“Really Talk to Me” – A+E Networks Examines the Potential of Total Audience.

In a media world that has historically (and misguidedly) placed its valuation on the younger age demographic, it is refreshing to see a new effort to correct for that inaccuracy by showing the value of all consumers, no matter their age. A+E has embarked on an ambitious study on Total Audience 18+ that demonstrates the power of consumer spend across all age groups, particularly older adults.   

To craft such an important analysis, Marcela Tabares, Senior Vice President, Research & Strategic Insights, A+E Networks, sought data and trends from many sources and parsed the results in a way that compared behaviors across a range of ages. “We didn’t set out to do one specific study. There were a couple of different components,” she explained. “One aspect of it is that we designed it across mutually exclusive demographics like 18-44, 45-54 and 55+. The reason we did this is because we really never dug into the data and analytics to understand how the different demographic cohorts perform across the funnel.”

Total Audience Methodology

“We looked at top level awareness and receptivity down to understanding their economic power and how they’re spending across all of the consumer verticals, ad receptivity and down to the conversion. How are they actually responding to advertising, are there some differences there, what is the real magnitude and opportunity within these different age cohorts. We really wanted to understand it,” Tabares noted, “to maximize the potential of our audiences and optimizer the relationship we have with our partners.”  To that end, Tabares and her team, “Applied an integrative, multimodal research strategy to quantify how key demo cohorts within Adults 18+ behave in the marketing landscape.”

Why Total Audience?

We know that the U.S. population is aging. Older adults are the fastest growing group in the last decade and projected to be in the next decade. “Ignore this demographic group at your own peril. You need to stop being so myopic in thinking about your marketing strategy and set aside your fascination with youth culture,” Tabares warned.

To many who have grappled with how to demonstrate the value of reaching older adults to advertisers, the study revealed some fascinating surprises in addition to some fairly logical insights. Using A+E’s Precision and Performance platform for advanced targeting and data driven linear analyses as well as an attribution backend, David Ernst, Vice President, Advanced Television and Digital Analytics, noticed that, “a large portion of the people that were outside of the buying demographics tended to contribute an awful lot of the performance – as much as 50% and even more.” These older prospects, Tabares explained, were being left out of the buying equation, “because they were being narrowed down into specific demographic groups.”

Total Audience Takeaways

The results of the Total Audience study underscore the value of the return on investment when you expand the age target to include all adults. There were quite a few surprising results. For example, ad receptivity was higher among older adults than among younger ones. “Really? Their recall and attention and greater message memorability and likeability?” Tabares asked rhetorically. Notably, she added, these behaviors and responses increase with each examined age cohort and ranges of consumer categories.

Tara Lantieri, Senior Director, Primary Research, Ad Sales Strategic Insights, A+E Networks delved deeply into this subject by researching a year’s worth of data that included 20,000 different TV ads from over 1600 advertisers and more than 50 categories. “What we saw was that brand memorability actually grows as viewers age. It’s twice as high for adults 55+ versus 18-34 year olds. When we look at message memorability, we see the exact same pattern where it is twice as high. Likeability follows that same, step-wise pattern where it grows by age. It’s about 71% higher overall than it is for younger adults. And that pattern is consistent across categories – 47 out of 58 examined,” she revealed.

With advertising creative, Lantieri found that multi-generational ads did particularly well among adults across the age spectrum. In some cases these ads performed twice as high in memorability and likeability metrics among older adults because they were viewed as respectful and realistic and non-stereotypical. In addition, ensemble cast ads also did especially well, “when the ensemble cast specifically included and spoke to people who are older in a realistic and nuanced way,” she said.

Aliza Wechsler, Director, Advanced Advertising and Attribution Analytics, A+E Networks, examined actual campaigns across several categories to ascertain the impact on conversion when advertisers crafted messaging that was more inclusive across age. With CPG for example, Wechsler found that 55+ represents 53% of the spend - $200 million more than the other two demo breaks combined. Auto showed similar results. “This shows the huge spending power of 55+. When you add their scale, it magnifies their potential. And they are not even being spoken to correctly. Imagine how much more of their dollars you can get if you spoke to them correctly,” she noted.

Conversion rates were also impressive. “Strategically targeting across all demos, lifts the conversion rates up unilaterally across all of the demographics. Purchase rates in our network group were 11% higher when you targeted those particular behaviors than those who fell outside of the (demo) target,” she found.

What About Advertisers?

“Adults 55+ are driving economic growth,” Lantieri stated, “For every dollar spent in the economy, Adults 55+ account for 41 cents and they spent $3.4 trillion last year alone,” with their spending increasing and currently representing 41% of spend. This compares with 18% of spend from 18-34s. If you are ignoring older adults, “You are leaving a lot of money on the table.” One would think that targeting older adults in a way that resonates with them would be a no-brainer.

