Today as always, every company must carefully study its markets, decide where to allocate its media budget, and measure the performance of its campaigns. But the time window to do those things has compressed considerably. Consumers are more volatile. Competition is stiff. New channels keep emerging, and economic conditions change faster and are harder to predict. 

That’s why it’s so crucial for marketers to use the right data to guide their spending decisions. And one set of data that often gets overlooked in media planning is competitive advertising intelligence: reliable, granular data that comes from monitoring detailed ad spend from all the major players—industry by industry, country by country, month after month. The insights can be invaluable to inform strategy, identify new opportunities and outmaneuver rivals.

Let’s review ad spending trends across the five largest product categories around the world.

Ad spending trends by category

The holiday season is the busiest spending time for nearly all of the five largest. The data supports the general consensus that if there’s a time to advertise, it’s in November and December, when consumers do the bulk of their holiday shopping. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t run any advertising the rest of the year. 

There are sales to support throughout the year, of course, as well as long-term brand building efforts. Drafting off the heights of November and December, October is proving to be an equally valuable month. This is when spending was at its highest last year for internet service providers (like Netflix, Google, and Virgin Media), professional services (like law, accounting and  IT consulting), and the auto sector. 

Of the top five categories, the two with the largest investments shifts month to month are auto and multi-product retailers. Auto sector spend tends to be at its lowest in August and, in addition to the holiday season push, has a consistent bump in March. Whereas in the retail category, spend is relatively low with spikes during the holidays and between March and May. 

Now let’s explore how these trends shift when you drill down to the country level. 

Ad spending trends by country

When digging into investment trends at the country level, we see just how much product categories differ. For example, between 2021 and 2023,  Internet Service Providers spent considerably more in Mexico and a notably smaller amount in Italy, especially when compared to other European countries. Broadcasters, on the other hand, spent more in Indonesia, and the bulk of investment for the Calling Services and Networks category was in the U.K.  

Why is it important to know when spikes and drops in ad spending tend to occur in your industry and how it shifts across countries? Because you don’t want to ignore critical time periods when your consumers are out shopping, but also because you might be able to find off-peak opportunities to stand out, perhaps in a different market, on a different channel and at a better CPM. Whether you ultimately decide to go with or against the flow, you’re better armed with a full understanding of your competitors’ activity.

What these trends mean for marketers

There are two important takeaways. One is that media markets around the world are at various stages of development, and there’s no assurance that they will converge to a single picture anytime soon. Are you investing in the right markets at the right time? Are your campaigns set up to cut through the noise or capitalize on your competitor’s inactivity? There’s no need to make fatal assumptions when these insights (and more) are available.

The second is that with the right data intelligence partner, you can dive in and learn what your local competitors’ favorite channels are or what their creative sounds like, much like we showed across category spending peaks at the country level. This can help you find holes in their positions and optimize your own media strategy.

Learn more about our ad intel solutions and how they can help you stay ahead of the competition.

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Advertising in the age of Convergent TV

TV is top of mind for many of us as we head into the official Upfronts/NewFronts season. But is there a common understanding of what “watching TV” means anymore?

With every new channel that arises, new screen that gains ubiquity or new micro-generation that ages into the consumer spotlight, our collective grasp on what TV is shifts. The once-crisp lines between linear and streaming have blurred, and it could end up being a best case scenario for everyone. Welcome to the world of Convergent TV. 

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

There’s a phrase I’ve heard kicked around before, most recently at the CIMM East conference, that’s stuck with me: TV isn’t going anywhere, it’s going everywhere.

Is YouTube TV? What about FAST channels, or shows you watch on a phone? Definitions change depending on who you talk to, and I’m starting to wonder if it even matters. For advertisers, the important question—now and forever— is where the audience is. Increasingly, it’s multiple places at once. “Television” is no longer confined to tidy channels and specific screens, it’s all of the above. And this flexibility is creating incredible opportunities.  

It also means that broadcasters and publishers aren’t just competing with themselves for audience attention. Now they’re up against the entire digital ecosystem. It’s taken some time, but the industry is starting to catch up with where audiences have already been, which means it can truly start capitalizing on it.

