A-Z of Addressable TV: D is for Data
In the A-Z of Addressable TV series we will introduce some of the key terminology, technical aspects, and target audiences involved in addressable TV, and explain how they enable advertisers to discover and reach new audiences. From ‘addressable’ to ‘Gen Z’, we’ve got you covered.
What is data?
Data is ubiquitous but ambiguous in equal measure. In advertising, it is the facts, statistics and information you can glean to analyse and inform decisions. And it comes in all shapes and sizes. From planning and targeting, to reporting and measuring performance. From the information that our eyeballs absorb every second of the day all the way to the most granular log level ad server data.
It is the force that underpins every conversation and process within the addressable industry today. One of the biggest challenges our industry faces today, however, is understanding what data is valuable and how to use it.
How can you use data intelligently?
Used in the right way, data – and data intelligence – is the key ingredient to building an addressable audience solution.
The intelligent use of data should always start by understanding what data is available, what is valuable, how to use it, and what it is telling you. Just because data is available it doesn’t mean that it needs to be used and it doesn’t mean that there is value in its application. The smart application of the right data is what builds successful business solutions.
For example, understanding the time of day an addressable TV advertising campaign was delivered shouldn’t be treated as an optimisation lever in isolation. All it does is show the viewing habits of your target audience. And delivering more budget at the most popular times isn’t always a sophisticated optimisation strategy because A) it can saturate the viewing experience, and B) it misses incremental viewers that are watching TV content outside of peak times.
Instead, understanding what combination of data points can be used to define a target audience is the smart way of using data. Start by understanding what your business challenge is. This will translate into campaign objectives. And it is by understanding what levels of data are going to be most relevant to achieving those objectives and driving KPIs that data becomes valuable.
How does addressable TV data go beyond traditional TV advertising?
TV advertising was traditionally a one-to-all messaging mechanism. Adverts could (and still can) be delivered on the basis of channel, time of day and region, for example. All of which are broad audiences. At Finecast, and within the addressable TV space, data sets are far more granular.
Audiences can range from life stage, lifestyle and affluence, mining down into intent and interest data and all the way to transaction-based data sets and location-based behaviours. We use a range of specific partners to collect the data in each of these stages. All of these new levels of audience granularity provide far more precision for bands to talk to TV viewers and are not applied in traditional Linear TV today.
Let’s look at an example…
Finecast recently used precision data targeting to help The New York Bakery Co. (NYBCo.) drive incremental sales in the bakery aisle where customers are typically attracted to offers rather than brand loyalty.
By combining transactional data from Nectar with postcode level insights, Finecast was able to help NYBCo. understand who was spending in the bakery aisle, what products they were buying, and build a bespoke audience of ‘bread and morning goods’ shoppers that were purchasing NYBCo. or competitor products.
Finecast then precisely targeted this unique audience segment with high-quality emotive storytelling via TV. The results saw a 1.4% total uplift in spend, which is equivalent to a campaign return on ad spend (ROAS) of 152%. This showed NYBCo. could maintain spend without putting products on offer, bucking a general FMCG trend.
Learn more about the future of data by reading our latest Ad Spotlight blog with Samantha Lister, Senior Director of Data Solutions at Finecast. For more information on how addressable TV can work for you, get in touch via the form below. And keep an eye out for the next in our A-Z series coming soon.