But the old canard that advertisers get 55+ viewers anyway persists. “What does it mean to, ‘get them’?  This is not a monolithic demographic. This is a very diverse demo with diverse interests, appetites, behaviors. They (advertisers) are not optimizing them as a consumer prospect, mindset, interest, behavior. You are just getting them demographically,” Tabares explained with Ernst adding, “You might be getting an impression but are you really communicating with them?  Messages that resonate with people are going to motivate them to action.”

Changing advertiser minds when faced with entrenched beliefs is no mean feat but Peter Olsen, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, A+E Networks, sees opportunity. “Total audience buying is starting to gain traction with the agencies. They seem to come around quicker as they see market realities and there’s no way to control CPM inflation without it,” he shared. 

Have advertising partners changed their target because of the results? “This research study is just one of the building blocks of selling Total Audience, it rolls up into a larger conversation with many different tentacles,” Olsen explained and added, ”The right combination of education and our creative solutions has led to a few instances where our partners have gone back to reevaluate their target. We now have a few attention guarantee deals in the works with clients across a variety of categories.”

Next Steps

Tabares is hopeful that, “although age is still left out of the conversation,” and older audiences, “are not being spoken to correctly,” there is a real opportunity here to change the dynamic. “If we see that ad receptivity looks like this, that they have the spending power across the majority of categories and that they are responding to advertising with sales, what would happen if you actually talked to them in a more meaningful, relevant way?” she asked.

Next steps in this process will include a major ethnographic and psychological insights study that more fully dimensionalize and “get into the layers of what representation means,” to this audience. “Now is a very different time to examine values, beliefs, aspirations, attitudes, mindsets and engagement in brands and how we can tell their stories,” she concluded. 

 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Revenge, Confusion and Kumbayah at the TV of Tomorrow 2019 Conference

Between ATSC 3.0, Addressability, live programming such as news and sports and OTT, this year’s NYC TV of Tomorrow conference offered a great sense of anticipation regarding the future of media. From when I first attended the conference in 2012, the ecosystem has gone through a series of seismic changes, lurching forward in one area and contracting in another. Recall the first rumblings of Addressable? Now it is reaching critical mass. Remember 3D TV? Yeah, neither do I. This year, the prognosticators report the following:

Revenge of the Nerds

There is more data than ever which leads to much more complexity in how it is used. “There is a greater need for examining multiple data sources, rather than simply relying on one or two” stated Helen Katz, Senior Vice President and Director Global Analytics and Insights, Publicis. “Given the increased complexity in consumers’ media and purchase behavior over the past five years, buyers and sellers both need to look to more granular data to do their jobs effectively.”

To that end, Julian Zilberbrand Executive Vice President Audience Science, Viacom/CBS, got it right when he said, “If you don’t have your nerds, you’re dead.” Arming your company with the best talent in data science, research and analytics is a must to compete in this ever complex media ecosystem. I have been in the nerd sector of the industry for decades so this evolution in industry attitude is very welcome.

We Are All Confused

As frenetic and confusing as the change is for those who work in media, the world is equally so for the consumer. “There is consumer confusion about how to access content,” stated Julie DeTraglia, Head of Research, Hulu. “We went into homes and found that people don’t understand their own TV sets.” Natasha Hritzuk, Vice President Consumer Insights, WarnerMedia, added, “It is a challenge for consumers. People feel overwhelmed. They have to grapple with the device proliferation and the choice of content.”

Part of the confusion on the media side is the changing ways to do business. “The rules we grew up with are antiquated,” stated Peter Olsen, Executive Vice President Ad Sales, A+E Networks, “It was good when we started because TV didn’t have to sell itself,” but now there is more competition. And even current business rules are not as simple as we may think. Take, for example, calculating attribution. “When I view engaging content, I won’t switch to buy something. I will wait,” explained Radha Subramanyam, President and Chief Research and Analytics Officer, Viacom/CBS. “Half of TV impressions are not counted because they are time shifted. Tons of clients do attribution around live. But no one will stop in the middle of a great program to buy something, especially something expensive.”

A Media Kumbayah

For the first time in our history, there has been a partnering of not only frenemy companies who compete on the same side of the business but also those who compete across the negotiation table. Programmers, networks and content distributors are forming working open partnerships with agencies, brands and advertisers. This cross industry collaboration is a welcome advancement where agreed upon solutions can be facilitated and moved more quickly into market.

David Ernst, Vice President, Advanced TV and Digital Insights, A+E Networks, explained that, “We offer insights as to how well campaigns on our networks are driving results, driving KPIs, drive to the web or retail location. What is changing is the dynamic of media seller and buyer. Once at odds, we are now all in same boat. There is more collaboration with agencies.” Olsen is, “confident in the bigger picture that TV works and we need to get there fast. It will take a couple of years but when we put our heads together we find many solutions.”

