Today, traditional TV still accounts for the lion’s share of video viewing, and will likely continue to do so for a good while, but online and mobile are where the growth is. From fourth quarter 2012 to fourth-quarter 2013, the hours consumers spent watching online video grew 30 percent. When managed together, TV and digital hold the potential to drive real impact for advertisers—enabling them to maximize the customers they reach and/or reinforce key messaging across screens.
Not surprisingly, advertisers believe the integration of campaigns across multiple screens is important and will become even more so, but the effectiveness of these campaigns in maximizing results has been mixed. Specifically, a recent analysis of 45 campaigns measured by Nielsen Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings found that the vast majority of advertisers’ “integrated” TV and online campaigns did not achieve better results than if the TV and online advertising had been planned separately.
On average, these integrated campaigns reached only 7.6 percent of the intended audience via both TV and online. That result is little different than the completely random duplication (7.0 percent) that advertisers could expect if they had planned their campaign for each screen independently. This highlights a true missed opportunity.
Nielsen research shows that, with careful planning and execution based on more precise identification of their desired TV and online audiences, marketers can generate an average of 8 percent greater reach, or achieve significantly higher frequency, without spending more money or altering their mix of spend.
Return on investment is every marketer’s top priority for ad spending, and companies should be moving quickly to master the ability to claim the full synergies available between media. Those who crack the cross-platform advertising code the soonest will build an experience base that provides a significant edge over their competitors while also earning the greatest possible return on their advertising dollar.
For additional insights on this topic, click here to read the most recent edition in Nielsen’s What’s Next series, ”Unleashing the Power of Cross-Platform Advertising.”
