Quality instead of quantity – moving image advertising with impact

What does quality mean in media planning? How can attention-grabbing campaigns be planned in the moving image despite declining reach in linear TV? What role does the advertising environment play? And how can Connected TV (CTV) help?

Answers to these and other questions were provided by our speakers Dirk Engel (independent market and media researcher), Roland Köster (Managing Director JOM Group) and Tim Maibom (Director Digital Media Consulting JOM Group) at the JOM IMPULSE “Quality not quantity – moving image advertising with impact” on 28 September 2023.

JOM IMPULSE in a Nutshell

Dirk Engel: The importance of quality in media planning

There are various aspects that are discussed in connection with the keyword “quality in media planning”:

According to Dirk Engel, one question that holds particular interest in this context is: “Does a media plan exhibit higher quality if quality media are included?” Of course, there are good reasons for taking the journalistic quality of the environment into account, but this does not necessarily increase the quality of the media plan. After all, the goal of media planning should be to reach the right people at the right time. Quality must therefore always be considered from the perspective of the target group.

Another term that plays a role in the quality debate is contact quality. Studies show that it does not matter when and where someone is reached. Rather, what matters is generating contacts with a higher chance of impact. However, there is still no uniform currency or standards for this. But there are various approaches to approaching the topic, for example via…

… the environment: The reception of the environment leads to certain emotional or cognitive states in the target group. These last until the reception of the advertisement and influence its processing. Environment effects can thus trigger an added value effect.

… the right situation: Users already bring moods and emotions with them before they consume content. These strongly depend on the daily routine or whether one is alone or in company. Different situations of the recipients also bring along different constitutions. In the past, for example, the dominant situation in television consumption was that the whole family sat spellbound in front of the TV. This has changed a lot: Today, there is usually more than one TV set per household, and at the same time, moving images are no longer just the main activity, but also a secondary one. In addition, media are much more mobile and always at hand. Furthermore, consumption and communication are closely linked. So today there are many different situations in which moving images are used.

Advertisers should therefore take a close look at the changing media consumption behaviour as well as the technical innovations in moving images in order to be able to react to these developments and adapt their media planning accordingly.

Roland Köster: Approaches and strategies for maximising advertising impact in a changing media landscape.

The young target group in particular is consuming less and less classic television. At the same time, the number and duration of advertising blocks on TV is increasing, but they are perceived less and less. As a result, the profitability for advertisers continues to decline and linear TV campaigns no longer achieve the same reach as they did 10 years ago.

While in recent years it was mainly the over-60s who provided relative stability in the 14+ target group, viewing time is now falling here too. But it is not only viewing time that is declining, but also the number of viewers of classic television. It is becoming apparent that more and more older people are discovering digital moving images for themselves. In the long term, online video will therefore replace linear TV as a mass medium.

Six recommendations to respond to these developments:

#1: Do it differently. Many advertisers almost always do the same thing, which often means: a lot of channels, a lot of environments, little primetime and only average target group affinities. This approach is not very effective considering that people are exposed to information overload nowadays. The programme selection is therefore made very selectively by users. Media planners should therefore identify the relevant environments for the target group in advance.

#2: Define the optimal environment. Not only criteria that influence condition and performance should be taken into account, but also those that provide more visibility and perception. In addition to the classic factors such as high target group share in the audience, reach of the individual programme in the audience and economic CPM in the target group, criteria such as low zapping in the advertising block, high dwell time of the viewers in the programme and high user share in the own product category should also be taken into account.

#3: Form sub-target groups. Since it is no longer possible to address mass target groups via uniform environments, sub-target groups with different proportions of linear and non-linear moving images should be formed in order to achieve uniform advertising pressure.

#4: Use the attention advantage of TV. Studies show that TV still generates the highest attention of all moving image media. Media planners can make use of this advantage by looking at the target group of a programme in advance. The chance that a spot will be noticed is significantly higher if it is in a programme environment that is followed closely.

#5: No compromises! Environments should not be too broad. Since these vary greatly depending on the age group and compromises in the environments only ever hit the middle, the environments should be specifically tailored to the desired target group in order to reach them in a targeted manner.