Be Careful of Simple Solutions

To mitigate this confusion, there may be a temptation to enforce simple standardizable solutions. But this lack of nuance would be a mistake. Collecting all content into an app, for example, aggregates content from many properties which can be good but, recalling her past experience in CPG research, Hritzuk warned that, “We are on a point of inflection to become commoditized. I worry about commoditization of inventory.”

Bringing different datasets together can solve for the deficiencies in each. Tom Ziangus, Senior Vice President Research, AMC Networks, noted, “There is a level of granularity that we don’t have with Nielsen but a level of information on Individual viewers from Nielsen that we don’t have from big data,” he explained. However, bringing different datasets together is complicated. “We need to ‘de-babelize’ the dataset [into one common language],” noted Jonathan Steuer, Chief Research Officer, Omnicom, “Or we can’t have same buying and selling combinations.” For Andrew Ward, President, Ampersand, the industry should, “move away from panel survey-based to deterministic.”

Remember too that we are not always seeking the same solutions. “PlutoTV is free so we are not competing for money but competing for time. People feel overwhelmed and confused over places to watch things. For many, Pluto is easy, like turning the TV on. We are not trying to get dollars out of people’s pockets. We are competing differently,” explained Colleen Fahey-Rush, Executive Vice President, Chief Research Officer, Viacom.

For Katz, she believes the industry will eventually come together to create a common data platform that incorporates data from multiple sources. How soon that will happen remains to be seen. Stay tuned for TVOT 2020.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Attribution Accelerator - What to Expect?

The annual Attribution Accelerator conference is gearing up for record attendance next week. What can we expect? What have been the advancements over the past twelve months? Sequent Partners who are the event organizers created the Attribution Accelerator three years ago because they realized that the industry lacked a forum that focused solely on attribution. Attribution has become a much bigger issue for cross-platform measurement. There is still a lack of transparency and, as of yet, no industry standard approach. 

“Our event helps the industry get smarter about attribution, by shedding light and providing guidance, as well as encouraging best practices and development in the necessary areas,” stated Jim Spaeth, Partner, Sequent Partners.

This year, the conference will discuss how attribution is impacting activation and helping marketers manage ROI rather than measure it.  Panels will address how brands are represented in attribution, technical innovations (such as AI), creating a unified model with marketing mix models and how attribution is impacting television optimization. 

Panels to Watch

The ARF is heading a panel called, “Innovation - What’s Next and Will We Love It?,” which will explore what they have learned on the innovation frontier and how the latest developments can drive greater business performance, with a look into the future. According to Scott McDonald, President and CEO, The ARF, “Some of the topics we will discuss include: how AI can be used effectively to solve attribution problems, how precision targeting and unified modeling can improve, and the move from the lab to broad implementation in the real world. We will also examine whether to build or buy when it comes to innovation and how to build an appetite for risky innovation in a risk-averse corporate culture.”

Leslie Wood, Chief Research Officer, Nielsen Catalina Solutions, explained that her panel will cover a recent Nielsen study titled, How to Build Brands which “is our most ambitious research project to date, generating 6 billion rows of data for 50 CPG brands. One of the key learnings is that there is often a  disconnect between the intent of the creative message and the resulting purchase behavior of the audience. Advertising to consumers who don’t respond, wastes your media dollars. Advertising to the right consumers drives sales and growth.”

The importance of attribution cannot be underestimated. David Ernst, Vice President, Advanced Television and Digital Analytics, A+E, noted, “Most advertisers know that TV is a powerful, brand-building medium.  But now, through the use of large data sets and advanced analytics, we can demonstrate its true effectiveness by having a more precise understanding of how and where it works best.”  In his session, he discusses how attribution has the potential to change the dynamics of the television marketplace and why more clients are looking to attribution to get specifics about their goals, what they’re trying to accomplish, and make sure that campaigns deliver on their promise. He will also share his perspective on where attribution is headed going into the future and how they will approach the marketplace in exciting new ways.

“Attribution is continuing to gain traction in the marketing community, with new applications available to demonstrate the productivity of Television. It’s use is evolving from providing insights to delivering very specific analyses regarding the effectiveness of Networks, Dayparts and even programs. This is enabling us to have conversations with clients about productivity and expectations for individual campaigns on our networks,” he concluded.

