Advertisers Can Use Data Insights to Drive Reach and Build Brands in the Current TV Landscape, New Effectv Report Finds

Research finds that TV advertisers who use an audience-based approach to targeting have improved reach as much as 100%, without increasing budgets.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, today released a new whitepaper entitled “Data Builds Brands: The Why and How of Maximizing Reach in a New TV World.”

The paper shows the heightened importance of reach within the media mix in terms of building brands and cautions against the trend in today’s data-rich world for marketers to rely primarily on lower-funnel, targeted advertising to reach their audiences. Effectv’s latest research finds that building awareness with high-reach, audience-based campaign strategies helps advertisers stay top-of-mind, attract new customers and ultimately drive revenue.

“We are living in a new world, where delivering improved media efficiency has rightfully taken on a new level of importance for advertisers,” said James Rooke, General Manager, Effectv. “Marketers know the importance of brand advertising to drive results but may worry that TV comes with a premium price tag. The strategies outlined in this whitepaper are proven to efficiently maximize reach and support brand building through the smart application of data, delivering more effective performance on their TV spend.”

The whitepaper outlines techniques for TV advertisers to improve reach and drive better outcomes within the current viewing landscape. The strategies were developed by analyzing tens of thousands of campaigns across approximately 17 million households in the Comcast footprint, and identifying how advertisers maximized reach successfully.

In order to build reach, Effectv recommends six specific strategies, each tied quantitatively to specific, new research undertaken to prove their efficacy.

Foundational Strategies:

1. More Networks: An analysis of over 42,000 Effectv TV campaigns showed that campaigns that aired across more networks delivered a reach more than double that of campaigns that aired across less than 10 networks, regardless of the spend level.
2. Broad Dayparts: Effectv found that campaigns that had 60%-70% of total impressions come from outside of prime viewing hours tended to deliver the highest reach.
3. Long Flights: Across an analysis of nearly 10,000 campaigns, regardless of spend levels, 90-day campaigns consistently achieved a higher household reach than 30-day campaigns.

Additional Recommendations:

1. Layered Geo-Targeting: Effectv found that adding local campaigns in specific key markets increased reach among a brand’s audience by nearly 25%.
2. High Value Programming (i.e. sports or other TV “tentpole” events): Based on an analysis of over 10,000 campaigns, Effectv found that the ones that included sports delivered a substantially higher reach than campaigns without sports; this was true regardless of the spend/campaign size.
3. Over-the-Top: Effectv recommends reaching hard-to-find audiences by using OTT inventory as a complement to TV.

"While low-funnel, targeted advertising can be a valuable part of a media plan, we know that building awareness with high-reach campaign strategies drives meaningful results and even amplifies the value of lower funnel tactics,” said John Brauer, Executive Director of Data, Insights and Innovation, Effectv. “But how can advertisers build reach in a world where audiences are fragmented across devices and content? In this whitepaper, we have developed six concrete strategies to show them how.”

Effectv analyzed brands in the same market, with similar campaign spends during the same time period, and found that brands that incorporated the tactics recommended in the “Data Builds Brands” whitepaper were not only able to achieve higher reach and higher frequency, but also achieve higher GRPs at a lower CPM.

To read the full whitepaper, click here. You can also check out the cheat sheet here and the video here.

About Effectv

Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, helps local, regional and national advertisers use the best of digital with the power of TV to grow their business. It provides multi-screen marketing solutions to make advertising campaigns more effective and easier to execute. Headquartered in New York with offices throughout the country, Effectv has a presence in 66 markets with nearly 35 million owned and represented subscribers. For more information, visit www.effectv.com.