A number of broadcasters and sell-side players in the TV world have rolled out outcome measurement offerings over the past few years, as they look to demonstrate both the short-term and long-term value of TV ads. While plenty are already sold on the value of TV, some advertisers newer to the space are keen for hard data proving the return on their investment. And even for established TV advertisers, having outcome data to show to the finance department makes it easier to justify investment in TV.
Today ITV has announced it is expanding its own outcome measurement capabilities with two new launches: Addressable Lift and Broadcast Auction Boost.
Addressable Lift is a pilot programme that builds on ITV’s existing capabilities available via DataMatch, which uses data clean room technology to measure the impact of a campaign on ITVX (ITV’s streaming service) in driving sales. With Addressable Lift, ITV will also offer brand lift and site lift measurement for campaigns at a household level. Brand lift and site lift data will be provided through partnerships with Adalyser, Innovid (via the tech it acquired from its acquisition of TVSquared) and Lucid.
ITV says it has already run pilot tests with a number of advertisers, and is now inviting more to join for further pilot tests next year.
Meanwhile ITV described Broadcast Auction Boost as a “major scientific study” run in association with OMG and Percept, which examined how broadcast advertising influences paid search activity.
ITV says that “minute by minute data on hundreds of millions of pounds worth of activity was analysed across 25 advertisers spanning three years, 11 industries, and over a billion search impressions”. ITV and OMG will release data from this initial test next year, and will run a further “experimental phase” which ITV says will provide more rigorous causal proof of the relationship between TV and search.
Winning new friends, and keeping old ones
ITV will hope that this sort of outcome data will help draw new advertisers into TV, while also retaining old ones.
Direct-to-consumer brands, whose businesses were often built on the precise targeting and measurement offered on social platforms, are generally keen to have similar capabilities as they invest in new mediums. Menswear startup Spoke, which is exactly that type of brand, has already piloted Addressable Lift. And its founder and CEO Ben Farren said that the tool has been effective at demonstrating TV’s value.
“I will be honest, I was sceptical of VOD and whether it could deliver sufficient incremental impact over linear to make investment worthwhile,” said Farren. “However, the results of our pilot which showed the behavioural impact of our campaign, not just the impressions delivered, has given me the confidence to keep investing in the addressable targeting opportunities ITVX enables.”
Even for established TV buyers, Addressable Lift may prove useful in helping to justify TV advertising, particularly when purse strings are tighter.
And the Broadcast Auction Boost study could prove useful for those traditional TV advertisers too, helping them understand an aspect of TV advertising’s value which is perhaps under-appreciated.