Live TV moments can reach even larger audiences when those audiences have more choice in how they watch them. Imagine what new formats can be created now that users can actively engage with TV ads. And with the introduction of so many new data sources, we’re able to plan and measure well beyond the standard demos to build truly resonant, scalable campaigns.  

Of course, all of this requires a reconsideration of the entire campaign process —not just measurement but planning and optimization, too.

The Power of Planning

Lately, marketers have been asking themselves if planning is dead. I don’t think so, but the way many of us were taught to plan probably needs to. 

Media plans are developed at the channel level, and even the vendor level, because that’s where the data is. This makes things nearly impossible to scale. Add to that a continuous trend of new, buzzy and sticky platforms forcing marketers to reconsider or even overhaul their plans, yet again. And it’s not just buying that gets upended. The metrics, insights and performance also get caught up in channel-specific siloes and the audience’s actual user experience gets lost in the mix.

This doesn’t negate planning’s importance, it highlights it. Audience behaviors are changing faster than the industry can keep up. Doubling down on planning helps you get ahead of that change and use it to your advantage. 

If you plan in silos, your ROI will remain in silos. And any understanding of your campaign’s true impact goes out the window. Optimizing needs to happen constantly and holistically, which means planning is a continuous, cross-media exercise built on reliable data. 

Great Decisions Depend on Great Data

Ultimately, success in this new media ecosystem will hinge on data. And not all data is created equally. 

As an advertiser, you’re going to stand in front of bosses and stakeholders and say this plan is going to deliver this result. To do so confidently, you have to trust your data. And to get trusted and stable data, I’ve learned that there are two non-negotiables: 

Your data must be cross-channel 
If you want to scale without losing accuracy, your measurement must work across channels, be resilient against regulatory/privacy concerns, and give you the full, deduplicated picture of your audience and their consumption habits. To pull that off, you need big data sets that are calibrated by panels.

Your data must be independent 
Measurement solutions need to be platform and publisher agnostic. That’s the only way they’ll be truly interoperable and able to look across all channels. It’s also how you’ll be able to ensure transparency, accuracy and trust that the decisions you’re making are based on facts.

TV is converging and faster than any of us may have thought possible. To keep up, marketers need to reframe what TV means, double down on continuous planning and optimization, and ensure the data that’s fueling their strategies can scale and adapt without losing accuracy. The change may be big, but the wins will be bigger.

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While the lines between these two environments are blurring, they currently exist independent from one another, which means that marketers need to understand how each is structured and evolving so they can best navigate the intricacies to best capitalize on the promise of personalization.

The digital advertising ecosystem is fundamentally different for CTV than it is for other platforms.

• In browser-based digital media, marketers have used third-party cookies for audience-specific digital engagement for more than 20 years. Now, as the industry moves away from cookies, Nielsen is prepared to use other identifiers such as hashed emails (HEMs) or any other ubiquitous identifiers that the industry uses, as there is no single universal identifier that the ecosystem has adopted that is a true replacement for cookies. Nielsen is recommending the use of HEMs for digital measurement as it is a non-proprietary identifier that can be generated without integrating with other third-party systems.
• In video-based CTV, marketers use a combination of first-party identifiers, unique device IDs and/or household IP addresses for audience-specific advertising.

While complex and evolving, these environments become significantly more navigable for marketers when they have person-based measurement data to tap into for their campaign efforts.

Foundational differences aside, traditional digital media and CTV are similar in that they offer the same value proposition to marketers: a direct means of communicating with specific audiences. While many throughout the industry expected media spending across traditional digital channels to decline as cookies become obsolete and access to mobile identifiers becomes more difficult, a custom survey² fielded by Nielsen ahead of the 2024 Upfronts/NewFronts season found that advertisers and agencies expect their digital allocations to outpace those across CTV and streaming.

Given the recessionary environment, total ad spending in the U.S. was down in 2023 on a year-over-year basis, but marketers did increase their allocations in select channels to navigate the unsettled environment, including business-to-business, local magazines, local radio, regional cinema, network radio and streaming³. And generally speaking, marketers pulled back less (on a percentage basis) across digital channels than they did across traditional mass reach channels like network and cable TV.

