Have you ever watched television and saw a commercial that was completely irrelevant to you? Perhaps you have college-aged children, but recently saw an advertisement for diapers. Maybe you saw an ad for blood pressure medication, despite being young, active and healthy. These commercials likely cause you to lose interest quickly, and at times can be frustrating. But more importantly, irrelevant advertisements are wasting significant ad dollars for brands, as they missed their intended target audience. Billions of dollars are being wasted each year on advertising, mainly because brands are unable to properly identify their customers.
Fortunately, technology has allowed TV advertising to evolve and get smarter. When it comes to audiences, brands now have significantly more options than just age and gender viewing preferences to reach unique TV audiences. Cable and satellite providers continue to grow the number of addressable-ready TV households, and OTT providers now account for 51 million households, allowing audiences to be reached via targeted, data-driven advertising. However, before working with your agencies and the networks to prepare your media plans, you have to first make sure you truly understand who your customer is.
In order to deliver highly-personalized experiences, relevant offers, and timely messages that consumers expect and demand, advertisers must have a clear and consistent picture of their customers and prospects. The good news is that today’s consumers generate a constant trail of data that gives us the information we need to determine not only who they are, but also what their behaviors and preferences are. Using the hybrid of offline household characteristics that Experian is known for combined with the variety of behavioral, transactional and viewing data available means that a brand can learn how a person consumes information, which ads drive them to your website, how often they make purchases online versus in store, and whether or not they are more interested in diapers or blood pressure medication.
Experian is focused on helping brands leverage the power of data and technology to make the right marketing decisions. Our Customer Data Engine™ is a customer data platform designed to help marketers take the next step in seamlessly collecting, consolidating and using their customer data by connecting offline and online identifiers to create a single customer view. Its two major offerings are the customer database, which is a secure, centralized customer data platform hosted by Experian for first and third-party data, along with campaign management, which provides the analytical tools, audience distribution, and closed-loop measurement distribution needed for campaign success. Ultimately, you’ll be able to engage your customers across every channel, including television, while also making the most of your marketing budget, rather than throwing away dollars on initiatives that don’t resonate. In addition, Experian recently launched its MarketingConnectSM solution set, designed to help brands and marketers link together disparate systems of audience insights and engagement to foster a more seamless and personalized omni-channel customer experience.
In our whitepaper, we discuss how TV is still an extremely relevant and important part of the advertising mix. Some brands may be interested in targeting large mass audiences for brand recognition and traditional linear TV advertising works well for those purposes. But the majority of brands will want to make sure they are using their budgets most effectively and targeting the unique audiences that drive sales for them. Technology enables us to do just that – reach the households that are relevant for our products, services, and messages. Don’t waste that advantage – make sure your data truly illuminates who your customers really are.