Australia’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are capitalising on Australia and New Zealand’s ecommerce growth – the highest across the globe at +107% in Q3 2020 – to expand their market presence. And they’re using TV to do it.
Accustomed to impression-based measurement and data-driven insights, DTCs came to TV with high expectations. Their approach changed the status quo, establishing a test-and-learn mentality, always-on analytics and continuous optimisation as key parts of TV advertising. Inspired by their success, traditional brands have adopted these same tactics. Now, TV is more than just an amplifier for brand reputation, it is a valuable tool for boosting conversions, targeting new audiences and furthering reach extension.
As media consumption habits continue to evolve across screens and devices, here’s how the future of TV advertising will be built on DTC strategies.
Greater connectivity, greater digitization
According to IAB Australia, the average household consumes video content on more than six different screens. On a daily basis, 17 million viewers watch via mobile devices, more than 11 million use desktops and 7.1 million access video on connected TVs (CTV).
Increasing CTV viewership has played a major role in enabling brands to tie TV advertising to impressions, which DTC brands – being digital natives – fully understand the value of. Whether audiences watch streamed or linear content, impression-based advertising gives brands a comprehensive view of their campaign performance, helping them on the path to engaging with audiences whenever, wherever and however they tune in to TV.
Driving outcomes with TV advertising
DTC brands highlighted the impact of finding and activating audiences across platforms and devices. The growing adoption of smart TVs offers brands household-level insight and audience intelligence that goes deeper than typical demographic information, such as age and gender. As a result, TV advertisers can utilize audience-based targeting. DTCs combine these insights with TV’s scale to connect with viewers and drive tangible outcomes.
Additionally, the focus of DTCs on achieving specific KPIs means they demand real-time insights that facilitate ongoing optimization – the type of granular measurement not widely offered by demand-side partners. Brands can now use impression-based measurement solutions to monitor unique reach, effective frequency and the performance of their ad campaigns, which informs their strategies – strengthening creatives, enabling smarter ad buying and engaging the best audiences.
Finding a competitive edge
With Australia the tenth largest ecommerce market – generating 27 billion USD in 2020 – the sector is home to fierce competition. In light of this, brands must leverage both TV’s traditional and innovative capabilities to gain a critical advantage. Many traditional advertisers – particularly those from the automotive or financial service sectors – have longer lead times on repeat purchases than DTC brands. To acquire new customers and sustain their reputation with existing ones, traditional advertisers have become veterans at building strong brand awareness with TV’s unrivalled reach.
As customer acquisition and its attached costs become more challenging, DTC brands have turned their attention to optimizing TV’s impact throughout the marketing funnel. While digitally inspired tactics kick-started DTC brands’ phenomenal growth, blending a digital approach with linear TV’s more traditional approach answers their need for both acquisitions and loyalty. Those brands that are still focusing only on traditional linear TV – or that don’t use a holistic measurement solution across both linear and CTV – will miss out on incremental reach and optimization opportunities.
Reach and frequency: a balancing act
To expand their customer bases, advertisers need to boost reach without bombarding audiences. Achieving this is even more vital in TV advertising than digital, but the growing number of TV platforms and screens present a challenge to frequency capping. Simply ‘following’ viewers across devices isn’t viable, so to enhance brand perception while maximizing returns, the use of round-the-clock analytics to effectively measure the unique reach and frequency offered by each publisher is vital. With these insights, advertisers can adjust publisher mix and impressions according to performance and deliver results.
From the most experienced TV advertisers to the youngest DTC brands, uniting traditional and digital-like tactics will lead the way to superior campaign performance. By leveraging audience intelligence and taking a results-led approach, all brands have the potential to thrive in the post-pandemic era of TV.
Source: adnews.com.au
