TV Advertising in a Streaming and Connected TV World

For a while, businesses talked about television and digital advertising as though they were competing sides of the marketing world. Television was traditional. Digital was targeted, measurable, and flexible. You chose one or the other based on your audience and budget.

That distinction does not make nearly as much sense anymore.

People still watch television, but “watching TV” can now mean broadcast television, cable, live streaming, ad-supported streaming services, connected TV apps, or other programming delivered through an internet-connected television. From the viewer’s perspective, much of it simply looks like television.

For advertisers, however, how that commercial reaches the screen can make a considerable difference.

TV Advertising Still Has One Very Big Advantage: The Screen

Television combines sight, sound, movement, story, and emotion on a screen that people generally choose to watch. That gives advertisers creative possibilities that are difficult to reproduce in many other media.

A good television commercial can show the product, introduce people, demonstrate a service, establish a sense of place, tell a story, and allow customers to hear and see the personality of a business.

That makes TV advertising particularly useful when the goal is broader awareness and brand familiarity. Not every advertisement needs someone to stop what they are doing and make a purchase immediately. Sometimes the job is to make sure the business becomes familiar enough that people remember it when the need eventually arises.

The Television Audience Has Fragmented

The original version of this article discussed buying time on a local station or a national network. Those options still exist, but they are only part of the television landscape now.

Viewers have more control over what they watch and how they watch it. Some consume local broadcast television. Others subscribe to cable or satellite services—many stream programming through internet-connected televisions and devices. Plenty of households use several of those options.

For advertisers, that fragmentation creates both a challenge and an opportunity.

The challenge is that there is no longer a single, simple television audience sitting in one place, waiting to be reached. The opportunity is that we now have more ways to decide which viewers we want to reach and how broadly—or narrowly—to reach them.

Connected TV Changed the Targeting Conversation

One of the old disadvantages of television advertising was relatively broad targeting. You could select programming, stations, geography, and dayparts that tended to attract the audience you wanted. Still, television could not offer the same level of targeting as many digital advertising channels.

Connected TV and streaming television changed that equation.

Depending on the inventory and provider, advertisers may have the option to define audiences by geography, demographics, interests, behaviors, or other available audience information. That can make television-style advertising practical for businesses that do not need—or cannot afford—to reach everyone watching a particular program or station.

This is one reason we no longer think of television advertising and consumer behavior solely in terms of traditional broadcast television. The viewing experience may look familiar to the customer, even though the technology delivering the advertisement and the way the media was purchased differ significantly.

Traditional Broadcast TV Still Has a Place

Newer does not automatically mean better.

Broadcast television can still make tremendous sense when a business wants a broad reach within a geographic market, particularly around programming that attracts a strong local audience. Local news, sports, special events, and other programming can bring together audiences in ways that more fragmented media sometimes cannot.

That broad reach can also be a disadvantage.

If your business serves a narrow audience, you may end up paying to reach many people who are unlikely to become customers. If your objective is widespread awareness within a community, that same characteristic may be exactly what you want.

The medium has not changed from good to bad. The question is whether its strengths match the job you need it to do.

TV Advertising Works Best as Part of a Media Mix

The original article made the case for incorporating television into a broader marketing strategy, and that point has become even more important.

People do not live inside individual advertising channels. Someone may see your television commercial at home, hear your radio ad the next morning, encounter a social ad later in the week, search for your company, read reviews, visit your website, and eventually make contact.

Those experiences can build on one another.

Television is particularly useful in that mix because it can give a brand a presence that other channels then reinforce. Search can help someone find you when interest becomes active. Social and display advertising can provide additional reminders. Radio and streaming audio can reach people away from the screen. Your website can provide the depth of information that a short commercial cannot.

That is the real value of multi-channel advertising: not simply being in more places, but giving different media different jobs while keeping the overall message connected.

What About the Cost of TV Advertising?

Cost was one of the primary disadvantages identified in the original article, and it remains an important consideration. Producing good video creative requires an investment, and some television placements can require significant budgets.

But it is no longer accurate to treat television advertising as something available only to companies with enormous media budgets.

Local television, streaming television, connected TV, and different buying approaches can create a much wider range of entry points. What constitutes an appropriate budget depends on the market, audience, campaign length, frequency, inventory, production needs, and what you expect the campaign to accomplish.

The more useful question is not simply, “How expensive is television?” It is, “Can television reach enough of the right people often enough to justify what we would spend?”

TV Creative Still Requires Commitment

The original article also described television advertising as more rigid than PPC advertising, where campaigns and creatives can often be adjusted relatively quickly.

There is still truth in that.

A television commercial generally requires more planning and production than changing the headline in a search ad. Once you have filmed, edited, voiced, approved, and distributed a commercial, changing it can involve more time and expense.

That makes good planning important.

At the same time, digital video production and modern media delivery have made television more creative than it once was. Businesses can produce multiple versions, test different messages, adapt creative for different audiences, and use video assets across television, connected TV, websites, social media, and other digital environments.

The production investment becomes much easier to justify when you think about the video as an asset rather than a commercial that can exist in only one place.

Short Commercials Are a Constraint—and Sometimes an Advantage

The original article also pointed to length as a disadvantage. Television does require a business to communicate within a limited amount of time.

That is not necessarily a bad thing.

A television commercial does not need to explain everything about your company. In most cases, it should not try.

The commercial needs a clear job. Introduce the brand. Establish an idea. Show why something matters. Create interest. Make an offer. Give someone a reason to remember you or take the next step.

Your website can carry the details. Search can catch people who want to learn more. Other marketing can continue the conversation.

Trying to cram the entire sales process into a short television commercial usually makes the commercial less effective, not more.

Measurement Has Improved, but Attribution Is Still Complicated

Another historical advantage of digital advertising was measurement. A click happened, a form was submitted, and the path appeared relatively easy to follow.

Television measurement has become considerably more sophisticated, particularly with connected and streaming TV. Depending on the campaign and technology being used, advertisers may have access to impressions, audience, completion, website activity, and other performance information that was difficult or impossible to obtain from traditional television alone.

But more data does not mean every sale can be neatly assigned to a television impression.

Advertising rarely works that cleanly. A customer may see a television commercial, encounter the business somewhere else, search days later, and eventually make contact. Measurement should help us make better decisions without leading us to believe that the easiest interaction to track deserves all the credit.

So, Should Your Business Advertise on TV?

Maybe broadcast television. Maybe connected or streaming TV. Maybe a combination. Maybe television is not where your next advertising dollar belongs at all.

The answer depends on your audience, geography, goals, budget, message, creative, and what the rest of your media plan is already doing.

That is why television should not automatically be dismissed as “traditional media,” and streaming television should not automatically be purchased simply because it is newer and more targetable.

They are tools.

The job is to determine which tool—or combination of tools—can reach the right people and support the business’s goals.

If you are trying to decide whether broadcast TV, connected TV, streaming video, or another advertising channel deserves a place in your media mix, let’s look at it together. We can help you build a plan around the audience rather than around the channel.