Personalised Content & Television

A look at the future of personalised content and how close television is to becoming a relevant channel.

Personalised Content?

Personalised content is everywhere. We’ve all seen it. We shop online for a Christmas gift only to find adverts following us around the web, leaving us to clear cookies frantically so our partner doesn’t catch on.

Or how about when you’re watching Netflix and you end up getting targeted with “Others who watched Suits also watched…” or “Because you watched House of Cards you might also like …”. All of this is personalised content - targeted assets based on your behaviour.

So What about TV?

Back in 2006 the average television viewer watched 39 adverts on an average day. By 2011 that number had climbed to an average of 47 adverts a day. And, according to MarketingCharts.com, 2014 saw the average American exposed to over an hour of tv advertisements every day. With just one advert lasting an average of 30 seconds, that works out at two per minute, that’s 120 an hour!

Think about that for a moment.

That’s 120 discrete opportunities to showcase your brand, product or service in front of your target audience. Of course not all opportunities are equal. A 30 second slot during the 2015 Superbowl comes in at a cool $4.5 million. You could expect to pay a fraction of that at other times, for a fairly simple reason – it all comes down to numbers. With a TV viewing audience of approximately 114.4 million, there’s a good chance that any advert shown will bring at least some degree of success to the brand.

But what about those of us who don’t have $4.5 million to spare. And in any case, producing relevant and interesting content isn’t just about entertaining the audience. It also makes sound commercial sense.

Personalising the TV Experience

17% of the time spent per week watching TV isn’t viewed on television sets at all. These days it’s more likely to be consumed online through services such as Netflix, Google Play and Apple TV. And with the creation of smart TVs, a proportion of viewing isn’t accessed through standard channels but through apps built into the television itself. BBC iPlayer is a prime example of delivering digital content to an audience that doesn’t always have the time to watch a scheduled broadcast but wants the flexibility of an “always on” product, which allows them to watch what they want and, more importantly, when they want.

Sky TV is another great example of an on-demand broadcasting model, allowing users not only to record  shows and watch them whenever they want, but even provides a catch-up service in case you missed recording (shame on you -  but Series Record is your friend!) You can even record on the fly using your mobile phone and the relevant app. All of this is great. It’s Great use of  technology and great (sometimes) shows all wrapped up to fit around our lifestyle providing us with a television experience that we can personalise it  to what we want and when we want it, fitting our favourite shows around our busy lives, and not the other way around.

Providing Personalised Content

We’ve already established what Netflix does well, providing us with alternative content based on our viewing behaviour. This really isn’t new. Amazon has been doing  it for years with its “other people bought” recommendation function, giving online consumers other items to consider based on what similar people purchased. It’s a great way of increasing the .

And all that is well and good - as a viewer we get to watch what we want. But what about the advertiser, or the marketer? What potential does this give us?

Let’s look at Sky TV again. Approximately 11 million people subscribe to Sky TV. That means that as a broadcaster, Sky is able to offer advertising based the demographic data of all its subscribers. Still fairly mundane stuff and nothing new. But Sky also provides an internet service to which approximately 50% of the TV subscription base also subscribe to. This means that Sky now has terabytes of behavioural data at its disposal. Browsing history; browsing habits; time of day. Our online activity primes us for targeted advertisement.

Online, this is already old hat. Remarketing, showing us something based on browsing behaviour, is pretty established practice. Of course, some people use it in far more creative and intelligent ways than others in order to make it more effective but it’s the same principle.

The challenge, therefore, is for broadcasters to bring this technology into the home via television.

What could this mean?

Well consider this. Every Friday evening after work you come home and hop online. You visit Domino’s and order a pizza or two for the family to enjoy while watching the pay per view movie you also chose. Or how about watching the game? Maybe you visit Facebook to round people up and organise. Or do some online shopping to get a few beers and food for the BBQ that’s just been delivered.

For an advertiser, knowing these viewing habits is extremely valuable information. Perhaps Dorito’s decides to push an advert through to promote their snacks while you’re enjoying your pizza. Or perhaps IKEA decide to push through sport-friendly furniture set for the optimal match day experience.

The point is that it opens up potential for more specific messaging that’s  tailored to us specifically. This gives us a more personalised experience. It gives advertisers a greater chance of their product meeting the right audience and ultimately a greater chance of a sale.

Applying this to B2B

Now all of this is fairly consumer-based so far. From a B2B perspective, though, the opportunities are potentially just as great. We’ve seen what simple tracking code can do with Google Remarketing, allowing us to tailor content or adverts to our audience, to reach out to them at the relevant stage of the buying cycle they fit into.

The potential is there for us to replicate this technology and improve on it. to bring that remarketing into the home. As technology advances, our use of data becomes ever more creative and our understanding of audiences becomes deeper, the opportunities will become endless.

For the humble television the potential is extraordinary.