The transition from one-size-fits-all cable packages to more modular streaming services has been a blessing for TV advertising. That level of segmentation makes it easier than ever before to target a very specific demographic, but that doesn’t mean that live TV can’t be an incredibly useful source of advertising outreach.
The Truth About Linear Television Viewing
In fact, the reach of streaming services may be a bit overstated, at least in the popular imagination. Currently 93% of cable TV viewing is done live, and while that’s a shrinking market, it still constitutes a sweeping segment of the overall viewing audience. The major cable news networks alone pull in over a million viewers a day. That’s an especially big deal when you consider the important role that TV plays in the lives of many modern people. A third of adult media time is spent watching TV, and nearly 60% of consumers identify television as their preferred source of advertisements.
Reaching Out to Customers in a Linear Market
Linear television brings with it some added complications—most notably how to target your advertising to an audience that might not be as niche or specialized as your traditional user base. This is a situation where big data can be of huge benefit to your company. While targeted marketing can provide you with more precise outreach to the customers that you know are interested in your product or service, basic cable and traditional television channels can provide you with more insight into interested demographics you might have not been aware of as well as provide you with more actionable data on prospective customers who might be on the fence.
The Power of Addressable Television
Addressable television is serving as a game changer for marketers, and it’s one that couldn’t exist without the rise of innovative new tech stacks. Addressable television allows you to create targeted blocks of advertising and send them to specific customers based off of their known data points. The results are show more complicated demographic-focused materials for different users watching the same shows. Rather than breaking down the results according to a simple ethnic, geographic, or gender cross-section, they allow for advertising that grows as the user does.
Bringing in Qualified Help
The problem is that finding a stack to deal with addressable television and building a television marketing model that’s targeted towards your unique customers is complicated and requires continuing investment and research. There simply isn’t an off-the-shelf solution that can provide satisfying results. The most successful businesses are those that stay ahead of the curve, and that often means bringing in a marketing firm with both the expertise and the software in place to cultivate success, like NYI—New York Interconnect.
Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most of her time hiking, biking, and gardening. For more information, contact Brooke via Facebook at facebook.com/brooke.chaplan or Twitter @BrookeChaplan