Advertisers Should Vary Dayparts, Cablers To Secure Best Reach
- by Wayne Friedman , March 7, 2019
TV advertisers still cling to long-held “myths” about prime time, live programming and top networks, says Comcast Spotlight, the local-cable TV based advertising sales unit.
Pushing its effort for small to mid-size cable networks, Comcast notes the average household watches 17 different cable networks a month. The top five ad-supported cable TV networks only make up 14% of total viewing.
Looking at 150 campaigns Comcast has handled across 25 markets, the top five in terms of reach on 37 networks earned a 81% U.S. reach average.
Campaigns with the lowest reach -- covering 16 networks -- only had an average reach of 30%. Also, TV advertisers should consider other dayparts, as well as other cable networks, since two-thirds of all viewing occurs outside prime time. In addition, Comcast says 87% of all TV viewing is viewed live -- not just for highly touted sports and news programming. It says adding a premium digital video schedule -- such as a video on demand platform -- can increased reach by 17%.
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Another reason to move towards small to mid-size cable networks and non-primetime dayparts: Cord-cutting.
Brad Adgate, veteran media agency/media sales research executive, and former executive at Comcast, says: “Comcast along with other MVPD's continue to lose subscribers who have cancelled their subscriptions. Many of these cord cutters are younger adults that marketers covet. Those remaining subscribers tend to be older, are heavier viewers of television and watch linear television. “
“[Traditional pay TV services] cannot get the reach with fragmentation, declining audiences, and cord cutting… They have difficulty selling second and third tier cable networks in non prime dayparts. So it replaces reach with targeting. Something digital media does well.”
Wayne, in any Media 101 course, it is explained that if you want reach you spread your buy around as opposed to concentrating it on a few channels. This applies not only to TV but to radio, magazines and digital media. So, obviously, I agree with the the basic, but hardly new, premise here. The same thing applies to daypart mixes----not prime only---and, more recently, to network type. In the latter area, basic cable is developing a problem as fewer and fewer people are paying for "pay TV" these days. With only 75-77% or all TV homes now getting basic cable fare, you can use all of the cable channels you wish and still miss 10-20% of your target. The solution is obvious---fashion a well thought out mix of broadcast as well as cable options as broadcast TV's reach is roughly at the 90-92% level thanks to the rapidly growing over-the-air reception segment.
Why didn't media agencies think of doing this decades ago?
Oh that's right, they did. Pardon me while I go suck on a egg.