How smart advertisers hone in on audiences, not programs
TV viewing in America is not what it used to be. Unless it’s a ‘must-watch’ event like the Super Bowl (over 103 million Americans watched the Eagles overtake the throne), today’s TV viewer is watching what they want, when they want, and on whatever device is available.
This flexibility has changed the way people look at TV. No longer a one-size-fits-all product, premium video content is a personal experience in the hands of the viewer.
In a multichannel, multiplatform viewing universe dominated by consumers, smart advertisers are playing to new strategies – and winning.
Instead of focusing on the shows they “think” viewers are watching, brands are buying audiences. Impression-based advertising is centered on specific audience attributes – people whose interests, demographics, and behaviors align with what they’re selling – meaning buyers transcend viewership barriers and serve relevant messages to consumers regardless of what they’re watching.
This form of advertising is known as ‘addressable advertising,’ and is the heart of successful digital targeting in the television ecosystem. By utilizing first and third-party data, addressable advertising allows the marketer to buy the eyeballs of the people most interested in these products/services, and who have the motivation and spending power to buy them.
Breaking the Linear TV Model
DISH Media Sales is a committed provider of addressable for brands as part of our integrated cross-platform advertising strategy across DISH set-top box and Sling TV over-the-top impressions.
The rationale behind addressable is to make the ad planning and buying processes easier for advertisers. Its heat-seeking technology removes the need for daypart and network scheduling – an ad will serve to the selected viewer when they are watching content. In the DISH satellite universe, we do this by storing addressable ads directly in the target viewers’ DVRs for playback during the first available commercial break when the set-top box is turned on. On Sling TV, we serve up addressable ads over IP via live dynamic ad insertion.
Addressable campaigns send specific ads to specific audiences during the show they are watching on the device they are using; thus, ensuring every time an ad is delivered, a valuable impression is served.
Proving that addressable advertising works
Perhaps the crux of addressable’s value is its ability to provide results on the backend. DISH Media Sales’ access to subscriber viewing behavior and third-party data partnerships allows us to connect the dots between impressions and purchases. Brands can see exactly how their ad performed with detailed post-campaign reporting.
Now, the performance of cross-platform ads on both DISH and Sling TV is measurable and quantifiable with a single metric. This is because comScore has partnered with DISH Media Sales to measure and report addressable advertising impressions across both satellite set-top boxes and OTT.
Think about it: We can now give addressable advertisers a fluid view of their ad campaigns’ performance across OTT on connected TVs, mobile devices, and computers; as well as TV impressions on DISH. Using this combined data, these advertisers can see which ads worked for them, and learn from viewers’ responses to those ads to fine-tune future campaigns for even better results and higher sales.
Obviously, we at DISH Media Sales would like advertisers to choose our addressable advertising services. But whether they do or not, all advertisers (at least those who want their ads to generate sales) need to learn about addressable advertising, and how the combined scale of TV and targeting of digital is upending traditional media buying as we know it.
by Jim D’Antoni, Director of Media Sales
