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VCCP Media insight: Why TV is important in taking your business to the next level

Last week, VCCP Media CEO, Catherine Becker, presented at the Thinkbox New To TV event discussing how TV is instrumental in taking businesses to the next level.

There are a number of reasons brands should consider using TV – no matter their budget, and below are just a handful of those reasons.

The first is fame.

What we might call the ‘water cooler’ moment. Which refers to the shared experience of ads shown in big hero spots – those aired in the likes of X-Factor, I’m a Celebrity and Emmerdale – that, if they’re good, will inevitably be spoken about the next day at work and all over social media.

You only have to look at the big Christmas ads to know that conversation does happen, and it’s not just within our industry circles!

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No other medium (online included) can deliver such high levels of engagement and such impact to as wide an audience in one single second.

The next reason is digital harmonisation.

Where in some mediums the rise of digital has harmed and declined the media, in TV it has enhanced it. During the evening, over 40% of all tweets in the UK are focused around TV programming, with 60% of all Twitter users tweeting whilst viewing. Digital has enabled a new accountability in TV that was never available before.

In recent times, we’ve witnessed a plethora of technologies emerging that are focused on harnessing the power of TV and online. In 2016, an advertiser can serve online advertising directly following its own ad being seen on TV. There is technology available that is sonic triggered based (think Shazam for TV advertising), which means that an advertiser’s online copy can be served when the device hears a piece of audio, this could be the brand’s own advertising or even, God forbid, their competitors’!

Next, we have TV targeting.

With opportunities to fragment and target specific audiences or regions with the 300+ TV stations available, TV is no longer just the domain of the £1m+ budget.

Fragmentation in TV has removed one of the biggest barriers to entry for many advertisers.

It has given not just the viewer a greater choice of what they wish to watch, but the new advertiser now has the chance to start small and scale upwards, providing that the correct research and planning is implemented from the beginning.

Then there’s cost effectiveness and scale.

It is crucial to remember that a key part of TV’s success is reach. Therefore, an entry-level campaign as a test is great so long as it’s scalable and provides learnings that can be used to grow the campaign and harness the true power of the medium.

TV remains the best media for driving awareness. It reaches 71% of all adults in the UK in one day, 92% in one week and 98% in one month. Even young audiences are still found in huge numbers on TV – in one week, TV still reaches over 86% of all 16-34s in the UK.

The key thing, especially for first time advertisers, is to realise that hero spots are key to maximising coverage, integrity and talkability, but then to take the next step and hone in on the audience on the second or third viewing to ensure you maximise the frequency.

Importantly, we must understand that frequency. At VCCP Media, we have sophisticated frequency mapping tools that enable us to determine the lowest and highest effective frequency for our ad, allowing us to ensure our ads our not only effective, but also not wasteful.

And finally, we have pedigree.

TV is generous. It gives brands a stamp of approval. When a brand is featured on TV, its audience knows that the product is genuine; it engenders trust and authority, something that is lacking in other mediums. Due to its audio/visual combination, TV is unique in delivering emotion – just another factor that enhances response.

TV, if implemented correctly can change the fortunes of brands dramatically, think Skoda, Morrisons, Marks and Spencer, Match, Magners, O2, BT, Sky and even Steve Jobs himself. In today’s modern world, TV’s power is at its peak. It is accessible and accountable and should be implemented at the earliest opportunity in a brand’s life.

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