Media allocations are following audience engagement

The increased shift to digital channels highlights marketers’ desire to follow media consumption trends, while simultaneously leveraging technology to bridge more meaningful relationships with audiences. From a digital engagement perspective, CTV now reaches 74% of U.S. TV homes⁴, 84.1% of TV homes have access to a subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service⁵ and U.S. audiences spend nearly four hours each day with their digital devices⁵. 

Despite understanding how audiences are spending their time with traditional digital media and CTV, we know that the emergence of new media channels adds to the measurement needs of marketers. Nielsen’s 2023 Annual Marketing Report found that 62% of global marketers rely on multiple tools for their cross-measurement, and 14% use four or five.

Findings from our 2024 Upfront/NewFront survey support these findings, as 26% of advertiser/agency respondents say that relying on multiple solutions to measure across channels is their top challenge. Additionally, 41% say that a lack of transparency into audience data is among their top two biggest cross-media measurement challenges.

With a lack of clear insight into their audiences, it’s not surprising that 51% of respondents say they’re concerned that their cross-media campaigns are being delivered to their intended audiences, which has a ripple effect with respect to evaluating cross-channel campaign effectiveness. 

Advertisers remain largely dependent on third-party cookies

In web-based environments, Google has stated it plans to deprecate third-party cookies by the end of 2024. While companies like Nielsen have developed technology to match data with HEMs and other identifiers, the digital ecosystem needs to evolve to a point where HEMs and/or alternate identifiers become ubiquitous.

To date, despite the imminent demise of third-party cookies, advertisers remain dependent on them. A recent report from supply chain platform 33Across, for example, found that advertisers throughout the second half of 2023 invested the vast majority of their programmatic spending with the aid of cookies. Retail and insurance brands have made the most progress in moving away from cookies, but still used cookies for 74% and 76% of their programmatic spending, respectively. Food and drink brands are at the other end of the spectrum, with 87% of their programmatic spending dependent on cookies.

With the clock ticking for the ultimate demise of the third-party cookie, it’s critical that brands begin capturing email addresses for use in HEMs and/or alternate identifiers. It’s also important for identity providers to begin passing email addresses in addition to device identifiers. With this information, providers like Nielsen can ingest the necessary data to measure the impact of targeted marketing campaigns in the absence of third-party cookies. 

Staying personal amid the rise of CTV

Unlike in web-based environments, programmatic ad delivery in CTV has never been dependent on third-party cookies. The scaled and addressable advertising ecosystem developing in CTV is based on connections between first-party IDs and IP addresses. Here, the first-party IDs replace cookies.     

In terms of ad spend, GroupM notes that CTV is where all the upside in TV resides, forecasting compound annual growth of 9.5% to $45.8 billion in 2028. From an advertiser and agency perspective, CTV is not as well positioned to deliver on their primary KPIs as online video and online display advertising.

Clarity into the audiences engaging the CTV content is paramount in helping brands best understand how to engage with relevant viewers. And just as in traditional web-based environments, data within CTV is growing increasingly privacy-focused. 

That’s where having person-based panel data as a truth set amid growing big data sources is critical. Nielsen’s big data set, for example, includes 45 million households and covers 75 million devices. When backstopped by a gold-standard panel composed of more than 101,000 individual people, measurement offers the combination of scale, coverage and granularity, all of which are critical for advertisers and agencies seeking to stay connected with specific audiences as the media landscape evolves.

Sources

¹CTV refers to any television that is connected to the internet. The most common use case is to stream video content.
²Custom survey conducted online between Oct. 9 and Oct. 23, 2023. Survey respondents included 250 marketing professionals with responsibility for media planning, media strategy and media buying.
³Nielsen Ad Intel; January-September 2022-2023 YOY comparison.
⁴Nielsen National TV Panel; Q3 2023
⁵Nielsen National TV Panel; February 2024

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Webinar

CTV Strategies: What media buyers need to know in 2024

Tune in for a conversation with Nielsen and the 4A’s that tackles the most pressing CTV challenges and opportunities that media strategists care about. 

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Webinar

CTV Strategies

What media buyers need to know in 2024

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Learn more about…

Overcoming CTV’s measurement and attribution challenges

Balancing quality and scale with CTV inventory

Capitalizing on the converging media landscape  

8%

Weekly reach of CTV devices is growing at an average rate of 8% YoY across virtually every segment.



