Television has long been a desirable medium for brands to have extensive reach across their audiences, building awareness and increasing share of voice. It continues to be very powerful with over 245 million TV viewers in the U.S. according to eMarketer who watch live or recorded video on a set. However, the television landscape has seen many shifts in the last few years in particular, as consumers share their time between linear and streaming services, in addition to other forms of digital video on social platforms. Today, there are over 213 million connected TV viewers in the U.S., and it’s poised to continuously grow to over 230 million ahead of 2025. As a result, Marketers need to be planning their television buys with a holistic approach, understanding that the only way to have comprehensive audience reach is to tap into both linear and connected television channels and using a measurement partner to understand impact and incrementality.
According to The Trade Desk’s “Future of TV” report, 47% of U.S. TV viewers are already cordless and another 42% plan to “cut the cord” or minimize traditional television spend within the year. That being said, the scale that continues to be achievable on linear definitely makes it a channel that should continue to be leveraged. There are always going to be some consumers who choose to exclusively view on linear, as well as consumers who exclusively use streaming. This means that both channels must be incorporated into media plans to ensure you are reaching your target audience in a non-skippable environment where your brand message is showcased.
Another major reason that brands who have traditionally used linear television are now looking more heavily into connected tv is due to the incrementality. In fact, according to eMarketer this is the second most common reason that this tactic is deployed apart from targeting capabilities. This approach has worked well for many brands, including Hershey who saw the consumer trends and understood the need to act. This extends beyond Amazon to other OTT/CTV like Hulu, Roku, Tubi, Discovery+, and more.
There are measurement partners in the space that are able to go beyond number of impressions or gross ratings points to understand how television advertisements are impacting the bottom line. This can be achieved through tools such as lift studies that can interpret lift overall brand awareness and as well lift in conversions, whether that is site visitation or actual purchases. In the world of the pending deprecation of third-party cookies and iOS 15, attributing business results to media channels is going to become more challenging. Fortunately, television is not dependent on cookies and is poised to become an even more valuable channel for marketers to lean into.
Related Thoughts
As we begin to explore the world of cookieless digital advertising, marketers will likely be focusing much of their attention on walled gardens that have robust amounts of users and, therefore, valuable first-party data.
Short-form videos are what consumers want to watch – whether on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or Snapchat Spotlight.
Marketers should leverage an audience-first approach that first determines who their most valuable customers are, where they are most likely to interact online, and how we can best reach them through an omni-channel strategy.
