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TV Is Changing—Are You Keeping Up?

  • - Shringar Pangal
  • 2 min read

Television ad campaigns are still a valuable investment, with consumers watching more than a day’s worth of programming each week. Now, advertisers have more power than ever to reach audiences where they’re spending the most time—and that’s not always in front of a set-top box in the living room. Viewers also are no longer confined to a few local TV channels. Now, they’re watching everywhere from YouTube to AppleTV. Without valuable insights about your audience that tell you when, how, and what they are watching, you won’t be able to craft a targeted campaign. By making sure your television ad buy strategy is as innovative as the platforms your audience is on, you’ll ensure your ROI is a smash hit. Some other points to consider when putting together your TV ad campaign strategy:

TV strategy isn’t static 

Customers still watch a tremendous amount of television—38 hours of it per week, in fact. But our concept of “television” is no longer the static set-top boxes of prime time past. TV viewership has evolved to include on-demand and live streaming services accessible across various platforms and devices.

Your best consumers are not lost—they’re just scattered

According to a recent study, 69% of Americans have at least one video streaming service, while only 65% have a traditional pay TV subscription, like cable TV. And the number of OTT-only homes have also tripled in the last five years. 

If you haven’t updated your television buying strategy to account for these changes, and are still using a traditional linear model based on top-ranking shows, you’ll only reach ⅓ of the audience today that you would have reached using the same model in the 1990s. The way we’re consuming TV has changed, and TV ad buys should follow that same pattern.

Tune into the best approach

Reaching your audience is no longer a roll of the dice. Look at what you already know about your customers and how they interact with your brand. Use that data to go beyond the legacy TV ad campaigns that likely relied primarily on demographics targeting. Lacking in an audience that would boost your campaign? Use third-party data to expand reach beyond your CRM.

Want to learn more about effective TV buying strategies for the changing landscape? Check out this infographic. If you’re interested in learning more about how LiveRamp can help optimize your TV ad buying campaigns based on outcome-based measurement, reach out to us at [email protected]