BIG, BIG DATA combined with addressable program promotions is a recipe that drives targeted audiences to view programs on channels.
- That’s the key Takeaway from a Case Study shared by Cambridge Analytica (CA).
- The Good News: It means higher ratings, stronger revenue streams, and more money for programming.
Cambridge Analytica:
- CA’s giant database captures 2,000 – 5,000 characteristics on 230 +/- million U.S. adults.
- The company’s two units are:
- CA Commercial focuses on data-driven marketing for media ventures and brands.
- CA Political is said to have tipped the 2016 U.S. election to Donald Trump, and is in the news often, as recently in The New York Times.
The Case Study Client: A U.S. Network
- CA’s client is a small- to mid-size U.S. cable / satellite channel.
- It is a minnow in an ocean of video entertainment options including channels, SVOD services, YouTube, and much more.
- The network’s challenge, and it’s a big one, is to establish awareness of its programs, and then to have viewers tune-in.
About the Pilot Campaign
- The campaign addressed a multi-episode series.
- The client sent a list of its known viewers to CA Commercial.
- CA’s data scientists analyzed this list and then matched it to their enormous database.
- The list was used to model out a target audience of homes with people predicted by CA to be most likely to respond to advertising for the new show.
Personality-driven Sub-segments
- The modeled target audience segment was further split into sub-segments based on the personalities of the people within the homes.
- Behavioural psychologists then drafted a briefing pack that provided guidance on the messaging to be used to target each of the personality-driven sub-segments.
Promo Creation
- The network created promos for the show based on the strategies provided by the psychologists.
- Each target audience segment had a commercial assigned to it that was specifically designed to increase tune in to the series among the homes in the particular segment.
- Four promos were created for the test.
Campaign
- CA’s TV and digital teams activated an ad campaign that included viewing by desktop, mobile, connected and addressable TV.
- Ads were sent to specific target audience segments via digital and addressable TV advertising with zero wasted impressions.
- Addressable TV is data-driven and allows ads to be sent to specific homes.
- There are currently around 58 million addressable U.S. TV homes.
Measurement
- The findings are based on a panel of 2.7 million smart TVs.
- Ad detection for TV was electronically and passively collected using automatic content recognition technology built into the TVs.
- Digital ad exposure was collected via a digital sync.
- Tune-in to the show and the network is based on data backhauled from the smart TV panel.
Uplift & Conversion
Source: CA Commercial
How To Read the Chart
- The bars in the above chart show tune-in conversion rates for homes that were not exposed to advertising (light blue) and for homes that were exposed to advertising (dark blue).
- Tune-in conversion rates reflect the number of smart TVs that tuned to the cable TV show expressed as a percentage of either smart TVs that were exposed or were not exposed to ads.
- The numbers above the dark blue bars are uplift multiples; e.g., an uplift multiple of 4 times means that the smart TVs that were exposed to advertising tuned in at four times the rate of the smart TVs that were not exposed to ads.
- The type of ad exposures defines the sets of bars.
- The dark blue bar:
- In the 1st set of bars: it represents the tune-in conversion rate for homes that were exposed to ads on desktop and mobile and not TV.
- In the 2nd set: it represents the tune-in conversion rate for smart TVs that were exposed to ads delivered via connected TVs and addressable TV but not desktop or mobile.
- In the 3rd set: it represents the tune-in conversion rate for smart TVs exposed to ads via connected TV or addressable TV and ad exposure by desktop or mobile is not excluded.
- In the 4th set: it represents the tune-in conversion rate for smart TVs exposed to ads via desktop or mobile and ad exposures from TV are not excluded.
Findings: Up To 50X Uplift
- The homes exposed to the ads tuned into the show at 7 times the rate of the homes that were not exposed to the ads.
- The highest uplift was generated when homes were exposed to both TV and digital ads.
- In these homes, the uplift was as high as 50 times.
- Conversion rates were higher for some segment and creative combinations than others.
- It was possible to produce these insights while the campaign was still in flight, and to make changes that conserve costs or improve the efficiency of the campaign.
- A key finding was there was little benefit to running 30 second promos rather than 15 second spots. The latter are half the cost when used for TV.
Peter’s Takeaways
- This campaign is a window into the present, not the future, for networks, SVOD services and the largest-scale producers.
- The secret sauce is a combination of:
- BIG, BIG DATA
- Highly-targeted marketing and creative
- A mix of TV and online delivery of promo spots
- Plus addressable TV’s.
- These solutions are only affordable now for large-scale players.
- But I’m sharing them now because it is important for producers and investors to closely follow developments in addressability and get into the conversation.
Thanks
- And BTW, thanks to CA Commercial for sharing their Case Study.
- They are not the only firm in the field, and the major networks are all building out their own massive data bases.
Original analysis and coverage from DocumentaryBusiness.comRead More Here…
Download Now: $39.95