Putting the audience first

Editor's note: Danielle Delauro is executive vice president of Video Advertising Bureau.

When I worked at an ad agency in strategic planning, there was one client in particular that would often share fresh proprietary insights on its customers. I always appreciated this, as the richness and depth of these kinds of findings would bring an enlightened perspective, providing a new level of intimacy and vibrancy to our understanding of the people who made up our target customer base.

Of course, the client would share these learnings in order to help us refine and strengthen our communications plan. And the insights helped us in virtually all components of our strategic thinking, with one glaring exception, which happened to be the one area that was the client’s single largest investment: television advertising buying. My client’s in-depth customer profile was distilled down to a generic “female 25-to-54-years-old” demographic.

Thankfully, the TV advertising landscape has significantly evolved since then, with advances in technology and targeting strategies that are now available. Today, those same customer insights could fuel a powerful, comprehensive audience-based TV buying approach.

TV advertising is at an inflection point as the practice of audience-based buying (ABB) is moving beyond early adopters. So, if you’re a marketer or researcher, how do you equip yourself for the present and prepare for this future? The first step is to know what exactly audience-based buying is.

Wherever and whenever 

Advances in technology and measurement now allow marketers to target and buy multiscreen TV ad campaigns against specific audiences such as lifestyle characteristics (e.g., homeowners, new parents) and purchase behavior (e.g., frequent travelers, reward members). Using anonymized aggregated data to inform their decision-making, marketers can deliver relevant advertising directly to these audiences, reaching them wherever and whenever they are watching.

In addition to providing greater precision in reaching target audiences, an audience-based approach integrates comparable metrics to plan and buy cross-platform campaigns and delivers results tied to business outcomes, rather than gross rating points.

While ABB’s benefits and opportunities are abundant, in the short term some marketers are hesitant to implement this more modern, data-driven approach. While nine out of 10 marketers believe the industry will significantly shift towards an audience-based buying approach in the next three years, only 37%, as of 2021, have made it a key part of their buying strategy, according to a recent survey of marketers.

Thankfully, there are tangible steps that marketers can take to set up their TV strategies for success for the rest of this year. Below is an outline of important tips for marketers to help them overcome some of the initial obstacles they might face as they transition to and adopt an audience-first mind-set. 

Redefine success. There seems to be a lack of urgency by some brand marketers in adopting a more targeted, audience-first approach, as many are satisfied with the expectations and results of their traditional demographic-based TV buys. After all, if your TV campaign is already delivering results, why change it?

Here’s why: when advertisers shift to an audience-based approach – and execute smartly and strategically – campaign efficiency and effectiveness both tremendously benefit. Further, like digital campaigns, when a TV campaign is planned against specific audiences, there is the ability for further enhancements and refinement, which is key to ultimately producing greater results. 

Rather than focusing on viewer count as the end game, ABB creates an audience group that will expose a marketer’s brand to new customers, generating incremental reach. If you are looking to drive website visits among likely purchasers, an audience group can be crafted based on that audience’s characteristics (e.g., in-market car buyers, beauty enthusiasts). 

By rethinking what success looks like, your TV campaign works harder to support your marketing goals. 

Tip: Start with your KPI and design your audience and strategies to best meet it.

Start slow, test and learn. Many marketers have experienced issues gaining internal and external buy-in when attempting to shift from tried-and-true legacy practices to an audience-first mind-set. Shifting the mentality from efficiency (CPM) to effectiveness (ROI and business outcomes) can be challenging without the proper support.

The most successful marketers are those who have embraced audience-based buying through a test-and-learn approach. By testing and learning, and enhancing and optimizing their campaigns, marketers have a better chance at tapping into the ROI capabilities presented by ABB. 

Through test campaigns, marketers can learn what platforms, messaging and audiences produce the best results for their brand. As data-driven targeting capabilities improve and the number of video-viewing platforms consumers watch increase, it is important to understand which strategies work best.

