Consumption of media continues to evolve, and it is important that marketers who expect accountability from media to understand all the dynamics that can lead to increased efficiencies, or inefficiencies, from their media investment. There is no greater sea change happening in the world today than that of video. Which is why it is important for marketers to take a measured approach when testing strategies in order to gain the necessary insight needed to make smart investment decisions of today, while preparing for the video viewership of tomorrow.
Using first-party data to enhance media plans
In the past, marketers have relied on panel and survey-based data in order to generate potential plans. While these sets of tools are proven and continued to be utilized, innovative technologies have given us the opportunity to complement these outputs with personalized data that makes the planning process more accurate.
More and more cable operators, television manufacturers, and other sources are making their viewership databases available to marketers. Such information is considered gold in the media industry. This offers a plethora of opportunities for the data-driven marketer to leverage these datasets for personalized planning and implementation of more targeted campaigns.
How to effectively pull data together
The output of utilizing this approach gives a customized plan for both linear television and connected television. Here are the steps we advise to take:
- Curate first-party data to create a first-party dataset from your CRM file, website visitors, or other available sources.
- Overlay this dataset on top of a television viewership file. The combination of customer first-party data with television viewership data creates a deterministic seed audience to:
- Have a personalized understanding of customers’ video viewing for both linear television and connected television.
- Which networks, shows, dayparts index the highest
- Which connected television environments and apps are being viewed by customers/prospects
- Expand the seed audience with digital-like modeling
- Marry the users to behavioral data to see which attributes index highest for targeting and insight purposes
- Have a personalized understanding of customers’ video viewing for both linear television and connected television.
The value of creating these personalized metrics allow a marketer to have a more scientific approach to the planning process and come out with learnings even before a media plan is put into action, while simultaneously saving on media cost. This becomes especially important when venturing into the connected tv arena where we are still in the nascent state of content creation, delivery, and consumption. Anyone would agree that starting out armed with personalized data is a critical guide when planning.
Blending the science of media buying with the art of media buying is ever so critical today so that a marketer can confidently test, learn, innovate, and drive results. Leaning too heavily on one verse the other can lead to false starts and headaches. The science piece in video is rooted in smart utilization of television viewership data. The art comes from how one creatively molds their data into a concrete media strategy. Balancing these together should make the path to success a smooth ride.
Contact us to learn more about how your company can, and should, be utilizing data and what type of results we can help you drive!