TV Reach: our solution to the evolving BVOD space
As digital-first marketers, different channel journeys have really excited us. We’ve seen very scalable and high-performing display, native and video channels enter the environment and thrive with digital planning tools, data-driven targeting, and high levels of optimisation and analytics. Our focus is to move the needle in terms of positive ROAS for every brand or agency that we work with. As traditional channels move into our programmatic world, it becomes extremely important to be able to make informed decisions, plan effectively and map out user journeys to find the most comprehensive and efficient media mix.
Broadcast Video-on-Demand (BVOD) is now moving forward on its own journey in the programmatic ecosystem, and it seems to be following a slightly different path to the channels that have gone before. As consumer habits change and the BVOD experience evolves, brands and agencies require solutions for planning, buying and executing programmatically.
This is where Bench, through our extensive partner network, is able to offer a solution that makes the best use of all of the exciting new developments in this space. Launching our TV Reach product is the first realisation of this.
The rise of connected TV and BVOD has created a lot of debate across the industry both globally and locally. There are many differing opinions on what will be the all-encompassing currency or planning approach that allows marketers to make the best sense of their traditional and digital TV buying.
Some traditional TV marketers, planners and buyers have been adamant that the traditional planning and buying process will stay strong. After all it’s well documented that TV delivers on its promise as an effective marketing and communication channel. These guys have been proving this with great success for years! On the other side, many digital marketers argue that the digital ways of planning and buying will win out… that using the scalability of TV alongside the precision of digital targeting really is the best of both worlds.
The challenges for marketers who wish to buy TV and BVOD effectively today lie in the ability to plan, manage and measure unduplicated reach and frequency. So as to ensure optimal effectiveness and efficiency.
Realistically at present, and while there are numerous solutions starting to bridge the gap, there is no truly scalable and definitive way of planning and measuring a TV campaign effectively across both traditional and BVOD properties. This really is the eutopia the media industry is trying to get to.
What’s emerging, and how is Bench keeping up with the BVOD journey?
There are some real strides being made in this market with everyone eagerly awaiting the release of VOZ, the rise of Samba TV (huge in the US, and growing fast in Australia), and ongoing work from the major DSPs in the market to create cross-environment planning tools. Samba TV helps to understand linear TV consumption behaviours (shows, games, exposed ads) and uses this in a digital environment for reach extension and targeting. DSPs are working hard to create planning tools that ingest this data for marketers to run effective cross-environment plans, and to provide solutions for frequency across desired audiences. And of course, effective reporting to demonstrate success.
The good news is that at Bench we position ourselves agnostically in terms of the technology, data and media that we access to make our clients’ investments work. This enables us to be nimble enough to strike up partnerships and make best use of all of the developments available. The Bench TV Reach solution provides the ability to buy BVOD using the very best in market solutions.
We partner with global leaders in TV viewing behaviour insights, Samba TV via The Trade Desk (TTD), to understand the content that people view on their TV and the ads that they are exposed to. We use this data to plan and activate against BVOD or other digital campaigns. We create segments of users:
- Exposed to a TV campaign so that we can negatively target them and extend TV reach, unduplicated.
- Exposed to a TV campaign so that we can positively target them with a sequential message and drive optimum frequency.
- Exposed to a competitor’s TV campaign to competitively target.
- Based on viewing behaviours to target light versus heavy TV viewers, segments of users based on genre, and users of particular streaming services etc.
We partner with global leading DSPs to ingest the Samba TV data, and plan and execute the most effective BVOD campaigns in the market. This creates value for brands and agencies as:
- Samba data is ingested into the DSP.
- Data is used to effectively plan deduplicated linear and digital reach.
- Data can then be used for execution in a digital environment.
- Using the latest evolutions of the platform, we can postcode target to the most valuable areas for the target audience and create frequency across these segments. We can use digital reporting to show the value of the media buy.
We partner with Kantar, global leaders in media research and insights, to understand the impact our BVOD campaigns have on driving campaign objectives. We do this to show the effect that the media investment has on branding metrics such as unaided brand awareness, brand favourability or product consideration. This creates value for brands and agencies as a proof point that their digital investments are helping to drive key marketing and business goals.
Through these carefully curated partnerships, we are able to deliver effective addressable TV campaigns for our clients, using all of the technology, media and data available to us.