Complementing your own learnings, real-world case studies from brands in similar categories and life stages can spark ideas and accelerate your path to optimal results. 

Starting slow and providing tangible proof of your success will build confidence among internal and external stakeholders before you increase the investment, ensuring full buy-in.

Tip: Test and learn to achieve internal and external buy-in.

Break down barriers. Often, organizational silos can cause confusion around decision-making or around lack of clarity on KPIs, preventing marketers from embracing an audience-first approach.

Almost half of all marketers (47%) say that their multiscreen video campaigns are planned and bought by different teams, potentially leading to misaligned strategies, confusion regarding who ultimately controls the budget and disagreement regarding the measurement of campaign success. 

Further, teams are frequently evaluated and rewarded based on different incentives. For example, buyers are often rewarded based on their ability to generate efficiency, or CPM; strategic planners are often awarded based on their effectiveness, or targeting ability; and marketers are often awarded based on specific business outcomes, e.g., sales, web traffic, etc. When adopting an audience-based approach, it’s vital to rethink incentives and rewards, shifting all stakeholders to the same KPI. 

By assigning clear roles and goals across teams, prioritizing integrated positions to maximize effectiveness and assigning core KPIs, marketers can ensure alignment, smoothing the process for all parties. 

Tip: Streamline organizational silos, clearly define roles and incentives to ensure success.

Invest in education and training. Nearly 90% of marketers expect a “significant shift” to audience-based TV buying over the next three years, yet one-third can’t accurately define what it is.

One of the key challenges with the adoption of an audience-based buying approach is a lack of education and proper training, both internally and with agency partners. Many marketers rely heavily on advertising technology for training, leading to a platform-centric view rather than holistic view of ABB.

To advance adoption, it’s important for all stakeholders to understand how an audience-based approach provides greater precision to reach the target audience, modernizes campaign metrics and enables a buy to reach customers on any screen.

Encourage your team to broaden their own education by taking advantage of reputable industry resources, such as industry associations, research firms, vendors and more. Learning from multiple perspectives can help build a well-rounded view of the subject.

Ideally, create your own in-house training program. Craft your own syllabus by inviting a variety of industry experts to speak on the topic. Controlling the narrative and allowing your team a forum to ask brand-specific questions will make a lasting impact.

Tip: Educate stakeholders through internal and external training to maximize adoption.

Beyond traditional

By thinking beyond traditional demographics and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by audience-based buying, marketers can tap into consumers that spend nearly $4 trillion annually, or 41% of total U.S. spending, based on data from the US Bureau of Labor’s 2019 Consumer Expenditure Survey.

Further, the number of available ABB platforms is steadily growing, with platforms such as NBCU’s NBCUniversal One Platform and Ampersand’s The AND Platform taking launch in recent years, while consortiums like Project OAR and OpenAP are collaborating with companies like AMC, FOX, ViacomCBS, Univision, FreeWheel and Vizio to help simplify and standardize the buying process.

The bottom line: Audience-based buying is a powerful and sophisticated tool that, through 2021 and beyond, will continue to transform and strengthen a marketer’s ability to drive business outcomes. But its full impact can only be realized if industry professionals are armed with the proper education and training.

Additional vital steps for marketers to take include creating more awareness and familiarity with multiscreen TV platform capabilities; simplifying and streamlining terminology in presentation and pitches; reimagining infrastructure to better execute data-driven video campaigns; and engaging at reputable industry conferences and events. 

Ultimately, making advancements in those areas largely comes down to implementing education and training programs that keep employees up to date on modern buying strategies. Right now, formal training in ABB is widely non-existent, and that is ultimately unhealthy for the TV ecosystem.

But I’m on a mission to change that and look forward to continuing to work with marketers and agencies to better prepare themselves for the future. While there are some hurdles for marketers and agencies to overcome in the short term, tangible solutions exist and the future is extremely bright. Today’s marketers taking their first steps towards adoption will be well-equipped for success in the months and years ahead.