(Source: Nielsen’s 2024 Upfronts/NewFronts Guide)

$43.5B

CTV ad spend is projected to grow to $43.5B by 2026, more than double spend in 2022. (source: Insider Intelligence)

(Source: Insider Intelligence)

53%

Of global marketers plan to increase their CTV spend in 2024 [Source: 2024 Nielsen global marketer survey]

(Source: 2024 Nielsen global marketer survey)

More resources

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Case study

Southeast Asia: CPG Marketing Mix Modeling Meta Analysis

Nielsen + TikTok: MMM accurately measures the impact of TikTok advertising

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Case study

Southeast Asia: CPG Marketing Mix Modeling Meta Analysis

Nielsen + TikTok: MMM accurately measures the impact of TikTok advertising

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Introduction

Measure the full funnel impact of TikTok advertising

TikTok, a global entertainment platform, captures the attention of users across Southeast Asia. With its full-screen, sound-on video formats, it has led to an explosion in users and time spent with the platform across the region.

With Nielsen’s Marketing Mix Modeling solution, TikTok explored the full funnel impact of its advertising campaigns across the lower funnel (sales), middle funnel (purchase intent) and upper funnel (brand awareness).

Objective

Quantify effectiveness and return on advertising spend (ROAS) of TikTok activities

The objective was to evaluate the overall value of TikTok, including its short- and long-term impact on advertising formats, brand equity metrics, synergy with other advertising channels, and effectiveness of diverse creative advertising.

Challenge

Harness the power of Marketing Mix Modeling

As advertising investment increases on TikTok, there is a growing need to demonstrate its business impact, yet measuring this influence poses a challenge.

Advertisers’ approach to this question is as diverse as the region itself, from short- to long-term sales, through to long-term brand equity and how TikTok works with other channels.

To understand the value of a TikTok investment, all of these perspectives must be considered and analyzed.

Solution

Use Marketing Mix Modeling techniques to identify the sales and brand equity impacts

Marketing Mix Modeling studies have been the established method for measuring efficiency and effectiveness for more than 30 years.

TikTok commissioned Nielsen to analyze 10 consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands spanning the Food & Beverage and Health & Personal Care categories across Indonesia and Thailand to measure marketing mix impacts from sales to brand equity for these TikTok campaigns.

Key findings

Key findings

$2.3

Strong ROAS in both short- and long-term

The study yielded $1.7 short-term return for every advertising dollar spent in Southeast Asia from TikTok Paid ads. Compared to other channels* in the study, TikTok gave 2.0 times better results. 

Beyond direct sales outcome, TikTok delivered 2.2 times more long-term sales for brands via its impact on brand equity than other channels* measured in this study. 

When taking into account both short-term ROI and long-term brand equity, TikTok outperformed other channels* by 1.4 times, with a total ROAS of $2.3 for every advertising dollar.

9.4%

Synergistic impact between television and TikTok advertising

Nielsen found 9.4% incremental sales when TikTok ads are executed together with television ads for at least 4 weeks in Southeast Asia, which is highest among all other media channels* in this study. 

$2.3

Leverage In-Feed ads as core and boost with high-impact formats during key moments

Nielsen measured TikTok ad products, revealing that In-Feed ads drove high short-term ROAS of $2, long-term ROAS of $2.8, and showed the highest sales response against other ad products. Thus, In-Feed ads should be preferred as the base ad product on TikTok platform.

For key moments, consider high-impact reservation formats like Branded Effect, which revealed short-term ROAS of $2.3, and long-term ROAS of $3.0, driving amplification with higher efficiency.

$2.0

Utilize a combination of creator and brand ads to maximize effectiveness

Both creator and brand ads drove returns more than their spends, with brand ads delivering short-term ROAS of $1.5, and creator ads driving even higher ROAS at $2. 

Note: Modeled with two year historical data in 2023.
*Other Nielsen measured media includes TV, Radio, OOH, Cinema, Digital Display & Video (excluding Facebook & Google).
Non-TikTok spends are based on rate card (monitored) and not actual spends from advertisers.