#6 The environments determine the time zone mix, not the CPM. Often the temporal placement of advertising spots is considered from an economic point of view. This usually neglects how much attention fluctuates during the course of the day.

Tim Maibom: How Connected TV enables targeting on the big screen

As already mentioned, the use of linear TV is declining, especially in the younger target groups. At the same time, the number of internet-enabled TV sets in households is increasing. This makes Connectet TV more and more relevant. In addition to Roland Köster’s six general recommendations for contemporary moving image planning, it is therefore worth taking a look at the details. Because via CTV, both users and advertisers can now access a wide range of offers. What is particularly exciting for media planners is that most of the streaming options allow advertising. Even providers who have so far relied exclusively on subscription models are expanding their portfolios to include ad-financed variants.

What advantages does CTV offer?

CTV enables the playout of advertising in video streams on the big screen via internet access (What is CTV?) and thus connects the world of linear television with that of non-linear moving images. As with classic TV, viewers are in a lean-back situation and are therefore more receptive to advertising. However, advertising acceptance is significantly higher on CTV because the advertising blocks are shorter, which leads to a view-through rate of over 95 percent*. Due to the digital component, CTV can be regionally targeted and the targeting can be more granular. In addition, advertisers do not have to buy the entire reach of the channel, but can also opt-in on a contact basis. As a result, CTV offers a lower barrier to entry to take place on the big screen than linear TV. In addition, advertisers can use CTV to reach target groups on the big screen that are rarely or never reached via linear TV.

What media strategies can be pursued in Connectet TV?

Since CTV combines the advantages of the digital world with those of classic TV, marketers have various media strategies at their disposal on the big screen:

• Target group penetration: By setting targets, advertising can be played out to a target group without much wastage.
• Advertising pressure regulation: The advertising pressure of a TV campaign can be increased via CTV, e.g. by supplementing a TV spot with CTV spots in specific regions.
• Incremental or reminder contacts: Starting from linear TV, users who have seen or not seen the spot can be targeted.
• Contact route logic: This makes it possible to track whether users have already had contact with the linear TV spot in order to generate a second contact via the CTV spot if necessary.
• Data meets CTV: First-party data from advertisers and matching of this data via a household graph can be used to target users on the big screen via CTV.

What to consider when planning a targeted approach via CTV

The CTV market is already highly fragmented with 250 offers. In addition, many of these offers are not marketed exclusively: Individual inventories can sometimes be booked via different marketers. If several marketers are involved in planning a campaign, media planners should therefore check the inventory carefully in advance and, if necessary, make exclusions in order to avoid unwanted contact doses. Ideally, programme-compatible inventories should be chosen to ensure cross-contact class control. In addition, it is always worth comparing the entire user base of the inventory with the actual target group in order to avoid targeting surcharges for marketers.

Another challenge, especially with streaming offers, is that subscription holders are not necessarily also subscription users. Since the playout of most inventories only takes place according to unique devices and not according to unique users, targeting is difficult. In addition, the targeting options and quality on CTV are lower than on other streaming devices: Targeting by age and region is possible, but not by interests. Therefore, environment targeting should be used when planning campaigns in order to reach the right target group.

This means that the target groups should not be planned too granularly, as too many targeting criteria can limit the target group potential enormously. Careful attention should also be paid to further target group restrictions: Especially when planning contact routes across several devices, the target group can become very small.

Conclusion

If you want to reach your target group, you should also deal with questions about the quality of media planning. Media planners must be aware that not every contact has the same effect. To ensure a high quality of contact, the right environment must be determined in advance and the communication must be adapted to the situation.Furthermore, advertisers should be aware that the reach and viewing time of classic TV will continue to decline. They should therefore react now at the latest in order to continue to reach the desired target groups with moving images. To do this, relevant, not too broad environments with the right criteria must be identified in order to then play out the advertising to sub-target groups at times adapted to their daily schedule.

Above all, media planners can reach target groups that no longer watch linear TV via CTV – in some cases even with a higher level of attention than on classic television. CTV enables different media strategies to play out advertising on the big screen. If advertisers take into account user groups, inventories and environments as well as programmatic compatibilities, targeted campaign planning is possible.

*Source: Samsung Ads (2022) Advertising engagement on various platforms and own evaluation of campaigns.