Key insights from some of the UK’s leading media owners
The major TV companies were slow off the mark with digital innovation. Thankfully that is now changing, driven by audience diversification and traditional TV audiences dwindling, especially in the under 45’s.
Sky is centred around audiences and measurement, meaning it’s better for targeting across its AV solutions, connecting the dots to create fully rounded campaigns. Sky knows its target audiences based on Sky analytics and the vast amount of data it captures. The team highlighted that categories such as sport are undeniably bigger than ever and Sky has invested heavily in supercharging women’s sport as it continues to gain great popularity. It measured that nearly half of adults watch Sky VOD, with 89% of VOD being watched on the big screen. When delivering for clients, Sky’s measurement is based on viewers seeing at least 75% of the TV spot before it’s measured as being delivered, which shows a level of transparency and ensures accurate and effective results for clients.
ITV has really put emphasis on creativity, for example its Planet V booking platform is opening up a more sophisticated understanding around audience habits and lifestyle. The adoption of AI technology has assisted in producing interesting and useful data so that ITV can be smarter with targeting, such as matching ads to viewer emotions linked to shows. Similar to the trends we saw with Sky, ITV’s VOD service “ITVX” is dominated by the big screen. The ITV Adlab team is focused on driving innovative ideas for marketers and is always looking to see if it can offer something different. With the launch of the ITVBe studio, it has opened up new avenues for brands looking for creativity and partnerships.
Channel 4’s core focus on quality content helps to justify it on client plans. With smarter targeting options in the pipeline, we can start to make those smarter cross-media decisions. C4 has plenty of creative solutions to offer with Dynamic TV allowing ads to be tailored to anything from the weather to the time of day. Its Ad Pause functionality encourages audience engagement using interactive static images which occasionally include QR codes or competition initiatives. It has several interesting initiatives on the way including postcode targeting, 24 hour high priority campaign boosts for VOD as well as investment into its measurement and research team.
Thinkbox naturally concentrated on the positives around TV. There is no doubt that good advertising encompasses more than one of our senses. Some of the videos they showed us highlighted the correlation between audio and visual cues in engaging audiences who are passively watching TV whilst doing something else (on their phones for example). That means that creative strategy is crucial. We are working very closely with our clients, in collaboration with their creative agencies, to understand the behaviour of their target audiences, to ensure media strategy and creative execution are pulling in the same direction. At MI we are also focused on testing Attention Metrics with Lumen as a consistent measurement that can be applied across a significant amount of channels on the media plan.
It’s not just TV that’s been affected and influenced by changes in consumer behaviour. What’s clear is that being ahead of the curve from a data perspective is crucial to determining what works best for clients to make their media work hard and effectively. Look out for more to come from us on the topic of the changing AV landscape and cross channel media.