How it works

Nielsen Marketing Mix Modeling offered a comprehensive evaluation of TikTok’s campaigns through tailored econometric models. These models established connections between detailed sales data spanning 2-3 years and a wide range of TikTok’s campaign activities, as well as other media platforms such as TV, digital video, digital display, print, out-of-home (OOH), and non-marketing factors like distribution, price, competition, seasonality, macroeconomic effects, and more.

The complete Marketing Mix Modeling solution involves data validation, metric calculation (e.g., revenue and profit), and a final insights presentation with recommendations to enhance marketing return on investment. Additionally, Nielsen executes several secondary modeling solutions including synergy analysis and long-term effects.

Conclusion

Unlock advertising’s full potential with Marketing Mix Modeling

Nielsen’s Marketing Mix Modeling solution demonstrated its effectiveness in providing a complete picture of sales and brand equity impacts across the Southeast Asia market for TikTok advertising. By leveraging Marketing Mix Modeling principles and historical data, the study shed light on the untapped impacts of campaigns, presenting advertisers with actionable recommendations to harness higher returns from TikTok investments.

Advertisers today expect more insights than just ROI from their brand investments. They are eagerly seeking to understand the impact on short-term returns and long-term equity. We commissioned a study with Nielsen and are happy to share how TikTok delivers ROI across the full funnel.

Balendu Shrivastava
Head of Measurement
TikTok, AMA

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Overview

Contending with change

Three paradigm shifts are upending this year’s Upfronts/Newfronts planning season.

Overview

Contending with change

Three paradigm shifts are upending this year’s Upfronts/NewFronts planning season.

1

Programming trends

Convergent TV is redefining planning

In a world where linear broadcast and cable represent just half of overall TV viewing, the traditional TV season’s rule over the calendar may be shifting. 

Discover platform and programming trends that illustrate the rising convergence of linear and streaming TV. 

2

Audience trends

Your audience today isn’t the same as yesterday’s

Succeeding in tomorrow’s TV environment means striking the right balance of contextual, advanced targeting, and one-to-one advertising. It’s a new game.

Examine key audience trends that demonstrate the uniqueness of today’s TV viewing audiences.

3

Ad trends

Linear TV is big but it’s only half of the equation

As the line of what is and isn’t considered “television” blurs, measurement silos should be a thing of the past. Advertisers need to know how their TV buys are performing in the context of their cross-media campaigns.

Review important cross-media considerations through current ad trends and outcomes insights.

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Section 1

Programming trends

The convergence of linear and streaming is transforming TV

The advent of Convergent TV¹  impacts both the way that people consume content and in the way that media companies produce and release new programming to meet that demand.

Here are four lessons we can draw from current trends in programming and platform adoption:

8.5%

BBO homes are rising

Broadband-only homes have been climbing at this quarterly rate for the past three years. Still, most TV homes watch some form of linear programming. 

90%

TV reaches most of U.S population

TV reaches the overwhelming majority of U.S. population in one form or another over the course of any given week, and the growing adoption of streaming and CTV devices may start to smooth seasonality out of TV usage for programming beyond sports.

40%

Streaming accounts for majority of TV usage

Close to half of total TV usage is now spent with streaming (whether from digital-first or legacy TV companies), making it the dominant form of TV viewing in the U.S.

30%

Streaming’s growth in weekly program volume

Growth in weekly program volume across streaming platforms, which raises the public’s expectations for new, bingeable TV programming outside of the traditional TV season.

¹  Convergent TV is the combination of linear and streaming into a seamless viewing experience.

TV usage continues to grow thanks to CTV

Both reach and time spent are still on the rise

For CTV devices, weekly reach was 75% of all U.S. households in mid-2023, five percentage points higher than a year earlier. And the growing importance of streaming in our daily lives is even more evident when we examine time spent. Streaming rolled past cable in November 2022, and as of September 2023, accounted for 37.5% of total TV time, all ages combined.

Source: Nielsen U.S. National TV Panel, weighted households data April 2021- October 2023

Broadcast typically goes up in the fall thanks to football, new series and the return of old favorites. Cable sees a similar bump in the spring with March Madness and the NBA Playoffs. The WNBA tournament was particularly successful in 2023, both on ESPN and on ABC and ESPN+ for the final. In Fall 2023, sports programming again drew viewers in and appears to be shielding broadcasters from the full impact of the recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, at least for the moment.

