Fifteen years ago, TV was linear. Radio was straightforward. Outdoor was static. Press was…you get the picture.
These days, things aren’t that simple. Media channels are diversifying and as a result, diluting their own impact as they become more granular and focused on their audience.
TV has introduced video on demand and more recently Sky AdSmart. Digital audio streaming is starting to cement a place in the market and take listenership from traditional radio.
The advent of digital outdoor has brought exciting changes and if it hasn’t already, it will take over static panels as the mainstream out of home channel.
**But why is media being diluted?**
1. ** Consumer behaviour**
Consumers crave information and content at huge volumes at the press of a button. In the last week, 44% have multi-screened – doing things like watching television while scrolling through Facebook on smartphones, or browsing the web on tablets. Each channel that shares the attention dilutes people’s engagement. It’s often said that a consumer in the 1970s saw around 500 ads per day. Today, that’s more like 5,000.
1. ** Technology**
Online media’s ability to target, track and measure is what at first set it apart from offline media. The accuracy and associated data was more granular and specific, which minimised waste and made digital budgets more cost effective. Online attribution is also far easier to monitor, making optimisation possible and more effective. This has led to mobile spend exploding from around £29m in 2008 to well over £1.5bn in 2016. But offline media owners are investing heavily in advertising technology to close the gap. More and more, what’s possible online is equally possible offline, so advertisers’ budgets – which are currently flooding into online channels – will start to come back. For example, Sky AdSmart means TV can target people digitally based on consumer data. In America, there’s currently trials to buy TV programmatically based on Google’s data, which will further align offline media with the pros of online. The advancements in technology and its application to advertising channels have allowed media like outdoor to progress and diversify. Facial recognition in digital screens allows specific audiences to be targeted based on their age and gender profiles. Smartphones with GPS location allow advertisers to connect online targeting to offline behaviour. Virtual reality will soon be another channel we can target via video advertising, further diluting the TV and video market.
1. ** Accountability **
Discussions on agreed KPIs have increased in recent times, meaning we monitor campaigns with a fine-tooth comb. While this is possible online and spend can be controlled, this was always difficult offline. Therefore, media has to be more accountable for what it delivers in terms of audience impacts and how we can attribute that to overall campaign objectives.
**What does this mean for you?**
Effectively, there are more options. This comes with advantages and disadvantages for both the marketer and the consumer. Figuratively, the pie remains the same size, but there are more slices. This increases the competition for the consumer universe, therefore shares of the pie decrease.
Basically, it’s more difficult to reach audiences effectively using the same media channels. Instead of six touchpoints, a consumer may now have 16, meaning the effective impact of each channel isn’t as great due to less time spent with each. Overall, this leads to the potential ROI per channel decreasing.
Plus, certain touchpoints don’t allow advertising. For example, a growing competitor to linear TV is content streaming platforms like Netflix that have no advertising whatsoever. This means we’re losing the ability to effectively reach audiences through traditional methods.
**What do we advise?**
In order to combat dilution of audiences as the media landscape grows, we highly recommend thoroughly planning every campaign from the strategy through to the creative, and of course the channel selection. Knowing how to reach your audience and which channels have the best engagement with them is key. You should:
– **Research**. Understand your audience, their behaviour, media consumption and characteristics. As the consumer’s media day becomes more diverse, understanding which touchpoints a particular audience engages with most is key to capitalising on the ever-widening advertising landscape. Profiling the audiences using data tools and accessing consumer reports are an example of a few things you can do to aid this understanding.
When we plan for our clients our first port of call is data collection. We sift through as much information and data as we can get our hands on so our understanding of the audience is the best it can possibly be. When planning for Endsleigh Insurance for a campaign aimed at millennials we researched how media consumption amongst that audience is different to older generations. This uncovered nuggets of insight such as two thirds of their media consumption is new media such as social platforms and music streaming. This directly impacted our strategy and media choices.
– **Use your insight to plan**. Use what you find out from your research to select the optimum channel mix, scheduling them to suit the customer journey, strategy and budgeting based on engagement per channel. Knowledge of all the possible options in terms of channels and how best to buy is also key.
For a campaign we ran for British Athletics the objective was to sell tickets to events. In order to do this we employed media that aided the customer journey. Specifically choosing channels that would build awareness and drive traffic online. We then supported this activity with online channels to capture and engage this increased traffic, driving them convert and buy tickets. All activity was scheduled and timed based on customer behaviour data.
– **Channel attribution and optimisation**. Attributing conversions to the relevant channels lets you determine which media is working best for the budget. This allows campaign optimisation to ensure the highest possible ROI.
Constant campaign monitoring is key to be able to understand what is working and what is not in order to maximise good results. When rolling out a B2B campaign for Ishida (world leading supplier of food weighing and packaging machines and equipment), we monitored the day to day performance of online activity across several sites. Trends and patterns begin to occur where we can determine which sites and formats are performing and driving the most conversions. Therefore we optimised budget and increase spend on these effective formats.
– **Evaluate**. After your campaign, analyse what worked, what didn’t, and why? Taking these learnings into the next campaign can ensure your ROI is maintained and even improved.
Increasing growth of the media landscape is something we should embrace; as targeting capabilities become more granular and techniques to reach and engage audiences improve, we can look forward to a more efficient budget spend, less waste, increased ROI and generally more intriguing advertising campaigns.
*Can we help you plan the media for your next campaign? *
*Email *(link: mailto:aaron.jones@superdream.co.uk text: *aaron.jones@superdream.co.uk*)* or call 01527 575 770.*