A Look at Global Converged TV Trends with TV Squared’s Jamie Lemle

 “The future is all about tying everything back to an audience,” noted Jamie Lemle, CMO of TVSquared. Her company has just released a first look at the global marketplace according to buy-side marketers in the U.S., UK, Germany and Australia, which also examined incremental reach in ad campaigns. In this interview she explains the methodology and the revealing results.

Charlene Weisler: Give me an overview of the methodology.

Jamie Lemle: In late August through September, TVSquared partnered with Advertiser Perceptions to survey 300 U.S. buy-side marketers. In September, TVSquared commissioned Dynata to survey more than 200 buy-side marketers per country in the UK, Germany and Australia. For the incremental reach analysis within the report, TVSquared analyzed 20 converged TV ad campaigns running in the ADvantage platform throughout 2021 (ad impressions across linear and streaming). The analysis included campaigns from a variety of advertisers across verticals, including retail, insurance, QSR, finance and education. This is the first year TVSquared conducted this study. We believe it’s the first of its kind, looking at global converged TV trends, ever done in the industry. 

Weisler: What are the takeaways?

Lemle: Globally, TV has transformed into a cross-platform, cross-channel ecosystem, with 75%+ of all respondents agreeing that TV is now defined as linear and steaming platforms. As a result, there is also a growing spotlight on the need to move away from legacy models and toward new currencies and processes. Again, globally, 70%+ believe that all forms of TV should be sold on impressions – a uniform, consistent way to count and ascribe value.

To support converged TV initiatives, the need for holistic, cross-platform measurement has never been greater, as advertisers look to reach audiences across a growing number of platforms. In the U.S., 89% of respondents said “holistically managing linear and streaming campaigns” was a top factor for investing in converged TV. Additionally, 86% cited the need to achieve cross-platform TV measurement and attribution as one of their current top priorities. 

Weisler: Were there any surprises?

Lemle: Buyers are breaking through silos that have long existed between digital and traditional TV advertising by approaching linear and streaming in a much more similar way than previously believed. In the U.S., we found that 40%+ of respondents are measuring linear and streaming for performance/outcomes weekly. And 10-15% are even doing it daily.

For linear, this is a change – having been long known for significant lag times and a lack of flexibility when it comes to insights. In fact, each week, 33% of marketers are optimizing linear campaigns for performance and optimizing linear creatives as well. These stats closely matched those for streaming at 35% and 31%, respectively.

This portion of the survey really shows two things. First, that marketers are proactively tying linear to performance metrics and making optimizations on that back of that. Second, that marketers want to bring linear and streaming more closely together and are now leveraging the available data to treat them in more similar ways. It is no longer just about “thinking about TV differently.” Rather, marketers are now acting on TV and altering their practices based on a converged marketplace.

Weisler: What is the most important metric?

Lemle: The most important metric(s) will be unique to each advertiser and their campaign goals. We did notice that “incremental reach” was consistently a top KPI for survey respondents across the globe. In the U.S., 43% of respondents said they were currently measuring it. We believe that stat will increase significantly in 2022 as streaming continues to play a bigger role for advertisers looking to reach fragmented audiences. As part of our report, we also analyzed 20 converged TV campaigns running through our ADvantage platform to illustrate the importance of understanding incremental reach. We discovered that, on average, 70% of audiences reached via streaming could not be reached with linear only. We also found that brands should be committing at least 10% of TV ad impressions to OTT/CTV to generate at least a 15% gain in reach. 

Weisler : Is it really possible to achieve a holistic measurement process?

Lemle: Yes; it’s possible and it’s happening. We see it every day with our clients as they embrace new technology and leverage the right datasets to achieve a consistent way of counting and ascribing value across all forms of TV. The data and technology are here. Now it’s about the industry embracing new metrics and platforms that make TV easier to buy, sell and measure. 

Weisler: Did the pandemic impact the results and if so how?

Lemle: The pandemic certainly accelerated a lot of the trends and momentum we’re seeing around converged TV. While we were heading in this direction prior to 2020, COVID-19 and the challenges it brought along with it for advertisers, sent this evolution into warp speed. With that, as the world moves back to normal (ish), we don’t see anything slowing down. The pandemic may have gotten us moving quickly, but we’re keeping that pace into 2022 and beyond.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com