Traditional Non-Advertisers Turn to TV to Reach New Customers
In a testament that television advertising is still highly relevant, a wave of new advertisers have recently started buying airtime for their ads. But these aren’t just new companies that are just starting out. They’re established brands that have made their names known both offline and online first, and are now recognizing they need a broader reach to continue to grow. And TV is there to deliver.
First up, outdoors sporting goods company Orvis is buying its first TV ad in its 163-year history. While Orvis has built its brand steadily through direct response marketing (including digital), the company acknowledges that it needs greater brand awareness to continue its 11 percent YoY growth. Called “The Great Awaits,” this new campaign is a full-throttle, multi-channel effort that includes TV and print (and digital, we presume).
This follows what many other direct-to-consumer brands born in the digital age have started doing. For example, the online marketplace Etsy aired its first TV ad last year:
And, as we discussed earlier this year, many direct to consumer brands are continuing to find success advertising on traditional broadcast outlets.
These brands couldn’t be jumping into TV at a better time. According to the Wall Street Journal, Viacom, CBS, and Fox are ramping up their efforts to provide advertisers with better targeting capabilities. Known as “addressable TV,” media outlets can sell advertising blocks that are targeted to households based on a variety of demographics, such as zip code, household size, etc. In other words, different ads can be delivered to two different households based on their demographics, even if they’re watching the same program. The technology even gives marketers the ability to test different versions of ads, with customized messaging based on the targeted demographics.
And although the addressable TV market is only about $2 billion, or about 3.7 percent of total TV ad spending, it’s expected to grow significantly by adding more inventory and more granular targeting options in the next year or two. But for most advertisers, that means that now’s a great time to test these platforms out. Targeting is generally more expensive, but potentially far more effective while still delivering significant reach.
If you’d like to make sure your ads are properly targeted and reaching the right audiences, we can help. Contact us to discuss how to more finely tune your ad buy to be the most effective and efficient it can be.