The Role of Television in the Modern Customer Journey

[A version of this post originally appeared in MediaVillage.)

Consumer behavior is always shifting with the introduction of new technologies, so how should today’s marketers think about TV?

To start, marketers should recognize that TV has adapted to be more relevant, targeted, measurable and flexible, with better return on ad spend than ever before. With TV driving real business impact by influencing consumers throughout their journey to purchase, those marketers who take advantage of the medium’s new capabilities will get an early start on a more effective and versatile branding instrument.

In our series on the customer journey we explored how TV has transformed from a broadcast medium – one traditionally considered for brand lift and share of voice – to something else: a data-driven medium capable of refreshing and reinforcing messages to specific segments, fostering loyalty and advocacy, educating during the research phase and selling products.

In this last post, we’ll illustrate how data drives results, especially when tapping TV’s emotional power, making it key to today’s media mix.

The Power of Digital + TV

Advanced TV uses datasets to reach consumers on the big screen at home as they research and set their buying criteria. TV indexing uses data science to find correlations in content and consumer interests so marketers can deliver specific messages to the segments most likely to buy. Sequencing messaging via email, digital display and Addressable TV instills brand loyalty. These approaches should be used across the consumer journey – in conjunction with digital tactics – to reach people at the right time with the right message.

A company selling an electric toothbrush, for instance, uses traditional broadcast TV to raise awareness, reaching a broad swath of the public, some of whom will not be interested in the product. Afterward, the toothbrush brand could use data to find consumers with a particular income who recently researched oral care products, then target them with Addressable TV ads that compare the toothbrush to competitors.

Next, a marketer could target ads further to those who appear likely to make a purchase and offer them incentives like a coupon or time-sensitive offer through e-mail or display banner ads.

TV’s Emotional Power

Today, TV is still the most emotionally potent medium – and emotional connection is vital to the customer-brand relationship. Indeed, Nielsen found that ads with a higher-than-average strong emotional connection prompt a 23% lift in sales.

And while other mediums compete for attention, TV is different. In fact, WARC research shows TV ads command twice the active viewing of YouTube and 15 times the active viewing of Facebook.

The main takeaway for marketers is that TV has evolved into a multifaceted tool that should be used to talk to consumers as they make their way through the customer journey. Because TV is digital-enabled and can share segments with digital, its tactics can be paired with digital by bringing more context, emotion, sight, sound and motion to the equation, creating a cadence of messaging that leads the consumer to brand loyalty.

Marketers can start testing now to see how taking advantage of TV’s full capabilities can boost their return on ad spend.

Read the intro to our customer journey series and check out the previous stage, Advocacy.