“The year of addressable TV” is perhaps the most overused news headline of the last five years. (Admittedly, we’ve even used it ourselves.) Although the market has grown steadily, many hurdles — lack of inventory, lack of standardized measurement, technological complexity — have deterred advertisers from adopting this platform into their media strategy at the expected pace. But could this year actually be the one? All of the collaboration that’s consistently making the news, plus the perfect storm of changes to the TV industry caused by COVID-19, point to “yes.”
Many trends that were slowly taking hold in TV were accelerated over the last few months. Given the 10% year-over-year increase in linear TV viewing according to the IAB, in addition to all of the brand switching and category exploration driven by COVID-19, brands that want to move those trial buyers up the loyalty ladder would be wise to give addressable TV a try.
Earlier this year, one peanut butter brand set out with just this goal—to increase market share by conquesting new and lapsed buyers. Partnering with NCS and WarnerMedia, the manufacturer decided to give addressable TV advertising a shot to cut through the noise of a cluttered market and reach their target audience.
As the technological hurdles are overcome by new buying platforms and addressable TV starts to reach scalability, we expect more advertisers to turn to this platform in the second half of the year to offset decreased upfront commitments. See how it worked out for this peanut butter brand, and if it could be a good fit for your brand.