While digital advertising has transformed the way marketers relate to their audiences, these learnings and insights can be applied to both digital and non-digital environments.
TV, for instance, has a huge influence on shopping trends and consumer inspiration.
Take Strictly Come Dancing for example, the first episode of last year’s series triggered a 34% increase in searches for “ballroom dress” on eBay.co.uk, and by the day of the final, searches for “ballroom shoes” had jumped a huge 163%.
Of course, brands can’t advertise directly on the BBC and prime time slots on other channels come with a hefty price tag.
But now, thanks to consumers’ increasing propensity towards second, or even third screening, digital marketing offers brands a complimentary route to target those audiences engaged on non-
commercial channels, such as the BBC.
Dual screening
The average home in the UK is now said to have nine connected devices and, as popular as TV is, it doesn’t always command the full attention of its viewers. 87% of us actively multi task, socialise and shop on a secondary device in front of the big screen*.
By using observed online data to understand how and when consumers are shopping, supplemented with inferred demographic insights, brands can quickly identify, and segment their audiences based on their viewing habits.
Take MasterChef as an example. If we were to see a surge in searches for Tefal cookware during a MasterChef episode featuring that brand, it’s a fair assumption that a lot of those consumers are dual-screening.
Pairing this knowledge with targeted advertising in real time, marketers can easily take advantage of the depth of opportunities presented by TV.
Real time advertising
We put this thinking to the test during last year’s final of The Great British Bake Off. With 13.4 million viewers, this was the UK’s biggest TV event since the 2014 World Cup final.
However its BBC broadcast meant, at first glance, minimal opportunities for advertisers.
Taking into account what we know about dual-screening shopping trends, we partnered with The Co-operative Electrical to run real time adverts to a targeted audience of shoppers browsing for baking items during the final episode.
The results were compelling. For the hour during the show itself, there was a massive 240% rise in searches for “Kenwood mixer”, and a 112% lift in searches for generic “food mixers” compared with the semi-final.
And this engagement continued after the show, with the following hour seeing a further increase of 40% in click through rate and 22% in interaction with the Co-operative Electrical’s campaign on eBay.co.uk.
We successfully proved that even while glued to the TV, baking fanatics were satisfying their shopping cravings.
Engaging with shoppers across secondary devices in line with their viewing habits allows marketers to reach them at their most purchase-ready moments, while harnessing the powerful influence of TV.
With the SuperBowl and a summer of sport on the horizon, event targeting should be top of every marketers “to do” list this year.
*Data sourced from: IAB Specific Media’s Multi Device Infographic
by Phuong Nguyen, director, eBay Advertising UK