April 2011
Marketing is often the first budget to be cut when the going gets tough. That’s because proving their efforts in terms of ROI, generated leads and contacted customers can be a challenge for marketers. Online marketers, however, have long been ahead of the game with advantages in how they track, measure and optimize based on top-level metrics. Their approach has much to offer more mature media – including television.
Consumers today operate in a world that is active and information-rich. Marketing professionals are adapting by developing creative ways for media tactics and platforms to work together and create cohesive, measurable campaigns. This article will explore how television advertisers are using online tactics to measure programming popularity, why online advertisers are interested in TV and how the line between the two platforms is slowly blurring.
As smartphone usage accelerates, marketers have capitalized on mobile’s differentiator: the ability to reach consumers on the go. A recent study from Nielsen and Yahoo reveals another major opportunity. The study found that 86% of mobile Internet users surf the Web while watching television. Not surprisingly, users are communicating with friends, visiting social network sites and simply browsing around. Perhaps more interesting, users are navigating to Web content and seeking information based on programming or advertising on the screen in front of them. Nielsen’s Media-Sync platform has begun to experiment with what can be done to relate mobile behavior directly to what is on the TV screen. For example, an overlay can be served to a user’s mobile device with related, interactive content. A touch of the remote moves the display to the TV screen and transfers it back to the mobile device when programming resumes. Users can also use media-streaming technologies like Snapstick to send online content accessed via a phone or laptop to their TVs, leaving their phones free for other tasks. While mobile-TV integration is currently most effective within specific target markets, the opportunity for advertisers and programming executives to collaborate and gain real-time access to viewers and viewer data is growing.
Online marketers’ interest is piqued when it comes to opportunities within the television platform as well. Television may be an aged platform compared to the Internet, but it continues to gain traction. In fact, according to Deloitte, television still beats the Web in viewer consumption, and advertising dollars are about 9-10 times the size of search and social ad spends combined. New applications that allow users to watch TV anywhere from their tablet devices, rate shows, insert real-time commentary at the bottom of the screen and search their TV screen like a browser are already being developed and launched. Consider BuddyTV, the largest independent television website in the world. In January comScore ranked it as the third fastest growing site in the U.S. Millions of TV fans visit the site (and use its mobile device apps) to interact with each other and catch up on their favorite programs. With the help of content monitoring companies, television programmers will be able to track user interaction and ratings, searches and comments on sites like this. This is strikingly similar to how some companies are effectively tracking interactions on social networking sites.
Google TV is a great example of how a major player is blending the interactive world with television. Comparing its TV experience to the “open software platform” of the Android smartphone, Google has launched Analytics tracking functionality for television advertising. While this technology is not currently as real-time as website tracking, Analytics allows advertisers to compare online and offline tactics in their accounts, providing information on TV impressions, ad play, cost and cost per impression.
As tactics continue to intersect, marketers will push for innovative ways to promote, measure and optimize campaigns. It’s the mix of art and science that makes marketing so exciting.
Google is always experimenting with new features! The new +1 button appearing alongside search results is a way to say "this is pretty cool" or "you should check this out." It helps your friends, contacts and other Web users know how to find great listings when they search. To try it out, make sure you've set up a public Google profile and opted in. Your +1s will be stored in a new tab, and you can choose to keep it private or share it with the world. Marketers should remember that without a solid SEO strategy in place, they won't achieve the visibility they need to capture the +1s their sites deserve.