Targeted Substitutional Advertising. The right TV ad to the right person at the right time
by Julian Gratton
We've come a long way baby!
TV ads. I have to say… I love them. They are the main reason I got into this business in the first place… to create some arresting TV Advertising that my mates might talk about down the pub. One thing that has always infuriated me about TV Advertising, however, has been the inability to really effectively target them like you could other forms of advertising.
Well, it looks like those little niggles I have could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the thing that has been nicknamed Smart TV. Its real name is Targeted Substitutional Advertising (TSA) and it looks like it could be the thing to deliver accountability and personalisation that digital media advertisers have enjoyed for years.
The main company in the lead to launch TSA are BSkyB, who are looking to start offering advertisers the ability to carry targeted TV advertising. Speaking at Thinkbox Televisionaries, Nick Milligan, managing director of Sky Media, said: “We hope to have Smart TV ready by 2011. Over the next couple of years, we intend to build a detailed database so we can drop targeted ads into regular TV ad breaks and develop a relationship with consumers.
That’s quite clever, so how does it work?
There's no escape
Thanks to the digital switchover, the majority of the UK has set-top boxes that come with the ability to store data… and in this instance the data is TV adverts, which will be downloaded to the box. When signalled, these adverts will play on the television instead of the ones that are being broadcast to the house.
Targeting initially won’t be drilled down to one house. Instead Sky says it will be able to target the first four digits of a postcode, or a row of four houses on a road. They’ll also be able to target specific counties too… meaning for the first time TV Advertising will actually be able to rival the likes of Google’s PPC Advertising.
In order to decide who gets what, Sky will use it’s Olive Database, which already has 150 points of customer information gained from subscribers and their packages. This will be combined with publicly available data and additional market research.
Great opportunities for creativity
Depending on budgets, Targeted Substitutional Advertising offers advertising agencies a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to creating effective TV advertising. We’ll be able to apply the lessons we have learnt when doing personalised direct mail pieces and content network ads to TV adverts… thus making them talk more directly to the individual rather than a mass of people.
The most obvious benefit of Targeted Substitutional Advertising would be on the call to action of a TV advert. TSA would allow us to let the consumer know where the nearest car showroom or retail outlet was for a certain product or service. In the future, though, I’m sure it won’t be long before we see several versions of TV adverts being recorded with actors of different ages and races… these then would be broadcast to the relevant target audience.
Obviously such expense would only be able to be met by those clients with the largest spend, but as with all things, once the technology takes off and ‘bespoke creative versions’ become cheaper to produce, it won’t be long before such creative personalisation of actors, locations and messages will become the norm; especially if it means an increase in both leads and ultimately sales.
The shot in the arm TV advertising is crying out for
Despite a five-year dip in figures, Zenith Optimedia reported recently that the television market was up seven per cent in the first three months of 2010 and would grow at least 16 per cent in the second quarter of this year. It’s safe to say, though, that television advertising spend is not what it used to be… especially when you consider that last year online spending grew 4.6% to £1.752bn in the first half of 2009, while TV spending shrank 16.1% to £1.639bn.
With this in mind, Targeted Substitutional Advertising is obviously a welcome development for anyone involved in television advertising. It’s just a shame that it will be quite a few years yet before it is fully realised, available and embraced by everyone involved in the advertising industry.
If you’d like to see how Targeted Substitutional Advertising can help you… why not give Red C a call on 0161 872 1361 or click here
Tags: Advertising Agency, Award-Winning Advertising Agency, BSkyB, Google, London Advertising Agency, Manchester Advertising Agency, Marketing Agency, Olive Database, PPC Advertising, Sky Media, Smart TV, Targeted Substitutional Advertising, Television Advertising Production, Thinkbox Televisionaries, TSA, TV Advert Agency, TV Advertising, Zenith Optimedia