 “Media companies like CBS are ready, willing and able to partner with their clients on measuring outcomes,” says Radha Subramanyam, Chief Research and Analytics Officer, CBS.  “At the same time, we are in a time of transition when it comes to attribution.  While there are lots of options today, TV attribution still remains an emerging and evolving field with no clear leader to date.  The good news is that early efforts by multiple companies all prove the same thing.  TV advertising works incredibly well.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

A+E Proves the Ability to Measure Multi-Touch Attribution

Attribution is getting much closer to a standardizable measurement capability with the announcement by Data Plus Math of The Attribution Council (previously known as Thor). Nine broadcast and cable networks have signed on so far and testing has begun. 

While the name may still evolve, one network that has made solid strides in quantifying attribution for advertisers using this protocol is A+E Networks. Marcela Tabares, Senior Vice President, Strategic Insights, Revenue, and David Ernst, Vice President, Advanced Television & Digital Analytics (pictured above), presented an initial test campaign to MediaVillage, showing proof of the efficacy of television as a driver of all attributes of the consumer journey to purchase.

The Issue and Opportunity with TV
Despite the growing range of device and viewing options, television remains the dominant form of content consumption. "Traditional TV impacts video viewing," noted Tabares. "TV's average weekly reach of all adults is 88%. Americans spend a significant amount of time with television 1911 hours, which is 80 days of their lives in an average year."

But TV doesn't always get the love. "Clients know TV works but it has lost its cool factor," explained Brian Joyce, Senior Vice President, Ad Sales, A+E Networks. Despite its perception challenge compared to digital, television is not only very relevant but pivotal to an ad campaign to drive higher emotional connection, greater attention and stronger ad recall and purchase intent among viewers. Previous studies by the Council for Research Excellence on attention to ads, by the ARF on the kicker effect of TV and by the IAB on cross media effectiveness attest to TV's strong connection to consumers. Now, through the use of Data Plus Math, TV's attributional strength to drive metrics across the purchase funnel can not only be measured and quantified, it can also be compared and standardized.

A+E results show that the inclusion of television in a buy, "lifts in brand familiarity, purchase intent, brand opinion and recommendation increases awareness, attention and engagement; enhances the brand effect drives effectiveness of other media, and motivates consumers to action and brand sales," concluded Tabares.

Proving Television's Attribution Prowess
The main purpose of A+E's study was to confirm television's attribution strength. "Many previous attribution models are based on the last click," noted Ernst. "But this distorts the way effectiveness is judged. TV can drive sales on its own." The study in multi-touch attribution offers full transparency and proof of performance and therefore a fairer method of measurement. Unlike digital, which grades its own homework, this is a way for TV networks to join with an independent organization and work with all cable and broadcast participants to arrive at one measure across multiple partners. Data Plus Math also enables customization based on advertiser relationships and certain first and third-party datasets.

"We are very interested in talking to clients that have grown up in a digital-only marketing environment," explained Peter Olsen, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, A+E Networks. "Perhaps they have trepidation with regard to getting into the TV market. We aim to become a first TV partner using this attribution model to help prove the effectiveness of their investment."

How it Works
According to Ernst, Data Plus Math attribution uses viewing data through Vizio, mapping data with Acxiom or Experian to measure outcomes including the digital conversation, store visits and actual purchases using geolocation and actual first and third party data. All of that is "passively collected using ACR and is anonymized so there is no personally identifiable information," he noted. "Results are then matched on a one-to-one basis using Smart TV and STB data for 10 million plus units," he added, which enables analysis on a network, program, genre and network by daypart levels. In fact, this also allows advertisers to measure the true impact of their creative by day of the week and how that impacts the overall campaign.

The example shown for a quick service restaurant revealed the best advertising message fit to drive more consumers into the store. In this case, television drove incremental store traffic by over seven percent among those that had seen ads for the brand, while response among those viewing A+E Networks was even higher. The analysis was able to prove that incremental traffic was driven more on certain days (Thursday and Friday) and in specific dayparts (weekend and late night). The advertiser is able to then retool their marketing plan to retarget the most responsive viewers in the next planning cycle taking advantage of the effectiveness of A+E.

"We want to see more case studies to discern the patterns across categories and executions and then make recommendations in real time in confidence," Tabares said. "In addition, we want to look at the overall effect of one network over another and dig deeper to find differences by day of week or time periods." The future will also bring more digital ethnography into the analysis to provide more consumer behavioral insights to the impressions that Data Plus Math delivers.

"We know television advertising works better than any other medium in driving not just upper funnel metrics like awareness but lower funnel metrics as well," noted Olsen. "Now, we finally have a tool that can prove it. We are thrilled to be rolling this out in this Upfront market and look forward to partnering with clients that are interested in this space. Clients are being pressed to provide more proof that every penny spent in marketing drives specific outcomes. We have listened, and we believe this product helps give them what they need to keep premium video as the centerpiece of their marketing plans."

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com