The TV advertising industry has witnessed plenty of disruption over the past year, forcing brands to evolve and adjust in real-time with audience migrations, programming adjustments and new messaging demands. However, the challenges have also shed light on more efficient, future-proof methods of TV ad decision-making that will define the future of the medium.
iSpot’s TV Disrupt 2021 highlighted critical trends that defined the last year of advertising and what’s to come as brands continue to allocate more ad dollars to streaming and buckle down to ensure TV ROAS. Among the key insights revealed by this year’s expert speaker lineup, attendees were able to get a deep dive on five key trends shaping TV:
1. Balancing brand building and performance (7:41)
Chief Creative Officer at T-Mobile, Peter DeLuca, shared how real-time ad measurement and creative assessment helps the brand advertise new corporate initiatives that resonate well with consumers. The company’s “Project 10 Million” spot was the wireless industry’s top performer by Ace Metrix Creative Assessment metrics of attention, likeability, information and change, while grading out high for both relevance and empowering.
2. The rise of streaming & cross-platform TV ad measurement (27:11)
While 27% of content viewing is on streaming platforms, they account for just 5% of ad impressions. Amica has utilized Unified Measurement to discover the right mix of ads across both linear and streaming TV environments. Marketing VP, Tory Pachis, and Assistant Marketing Manager, Whitney Pouliot, emphasized that focusing on just linear or steaming can result in missing countless would-be customers. Understanding where audiences are watching TV across many ad-supported environments and connecting with them at the right time is crucial.
3. Proving TV’s impact on business outcomes (49:30)
For CarGurus, TV has driven an 11.8% lift in leads and a 35% savings in overall cost per lead (CPL) year-to-date in 2021. Sarah Welch, CMO, presented a fascinating case study on how the brand measures and attributes website visits at scale to understand exactly how visitors arrive and how TV ad exposure reduces their CPL. Additionally, she explained how the CarGurus team combines quality TV ad data with first party and digital data to deeply analyze how TV-exposed visitors differ from visitors coming from other channels.
4. Upfront flexibility and media innovations (1:10:20)
Based on a recent iSpot customer survey, 71% of advertisers plan to commit as much or more than normal to the upfronts, while 64% say upfront commitments are more flexible than years past. The increased interest in consuming video content, plus an influx of different ways to do so, have encouraged networks like ViacomCBS to be more flexible about upfront commitments — while embracing an approach that puts greater emphasis on all paths to audiences watching video. The engaging panel discussion between iSpot and Chief Research & Analytics Officer for CBS, Radha Subramanyam, and EVP of Advanced Media at ViacomCBS, Julian Zilberbrand, was a refreshing reminder that the top TV networks are at the forefront of media innovation and data-driven TV.
5. Empowering messaging in times of unrest (1:32:16)
Meeting the challenges of the times, brands leaned into empowering ad creative last year, which resonated with consumers. In April 2020, 80% of COVID-themed ads were seen as empowering, and the percentage of empowering ads nearly doubled on the year from previous norms (from 12.5% to 24%). Empowerment wasn’t just pandemic-focused either, as 71% of empowering ads in 2020 were not about COVID. In the last session of the day, Chief of Insights at iSpot, Peter Daboll, shared his expert POV on the creative trend and recommendations for how to execute truly empowering ads without compromising a brand’s reputation and image.
And that’s just a sample of what was discussed during this year’s highly engaging event. Don’t worry if you missed out. You can stream the event on-demand below.
We hope to see you at next year’s TV Disrupt!