In July 1969, all three UK television channels – BBC1, BBC2 and ITV – covered the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission. Only the BBC2 sections were broadcast in colour, full-colour television in Britain being a few months away.
For those of us not old enough to bear witness, one can only begin to imagine the wonder those transmissions must have had on awestruck viewers, peering with amazement at what was unfolding in the skies above.
Fast-forward 46 years and it seems almost implausible that despite TV’s enduring and almost transcendental ability to captivate an audience, the medium has, from a marketer’s perspective, been unable to reveal exactly who those viewers are. But as more media becomes digital, this is finally changing. The advances in TV measurement are symbolic of a wider fundamental shift transforming the industry.
Connected data transforming the industry
The giant leap here is connected data: the ability to connect household-level media exposure data, for instance TV viewing, directly to consumer behaviour – such as in-store purchases – securely, anonymously and at scale. It connects what people see and hear over time, directly to what they do.
By overlaying a balanced sample of viewers’ personal thoughts, motivations and how they feel about a brand or product, companies can begin to unlock the marketing holy grail: joining up what customers see, hear, feel, think and do.
These household-level connections have profound implications. Audiences become defined by their behaviour: for example, occasional buyers of fruit tea, rather than by age or gender. Out of store, these same audience segments can then be found watching their favourite channels and TV shows. Conversely, their exposure to advertising can be measured and assessed in-store, in granular detail.
As more addressable media channels become connected, a behavioural-led planning approach emerges, connecting brand and retail media, both offline and online. It allows for the natural selection of channels that the target consumer wishes to engage with, and can be found in.
This advance in understanding cause and effect challenges the fundamental way even traditional broadcast channels, such as linear TV, are considered. Everything becomes part of one giant customer relationship management (CRM) plan. Enriching a retailer CRM database with a brand’s own customer database makes this all the more powerful.
These common behavioural audience currencies – elderflower customers acquired, loyal green tea customers rewarded etc – are real metrics in a language a chief marketing officer (CMO) can report to the board. They knit together the entire marketing process, unlocking powerful patterns of insight to inform the right choices, not only in marketing, but wider business strategy too.
Most important, it offers the ability to create relevant and personalised experiences for people, in turn creating loyalty and trust for sustainable growth.
Real world application
So what kind of insights can we act on?
Whisper it quietly, but some of the interesting material is less real-time and more “about time”.
Connected data can reveal the critical weights and shape of TV advertising required in the living room to change behaviour in-store. Is it more efficient to be on air every week or every other week? This, in turn, informs how many TV campaigns the marketing budget could hope to support – an important decision for marketers with a portfolio of brand variants to balance.
Performance of niche communication forms such as TV sponsorship is exposed, and by overlaying in-store and promotional media data against those same customers exposed to media out of store, the optimal brand and retail marketing investment becomes clearer. With the right data partnerships, this customer-led blueprint is repeatable in any and every addressable channel, be it social, mobile or display, closing the loop between advertising impact and sales on the bottom line
The days of comfortingly vague briefs asking to “raise brand awareness among housewives” are disappearing. The days of briefs asking “please let our competitors’ peppermint tea buyers know that our mandarin orange and red berries flavour is now in store” have arrived.
A new approach for a new era
The way to tell consistent brand stories to diverse audiences and navigate an ever-increasing proliferation of channels is to move away from the channel and start with the customer.
Connected data helps brands reveal media pathways and emotional triggers around observable human behaviour, within the context of broader psychological learning, such as behavioural economics.
More than just the component of real-time, programmatic customer activation, connected data provides fuel for marketers to fuse the art with the science, creating powerful new data-driven strategies to take to a CEO.
It’s about building customer trust in a complex world, but for a media planner shackled by decades of claimed, disconnected and incomplete data, it feels a little like stepping on to the moon.
Adam Smith is head of media strategy at dunnhumby
To get weekly news analysis, job alerts and event notifications direct to your inbox,sign up free for Media Network membership.
All Guardian Media Network content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled “Brought to you by” – find out more here.
