In a world where managing big data effectively is overwhelming, advertisers need to utilize newer technologies to make sense of the growing mountain of information.
But sometimes the
innovative tools seem to increase the information overload rather than alleviate the burden. New resources should add breadth and depth to the analytics process without being too cumbersome to
interpret.
Enter the smart TV.
Smart TVs provide better, more intuitive data that is changing the way advertisers measure a campaign’s success and how they choose to reach target
audiences. With the improved capabilities of smart TVs, compared to their set-top box (STB) counterparts and their ability to leverage automatic content recognition (ACR) technology to identify
content, smart TVs are revolutionizing media buying strategies for advertisers.
It allows them to get more out of their televised campaign spend by leveraging data. And, as addressable
platforms become more robust in their offerings, the coupling of smart TVs and addressable solutions will allow advertisers to be more strategic in their approach and gain a stronger ROI.
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Replacing STB with Smart TV
Media research had rudimentary beginnings. In the early days, physical diaries were kept in order to predict viewing in a local market and evaluate
advertising performance. A few thousand meters were utilized to represent the program preferences of the entire U.S. population.
As data collection advanced and sample sizes increased, the
need for more effective collection at a larger scale was met with STB viewing data. STB offers larger sample sizes at the local level. Connected to most television sets in a household, STB data can
provide insights into the full household’s viewing behavior.
However, while STB data offers more in-depth information to advertisers than what was previously available, there are limits
to its capabilities that can decrease the collected data’s value.
For instance, STBs are unable to tell when a television set is on or off; they only know when the box itself has been
disconnected. This presents a challenge in determining when the household is actually watching TV and therefore muddies the data associated with genuine viewership.
Additionally, STB viewing
data omits over-the-air (OTA) viewers, so an entire segment is overlooked.
Smart TVs have a glass-level understanding of what is being displayed to viewers. Whether content is an OTA signal,
DVR or streamed content, a smart TV is able to identify what’s being viewed and when.
Smart TVs can see what shows and commercials viewers are watching on a second-by-second basis and
can even see viewers’ IP addresses, allowing advertisers to know the geographical location of their audience.
Addressable platforms allow advertisers to replace ads in real-time with
content more relevant to household demographics and interests
Together with smart TV’s ability to capture even more detailed audience data, advertisers now have the ability to
reach audiences in new ways.
Replacing Insights with Actions
With smart TVs, advertisers will be able to get feedback on their ad’s performance in real-time. And since IP
addresses are collected, that information can be used to determine attribution so advertisers can better understand the consumer journey. This will help agencies justify their media buys by providing
clients with tangible evidence that their campaigns have helped increase sales.
Supplying insights into what viewers are watching through which services and when, helps advertisers make more
informed decisions about their content. So, instead of wondering where to reach the target audience, advertisers can use the data they’ve collected to play the right ad in the right household at
the right time.