Waste and Advertising
“The dirty secret of media buyers…” said the top agency executive as I sat in his office years ago “…is that waste is good.”
At the time, we were discussing the launch of addressable television advertising, a technology that today can reach over 50 million US homes, and the conversation wasn’t going the way I wanted. My hope was that the buyer would agree that if we could target tv ads to just the homes most likely to purchase his clients products, that he would be willing to pay a bit more to be able to reach only those targeted homes, and drive frequency.
He said that while, for example, he bought television against women 18-49 for a particular client, that didn’t mean that women over 49, and men, weren’t important to that client. “I want that waste,” he said, “I just don’t want to pay for it, let alone pay more not to get it.”
And of course, he was right. At a Simulmedia event yesterday, a panelist mentioned a client who was buying media against a target of men 21-29. Her organization learned that in reality, 70% of the brand’s customers were men 45+, and their ads were missing all of those people.
Now that it is possible and practical to reach primarily audiences that fit your precise criteria, from people who’ve purchased in the past to people in your vicinity to people who've already seen and liked your ads, there’s still something to be said for hedging your bets on smart targeting with some broad reach, creative that isn't too "inside baseball," and a strong media mix. You'll get waste, yes, but sometimes waste is good.
Business Development and Strategy
15 小时前Just saw an insightful post (thanksgiving day 2024) and was reminded of this article- if you happen to see this and are interested in the topic, you will love this slideshow from Dan Gee . The link is to my repost because I was able to save that way, but it should take you to the original. His point is that true waste- fraud and overcharge- is real waste- but spillage, like the type you get from broad targeting or traditional broadcast media, helps brands grow by reaching people not yet in market or where the brand would benefit from more people knowing about its value. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/kathy-newberger-nyi_reframing-waste-in-advertising-with-examples-activity-7267896077247254528-ePCR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios
B2os Founder. Passionate Advertising Executive, Specializing in Leadership, Strategic Communication, and Operations Improvement.
5 年Great article
President at Media Dynamics Inc.
8 年Even if an advertiser has a list of specific homes that have bought its product or a broader list that covers a larger segment of the product class as a whole ( rare ) there still remains the issue of matching set usage to viewing. Typically one or both adults in a household are the real targets, not the TV set. But selecting programs for the addressable schedule ---even if based on "big data" machinations--- can't tell you who is watching. Typically, the actual consumer is viewing only half of the time when a set is in use. In primetime you can cut this down a bit, mainly for women, but your built in error margin remains high.
President at Media Dynamics Inc.
8 年The real problem is that "addressable TV" is nothing more than a profiling scheme where particular homes are assumed to be "in the market" for a product/service because they live in a location where more than the usual percentage of people are prospects---or some other indicator---like income, age of HH Head, presence of child or ethnicity is factored in. So right away, you get a certain amount of "waste". As for "waste" it's true that advertisers "targeting" 18-49s are never interested only in that broad age group; the others have value, but not as much. So if you really were able to target a single segment, you would concede the rest to the opposition. Not good.