What Would Make Digital Media and Linear TV More Effective for Marketers?

June 21, 2019

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Customer-Centric | Data-driven | Featured | Television | TV Advertising

In the eyes of television advertisers, both linear TV advertising and digital media have room for improvement in order to make them more effective marketing vehicles. But a recent survey [download page] by Blockgraph (a division of FreeWheel) found that, in certain instances, one could benefit from what the other already has.

When asked to choose up to five improvements from a list of 14, about half (53%) of the 150 TV advertisers surveyed say that linear TV advertising would be more effective if it had better targeting capabilities. Only one-third (33%) chose that as an improvement for digital media, for which targeting capabilities are generally seen as one of the key attractions.

The desire for better targeting on TV has been driving greater investments in programmatic TV, and an estimated 40% of total TV advertising next year will be data-enabled.

Meanwhile, two-fifths (39%) of respondents say that one of the top areas that would make digital media more effective is a more brand safe environment, compared to the mere 12% of respondents who felt the same about linear TV. Brand safety is an issue that digital media advertisers expressed deeper concerns about last year and have been taking actions to remedy. Despite this, it appears from this more recent survey that brand safety remains an issue.

One element that respondents think would make both TV advertising and digital media more effective to marketers is better measurement. Marketers continue to struggle with these challenges, and a lack of consistency in measurement – particularly between linear TV and digital – continues and clouds the ability for marketers to assess how they perform across channels.

Another factor that both linear TV and digital media could use – according to respondents – is more data. However, advertisers already concerned with brand safety should also bear in mind increasing consumer concern about the use of personal data. Coupled with privacy laws such as GDPR, this may force advertisers to focus more on the quality of the data than its quantity.

So, what data sets do advertisers plan to use to build their audience segments? While 57% said they will be using first-party data this year, third-party data will also be used, with half (49%) saying they will use third-party behavioral data and almost two-thirds (64%) saying they will use third-party demographic data.

In 2018, US businesses spent close to $12 billion on third-party audience data, however, using third-party data is not without its concerns. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents to Blockgraph’s survey report being concerned about the accuracy of the data, while a little more than half (54%) are concerned about how and where the data is sourced.

Not only are advertisers concerned about the accuracy of the data, but they also take into consideration the age of the data and how recently it has been updated (48%). Other concerns for advertisers include the audience composition of the segment (47%), how well it can be integrated into their technology (42%) and the price of the data (40%).

To read more, download the report here.

About the Data: A total of 150 advertisers were surveyed on the challenges, opportunities and importance of bringing advanced data to television advertising.

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