The Most Powerful Channel For Media Data? It Might Be TV

by Bill Wise, Jul 12, 2011, 1:45 PM

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Over the past few weeks, I've been pretty tough on TV metrics, arguing that GRP is outdated and that TV metrics aren't evolving quickly enough for a digital world. But don't think I'm bearish on TV.

Quite the opposite. Digital media may be winning the buzz war, but TV continues to impress. And I'm not just talking about the enormous viewership TV continues to pull, even for watching programs at the moment they air. I'm talking about TV as an extraordinarily powerful platform for leveraging data.

I could cite a lot of examples of how TV continues to pull ahead on the data front. But I'll point to just three: the immense boon that DVRs can be for TV ads; the value of social graph data for media planning; and the new face of ROI metrics for television.

DVRs make TV ads more valuable.  Yes, that's a surprising approach for an advertising industry insider to take-but the fact is, DVRs are one of the greatest potential sources of data in the advertising landscape today. Every DVR usage leaves a trail of information that tells both buyers and creatives what ads are skipped through, what ads are viewed, what points in the ad gained the best engagement, and even which ads viewers chose to watch multiple times. When you think about it, there's a reason TiVo has sidelined into the analytics business.

Social graph data is TV planning data. My thoughts last week notwithstanding, there's a ton of opportunity to link social data to TV planning. After all, social  networks are the place we discuss the things that are the most top of mind -- and for many of us, that means talking about the TV shows we love. eMarketer sums up the research on the topic nicely, noting that "43% of online adults have gone online or used social media to engage with TV programming in some way" -- and the numbers are higher for the coveted 18-34 demographic. Mew technology is making the TV/ social connections tighter: Comcast's latest version of Xfinity TV, for instance, helps customers use Facebook to let friends' favorite TV shows guide them in their own viewing.

That's a ton of social graph data telling you what demographic engages most deeply with which shows. For a TV planner, that's a gold mine.

TV data is now ROI data. With the notable exception of low-quality DR spots, we've been trained to understand TV as almost exclusively a reach play -- offering a lot less information linking ads to performance than other channels do. But TV is becoming more direct, and more metrics-rich, than ever before.  Enterprises like TRA marry TV ads with actual purchase activity, while ventures including Canoe  bring direct response to the set-top-box, allowing TV viewers to download coupons and catalogs directly through their TV screens. Then there's the new mobile / TV connections-which set the stage for new levels of individualized data that can tie TV ads with mobile conversion and targeting information. One example: Mobile music service Shazam has raised $32 million to forge deeper into TV-triggered mobile coupons and mobile brand engagement, with advertisers like Old Navy, Paramount, and Procter & Gamble  signing on to the program.

Has TV reached the point of being as addressable and accountable as online marketing? Not as of today. But combine the new data-rich TV technologies with the digital sources of planning data, and mix them with the enormous pool of viewers who still engage with TV enough to make a nice side career -- and I wouldn't change the channel on TV metrics just yet.

Sure, there's no limit to the data that digital media can provide. But for the most powerful marketing platform available now, I'll still flip on the old tube.

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0 comments on "The Most Powerful Channel For Media Data? It Might Be TV ".

1. Mark Hughes from C3 Metrics
   

   commented on: July 12, 2011 at 1:53 p.m.

   Love that you said "GRP is outdated." Let's bring TV ahead three decades in one fell swoop.

   Stay tuned on TV Attribution :)

   Mark Hughes
   CEO, C3 Metrics | Attribution Made Simple
   http://c3metrics.com
   

2. Andre Szykier from maps capital management
   

   commented on: July 12, 2011 at 2:07 p.m.

   My only disagreement is with your statement that skipping through Ads on my DVR provides useful metrics to advertisers.

   IMHO, the only insight that Advertisers will get from me is that I don't care about ads, have no desire to view them, will not remember what I skipped through and have increased my viewing time window by 16 minutes per hour of viewing.

   My current viewing practice is to record a program and then start viewing it 15 minutes into the recording as it progresses. That way, when ads come on, I skip through and NEVER have to suffer an ad.

   As most of my viewing is through my cable provider, I already pay for access, so advertising is something I avoid. As it is, 90+ percent of ads are generic, repetitive, about cars, fast food and drugs. All 3 I do not participate in as a consumer. Now there's a useful fact that advertisers should munch on.

3. Logan Flatt from Ansira Partners, LLC
   

   commented on: July 12, 2011 at 2:20 p.m.

   Bill,

   Back in 2005, a former colleague and I created a unique metric-unit combination, Total Consumer Time measured in 30-Second Spot Equivalents, to help our CPG clients better evaluate their brand awareness efforts with an eye toward greater effectiveness and efficiency in their marketing expenditures across TV, Radio, and Web. Our clients liked it a lot because it's a standardized way of measuring time with consumers across multiple channels and it's discussed in an old-school way with 30-second spots, which our Baby Boomer clients bought throughout their early career days via the GRPs you referenced. Total Consumer Time measured in 30-Second Spot Equivalents is by no means perfect, but as the white paper on my personal website explains (http://www.veroinc.com/downloads/TCTand30SSE.pdf) it helps clients make basic channel allocation decisions for when simply getting the most time with consumers for each buck spent is the primary concern to achieve higher returns on investment in branding-oriented marketing.

   Logan.

4. Steve Schildwachter from Draftfcb
   

   commented on: July 12, 2011 at 5:18 p.m.

   Great piece of perspective, Bill. Digital isn't killing TV, it's propelling it. http://admajoremblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/changing-role-of-tv.html Not only can we make better use of TV metrics, we can see TV as something more than a traditional household appliance. The programming is delivered in many other places. And THAT is what's driving the opportunities to make TV more measureable. This ad man stopped worrying long ago which half of the budget was wasted -- and stopped wasting it. http://twitter.com/SteveS1

5. Doug Garnett from Atomic Direct
   

   commented on: July 12, 2011 at 6 p.m.

   Excellent article. Yet, you left out one of the most useful TV metrics.

   With Direct Response television, we track specific consumer response levels (by 800# or web action) in order to optimize our TV buy.

   What's especially interesting is this gives us a way to find that TV that taps audiences that with take commercially important action. And that's important. Because no matter how solid our "theory" of the target consumer, we can't know pre-disposition to act through any of even the sexiest new targeting approaches.

   Beyond the direct responses, experience shows that when the TV buy is tweaked to maximize immediate response, we also find that total response at retail increases as well. This suggests, too, that we're having a bigger impact on brand because nothing builds connections in our minds faster than buying the product.
   

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