“It all comes back to KPIs,” noted Jill Siegel, Assistant
Vice President, Business Intelligence at Xandr, “what is
possible, how we can deliver and how we can best advise our clients.” Her team
recently released the second annual Relevance Report which leverages Xandr’s
unique cross-section position in the marketplace between consumer and
advertiser. “Because we already have the consumer connection and the content,
for us, it’s all about the best solution for everyone,” she explained.
According to
Seigel, Relevance is defined by meeting a consumer’s needs in a moment in time
and evoking an emotion. The combination of all three elements presents a
powerful pull on the engagement of the consumer with the ad, resulting in not
only more satisfaction for the consumer but also better results for the
advertiser.
2019 Study Objectives
This year’s study
presented an opportunity to solidify baselines that were established in the
previous study as well as gain a deeper understanding of relevance and consumer
trends. Seigel realized that, although “everyone is focused on what will be the
next innovative thing,” the study also needed to answer the basics:
Ø
What do we need to do to get consumer attention?
Ø
Does it have to be a six second ad that can transfer
across screens?
Ø
Is it something that takes over the entire
experience?
Ø
Is it something that needs a true one minute
experience?
Ø
What is the impact of an ad-free environment?
For the
consumers, 2,000 adults were polled across all age ranges in a representative
U.S. sample. “We wanted to see the age break differences. That was key to
understand what is coming next,” she explained. For the marketers “We were
evenly distributed across in-house agency brands and in-house marketers with $1
million+ in investments in any video.”
The study
focused on the convergence of digital and TV as the best solution for
advertisers, understanding that true convergence could happen within the next
two years. In this scenario, cross platform measurement will be critical to
answer questions, as posited by Seigel, “How do you count everyone who is
watching? How do you make sure that every impression counts?”
The Concept of Relevance
One big
takeaway was that, “it was not necessarily about the platform or about the ad
format. It was about the relevance of the ad itself.” She added, “At the end of
the day relevance is the key driver to how receptive consumers are to advertising.”
This is a pivotal finding because often, in the pursuit of innovation,
companies can lose sight of the importance of relevance as a connector to the
consumer. “It still needs to be a good experience for the consumer and connected
to their interests.”
The study also
found good news for advertisers. “Consumers are not anti-advertising or
pro-content,” she noted. “They are actually very receptive towards advertising,
especially because it underwrites their content experience. They know that is
what is supporting the content they like and that is how they are getting their
content at a subsidized cost. Advertising helps them.”
The Concept of Time
In addition
to relevance, “we were also fascinated by the concept of time and how the concept
of time has changed. We might possibly be at a peak point,” she revealed.
Nielsen has reported that viewers are spending over eleven hours a day with
media which is a small gain from last year. This may indicated a saturation
point as there are only so many hours in a day. “The reason we think that is
interesting is because we are maxing out and cannibalizing other time.” She
gave herself as an example. During her commute, she no longer listens to music.
Instead, she is listening to podcasts which “is a different way to reach me.”
2018 to 2019 Study Comparisons
Because the
media ecosystem seems to be transforming fairly rapidly, one might expect big
changes in the study results year to year. However Siegel found that, “for the
most part people are using the same products as they did in the past.” But this
year, the focus of the study shifted to platforms and formats, leading to
additional behavioral insights. “Last year was about taking the temperature,”
she explained, “this created our baseline for what was considered relevant and
understanding people’s engagement.”
Perhaps the real value of the study is its ability to parse
all of the important factors in consumer consideration. “It used to be all
about the creative. And that is huge because all consumers want great creative.
There are high expectations for high quality creative. But we are also finding
that the focus now is how to best target and audience. It’s not just about the
creative. It’s how to best reach their audience,” she concluded.
This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com
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