland and an addressable TV guru, recently hosted a webinar with the Direct Marketing Club of New York on “Addressable TV: Evolution and Opportunity.” We chatted with him to get the 411 on the basics of this exciting channel and how you can successfully leverage it for great results.
Want to see Will’s full DMCNY webinar? You can view it below.
So how did a fundamentally mass media like television come to support direct marketing? TV has had quite the journey. From pre-World War II experiments on how to build on radio’s success by incorporating images to the first commercial cable systems of the 1950s and to the rise of pay-per-view in the 1970s and 1980s, TV technology has continuously advanced throughout recent history.
In the mid-1990s, Multiple System Operators (MSOs) sought to identify the next advancement for TV beyond broadcast pay-per-view. These MSOs were also looking to compete with home video rentals and began upgrading their equipment to support video-on-demand, in which subscribers could access premium content when they wanted it rather than only at specific times. This subscriber-centric focus evolved into cable internet and addressable linear television—introducing the new technological capabilities that would allow for modern connected video services and devices.
Connected television and devices have continued to evolve significantly. But while today’s TV viewing might look a little different, the basic process for brands to advertise via television remains largely the same. And it all starts with targeting your advertisements to the right audience.
The key to campaign success in any targeted marketing channel is getting your messages in front of the right people—those consumers who are most likely to respond to your advertising and engage with your brand. Addressable TV is really like any other targeted marketing channels in this regard—from digital display to mobile, social, and even direct mail. And it’s with detailed consumer spending data that these audiences can be identified and reached with the greatest precision.
This is where bringing in a data partner like Wiland can fuel the success of your addressable TV campaigns. Wiland has the largest set of individual-level U.S. consumer spending and interest-intensity data ever assembled, and we leverage it to help brands like yours find the consumers most uniquely aligned and ready to spend with you and then reach them through “the tube.”
Addressable TV is an exciting marketing channel that can greatly extend your reach to more and better-qualified consumers in your target audience. While there are certainly plenty of factors to consider before jumping into addressable TV—such as having high-quality video content to deliver as advertising—it is a channel that can have a big impact on your brand awareness, engagement, and revenue.
The effects of COVID-19 over these past months have meant that consumers have been more homebound and watching more streaming and subscription TV than ever before. This translates into new addressable TV advertising opportunities for you. Now is a great time to get your feet wet with addressable TV advertising, and we’re here to help with any questions you may have.