Inside the Report
$1 Million
of network infractions
-15%
15% rate reduction from one network
Executive Summary
TV buying has always been a slow, seasonal process with long cycles between decisions and results, and outdated evaluation and negotiation tactics. Because of this, brands are unable to confirm that ads are being placed according to brand guidelines and may never know if they were delivered as purchased. This case study illustrates how University of Phoenix worked with iSpot to precisely verify when and where TV ads were aired and discover make-good inventory due to network infractions.
“Our agency provided a post-campaign report on self separation and daypart/program restrictions but the long, 90+ day lag made it not very actionable. Moreover, we never had any insight into competitive separation. Then, we found iSpot.“
Laura Schmidt, Head Media Strategist, University of Phoenix
Challenge
University of Phoenix (UOPX), a pioneer of accessible higher education for adult learners, invests in TV advertising to reach prospective students and stand out in the competitive higher education space. UOPX needed a way to ensure its target viewers were seeing the ads they were delivering and were associating those ads with their brand in a positive way.
As a standard best practice, UOPX has established brand guidelines that its agency provides to TV networks in order to protect the brand and its ad association, and guarantee:
Competitive ad separation so
that viewers know that the
brand’s ads are for UOPX and
not a similar organization.
Self-separation to avoid ad
fatigue that can result from
the same commercial airing
too many times during an ad
break or programming.
Daypart and program
restrictions to protect brand
perception and reputation. For
example, programs with
sensitive adult content are
blacklisted.
Historically, UOPX’s agency ran a post-campaign analysis 90 days after ads were aired to verify adherence to brand guidelines. The brand needed a faster way to audit performance and also needed insight into competitors’ ad placements to verify competitive separation.
Solution
Using iSpot’s real-time media measurement, UOPX and its agency were able to implement an ongoing audit to gain faster and deeper insight into ad delivery and network infractions. Since iSpot verifies impressions and view rates for all TV ads across a panel of 16 million smart TVs and 6 million connected TV devices, UOPX was able to quickly identify whether networks adhered to competitive separation, self-separation and program/daypart restrictions.
“We have seen a major improvement in accountability to our brand guidelines. The value of this pays for the tool itself.”
Laura Schmidt, Head Media Strategist, University of Phoenix
Results
In the first 5 months of auditing, iSpot estimated $1 Million of network infractions, which resulted in UOPX getting:
$1 Million
of network infractions
-15%
15% rate reduction from one network