Quarterly Insights: Better TV Data Unlocks Brand Results

By Raman Sehgal, VP of Marketing, TVision

For too long, TV advertisers have been flying blind when it comes to how audiences respond to their TV advertising.

During my career working on major brands at P&G and Dannon, I was continuously amazed by how little TV data there was (compared to digital) to inform massive investment decisions. Sure, we could project demographic reach based on historical data, estimate sponsorship performance, and loosely correlate delivery to results, but when it came to truly understanding what those audiences were actually doing while the TV ad aired? Well, that’s still a mystery for the vast majority of brand marketers.

Earlier this year I was excited to join TVision, a leader in TV attention measurement. We combine proven methodologies — leveraging computer vision technology and a privacy-safe, opt-in panel — to help our clients measure real, person-by-person, eyes-on-screen attention for every second of TV content aired. With this real-time data at their fingertips, our brand partners gain greater insight into their customer’s TV behaviors, and can adjust their campaign and creative strategy accordingly.

In our most recent Quarterly Attention Report, we examined how viewers paid attention to television programming and commercials during Q3 2018. Here’s a sampling of how our findings illustrate how brands can use person-level TV insights to run smarter media campaigns.

Understand which creative elements dramatically impact TV engagement.

By measuring second-by-second TV attention, we’re able to identify key moments that cause viewers to either perk up or tune out. In a Discover Card ad we analyzed, our data showed a huge spike in attention during a particularly exciting (and stressful) moment – a perfect exclamation moment for branding.

For marketers, this data uncovers how individual creative elements — a startling noise, a dramatic climax, a colorful graphic — grab the viewer’s attention. TV engagement can now even be understood at the channel or daypart level. Moving forward, brands can optimize their messaging for any of these elements before, during, or after, their advertising campaigns.

Attention varies by demographic.

For T-Mobile, we saw how one particular family moment in an ad generated 23% more attention from women than it did from men. Most parents – especially moms – can relate to these findings once they see what their kids are doing while away at college. Demographic insights like this allow brands to better tailor their creative to different audiences. When broken down second-by-second, we can even see how various ad elements resonate with any given audience.

Quantifying the Halo Effect of Sponsorship

Contextually relevant advertising is just as important on television as it is online. Official sponsors of this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Weekend received above-average attention when their ads ran during commercial breaks. Now brands are no longer left wondering how to best quantify their sponsorship value, and can make smarter investment decisions for the next one.

Better Measure TV Attention for results.

Time and again, we see that TV engagement metrics like attention deliver brand results, including brand lift, store visits, and lower cost per conversions.

For instance, did you know that for D2C brands, customer acquisition costs are 29% lower for brands when consumers pay close attention to their TV ads? Meanwhile, a major CPG advertiser who compared 2 weeks of live attention and frequency data was able to forecast their next three months of sales lift results with 90% accuracy.

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All of this matters for our industry – where smart marketers demand deeper understanding and accountability for their TV advertising. The arrival of person-level behavioral attention data is transforming how TV advertisers better plan and optimize for campaign performance.

Finally, we can measure the previously unmeasurable, and brands can see real results.