Undoubtedly, the digital revolution has been a boon to consumers. It’s opened up a world of information and entertainment that would have been unimaginable only a decade ago, and it has created a level of transparency around brands that would have been impossible to achieve before the advent of the Internet. Of course, this striking growth also brings problems.
For instance, as a result of the format’s explosive growth and maturity, many brands are now realizing that they need additional data and insights to fully understand the performance of their campaigns. The huge advantage of the digital ecosystem is that it allows marketers to test and learn, expanding where they are successful and decreasing spending where it underperforms, but the problem arises when brands lack the right tools to measure their activities.
The good news is there are plenty of ways to solve this measurement problem, and we're seeing brands get creative with how they use different types of data. However, measurement isn’t just about technology, it’s also about strategy and planning.
The taking place of new devices and platforms leads to magnifying shared pain points among firms of all sizes: cross-channel measurement. New platforms and devices offer an opportunity for new measurement for companies of all sizes. Just focusing on social media and searching may harm firms, but thinking about the next step in the consumer journey—and investing in it would be better. Given the heightened focus on return on investment (ROI), marketers need to measure across all of the channels they allocate funding to, no matter how small the allocation is.
According to a recent survey conducted by Nielsen, fewer than 20% of marketers feel confident in their ability to measure their return on investment. This illustrates a major disconnect between marketers’ main objective for the year—acquiring customers—and the tools they use to measure the success of core marketing tactics. If marketers are truly aiming to improve customer acquisition, they need to notice that every communication channel serves a purpose in the sales journey.
On this journey, TV is one of the biggest players and marketers shouldn’t discount the value of traditional TV. Importantly, adults 18-65, on average, still spend more than four hours each day watching live and time-shifted TV programming. It is not possible to ignore a medium where people spend so much time during the day. This makes TV not just a tool for mass reach, but also makes it a big part in the consumer journey.
