Brands today are looking at a 360-degree channel approach to evaluate the efficacy of media to business. Empirically, marketers are now taking a closer look at the correlation of running an ad on TV to its effect on their web and mobile assets (including apps and direct-to-site), search, social, call centres and other sales channels. There is a halo effect, but the weighting needs consideration and appetite to test the scenarios.
In the past, when global studies were conducted between offline and online, results of being present on TV inspired a 30 per cent increase in search traffic on site. We know of an impact, and this time we went deeper.
Now, to take it a step further, we used Brand4mance, a unique market solution, to understand the impact of TV on e-commerce.
In order to enable this, a TV attribution methodology was used. This methodology allows advertisers to understand how TV drives measured online responses and to what extent. The unique proposition includes studying the impact of baseline and incrementality of digital traffic after TV runs. It’s not merely GRPs and online traffic on an insular basis, but its impact on a time-series basis through the day to understand which days, times, channels and spots were the most efficient. Therefore, just like real-time online optimisation is possible, so is TV channel and spot-optimisation-basis business impact also possible. That’s what we did with TV, search and social.
With our client, Pizza Hut, we put this hypothesis to the test.
TV plus digital in action proved the following:
- Conversion rate is 11 per cent higher for incremental visits to orders compared with baseline visits to orders. We saw more conversions in 10-15 mins after ad runs during meal times.
- TV brings in new users. The new user incremental (due to TV) visits share is 6 per cent higher compared with the baseline. The density of new users is 8 per cent higher when there are more spots.
- Payday is highly competitive. Friday payday generates 6 per cent higher response per spot than other Fridays across most markets.
- Creative diversity is vital. Creative language should be matched to demographics; English creatives generate 5 per cent higher response per spot compared with Arabic creatives, mainly driven by the UAE.
- Don’t underestimate repeat programmes. Big-name programmes take priority over other prime-time shows. Therefore, the repeat of shows on other channels has the chance to have a better performance despite lower ratings. Repeated programmes can generate 24 per cent
more responses per spot than the original airing. Note – don’t always think high budgets and
prime time; also think of popular shows in off-prime hours. Shows bring in affinity and eyeball-stickiness.
The direct results on Pizza Hut sales are noteworthy. And for the first time in MENA, TV and cross-channel performance was studied in unison.
- Digital breathes life into TV. TV boosted social performance; despite social impressions remaining unchanged during prime-time (6pm-11pm), engagement was up 4 per cent. Search click-through rates improve as the frequency of average daily spots increase;
mainly driven by brand keywords. - Combining offline and online is tried, tested and proven. TV’s conversion rate improved by 14 per cent when assisted by digital.
- TV aids brand health. Brand4mance boosted awareness by 34 per cent, and intent to order online on Pizza Hut’s website by 93 per cent. Brand4mance also offered a brand lift study
that is currently being conducted to understand brand impact on Pizza Hut users and non-users. - The key success metrics we used are business metrics and brand metrics.
Business metrics: conversion rate, order value, new users, etc., with comparison generated from TV (incremental) vs the baseline (non-TV).
Brand metrics: uplift in upper funnel (awareness, ad recall and others) and lower funnel (consideration, intent) for the TV exposed vs non-exposed.
We plan on rolling out this success across our clients with full online capability to validate its positive impact. It would be equally interesting
to study other categories across TV and digital applications. We recommend a fully integrated
plan to combine TV and digital on a permanent basis to accelerate performance when relevant.
A few other testable cases:
- Longer campaign period to measure the indirect impact of TV;
- Test offers: create localised offers, payday offers and seasonal offers;
- Include incrementality from call centre and aggregator business particular to this case.
In our experience, TV improved digital incrementality and performance on conversions. Usually an integrated discussion focuses on how TV aids digital on brand health. With the Pizza Hut case study, it also proves that digital assists TV’s performance; TV’s conversion rate improved by
14 per cent when assisted by digital.
The most important points for brands to keep in mind is TV performance cannot be compared to traditional TV planning. Brand4mance does not represent GRPs, reach and ratings. Additionally,
TV performance cannot be compared with digital performance. The metrics of success are the correlated impact of channels.
More brands in MENA must stand up to this test and change the way we think about TV alone, think about digital insularly and consult with clients on the totality of assisted impact. Only then are we at parity to command the global conversations on
this platform.
Ravi Rao, CEO of Group M MENA, says: “In the new era of digital, the complementarity of media, digital and TV, is a testament of how TV effectively produces real business results.”
Faisal Contractor, Head of Digital Marketing META at YUM! Pizza Hut, says: “Mindshare is a
true partner that understands the needs of our business and uses solutions to help us grow, and
we continue to see the innovative yet business-led mindset through our outcomes.
