Multiscreen advertising specialist WyWy has launched a new reporting suite that provides real-time data about how TV commercials impact traffic on websites and apps.
Called the TV Analytics Dashboard, the product is aimed at TV airtime planners and buyers, allowing them to adjust their campaigns mid-stream to optimise the results on clients’ online properties.
In the words of Fiona Smith, WyWy’s UK country manager, “this empowers real-time optimisation within TV.â€
Smith gives the example of a car manufacturer with an ongoing TV advertising campaign. “We can tell them which TV channel, program, and creative, is driving the most amount of site visits, test-drive brochure requests, or dealership locators,†she explains.
The new product exploits the same content recognition technology used in WyWy’s SearchSync platform, which detects the audio files of TV commercials as they air, triggering real-time bidding against relevant keywords on Google’s AdWords platform so that client ads show up on second-screen searches.
Wywy research shows that, as a general rule of thumb, 90% of website visits happen within a three-minute window after a TV ad’s airing.
The real-time element offered by the TV Analytics platform is significant since planned and actual airing times of commercial spots vary on average by at least five minutes. Accurate air-times can be determined retrospectively, but this data is often not available for several weeks.
Smith notes that broadcast TV advertising is not flexible enough at the moment to “shift budget from one broadcaster to the next†if the metrics suggest this is desirable, “but what we can shift is money from one creative to the next. So we’re working with creative agencies as well, so we can do A/B testing.â€
This might indicate say, that a side-shot of a car is better at driving conversions than a front-shot. Or, depending on the results, “they can shift budget from a 20 to a 40-second, or a 20-second to a 30-second commercial,†suggests Smith.
The dashboard can also provide data on how the TV ‘uplift’ effect varies according to the device used to access a client’s online property. “It gives you desktop data, mobile, tablet – we can even do in-app data as well,†notes Smith. “For someone like Domino’s, where 40% of the sales come from the actual app, this is so important to understand – which TV commercial is driving app installation and in-app purchases and how many pizzas, the basket size, etc.â€
WyWy is currently integrating programme data into the dashboard in addition to channel data, “so we will be able to say Coronation Street on Wednesday is driving more conversions than Coronation Street on Friday – so they’ll be able to shift spots within a broadcaster’s network, as well,†says Smith.
The results are not always intuitive, she points out, noting that Nissan had found out using the system that, in Italy, their best slot for encouraging online sign-ups for test-drives and brochure requests was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon rather than in evening prime-time.
One customer, German hearing-aid firm Audibene, found that comparing different channels’ performance showed that the cost per conversion varied by 70%: it also varied for different day-parts by 36%. In the first case, this meant that by targeting ads at the best-performing TV channel, it could receive 28% more conversions. Similarly, in the second case, by focusing on the best-performing day-parts, it could obtain 15% more conversions.
The new dashboard appears to be popular with WyWy’s clients. “We launched it two weeks ago, and we’ve already got five clients signed,†says Smith. “Ford have signed up in three markets, and Universal Pictures have signed up in four markets, so they can understand which commercial is driving ticket sales, which commercial is driving the viewership of trailer number two, and so on.â€
Smith concludes that, “We are for the first time ever holding TV accountable by digital metrics in real-time. Suddenly it’s forcing TV to work with digital and become more digital-minded. Connected planning – you hear it batted around so often, but it never really happens in practice. It’s making TV guys think very differently about how they plan and buy media.â€