The ongoing shift of more sports programming to streaming platforms is likely to have major repercussions in 2024, although new local sports rights deals and the rise of FAST TV might moderate that effect, especially in an Olympic and election year.

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Section 2

Audience trends

TV viewers aren’t adopting new platforms with same enthusiasm

As of June 2023, Gracenote had cataloged nearly 100 streaming services in the U.S. alone and over 30,000 different channels. In such a highly fragmented landscape, it would be wrong to expect that a show like Suits would appeal to exactly the same types of viewers on Netflix and Peacock TV as it did on USA Network, or that Yellowstone would attract the same audience on CBS as it does on Paramount+.

At a high level, streaming audiences are very different from linear audiences. 

Weekly reach

While CTV is growing across all segments, there are persistent, sizable differences in weekly reach across age and race/ethnic groups.

Time spent

While time spent on linear TV grows dramatically with age, it’s more uniform on connected devices. Still, there are substantial variations in time spent by segment, with different age groups leading the way for different race/ethnic groups.

Channel preference

Streaming represents a much greater proportion of TV time for young viewers than it does for older viewers: 60% (18-34) vs. 32% (50-64) and 18% (65+) as of Aug 2023.

There are persistent gaps in CTV weekly reach

Interest remains uneven across age and race/ethnic groups

The weekly reach of CTV devices had climbed five percentage points from early 2022 to mid-2023, with CTV now accounting for a third of total TV usage. Now let’s see how it changed for various demographic groups.

Source: Nielsen National TV Panel Q1 2022-Q2 2023

While the weekly reach of CTV devices is improving across virtually every segment of the population, there are wide and persistent gaps: Middle-age adults (35-49) and their young kids (2-11) are leading the way with a weekly reach of 83% and 85%, respectively, while older viewers (65+) are lagging 20 percentage points behind—but still growing at the same rate as the rest of the population” +8% YoY. 

CTV’s reach among Hispanic and Black viewers has been slightly above average since Q4 2022, but it’s remained consistently below average for Asian American viewers, and the gap appears to be widening.

The bottom line

More is needed to address the incredible diversity of modern TV audiences.

Broad demographics like age and gender have long been used for audience segmentation because it was reasonable for advertisers to expect that certain combinations of programs, networks and dayparts skewed more or less heavily along those dimensions. That’s no longer the case. 

Here’s what it means for advertisers, agencies, publishers and the adtech ecosystem.

For advertisers and media agencies

See All

Start thinking about TV audiences and digital audiences in the same way.

Which is to say: rich, varied, granular and quick-changing. TV has long been one of the best advertising vehicles for top-funnel, branding campaigns. But it’s also a contextual platform at heart. And now that it’s addressable, TV can be used to reach a brand’s target consumers much closer to the point of purchase and as an integral part of a well-orchestrated cross-media campaign.

For publishers

See All

Seize the opportunity to analyze your own audience data. 

Find out what their strengths are and develop a distinct audience catalog that’s relevant to their advertising clients. There are many ways to define audience segments: TV viewership patterns are a key part of course, but also any other ethically-sourced data that could help boost advertising performance, like psychographics, life stage or purchase data.

For measurement

See All

Evolve past compatibility to be symbiotic with other media.

It’s not as simple as retrofitting the existing digital ecosystem. Identity, data onboarding, audience creation, activation, measurement and optimization are all different in the TV space, and a big part of the challenge ahead is to develop these functions in a way that’s not just compatible but symbiotic with other media.

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Section 3

Ad trends

ROI drives media decisions, but it isn’t always optimized

Budget allocation can have an outsized effect on outcomes

A 2022 Nielsen study of 150,000 observations of marketing ROI and client-supplied media plans found that 50% of planned media investments on channels as diverse as linear TV, digital display, digital video and social media were too low to achieve top ROI.

Source: Nielsen Predictive ROI database, May 2022

Underinvestment is a chronic problem. Advertisers today are spreading their media budgets much thinner than ever before, failing to hit minimum investment thresholds, and leaving a lot of money on the table. Common cross-media metrics and more compatible measurement solutions will go a long way to address that challenge and unlock higher returns for all stakeholders.

The bottom line

Marketers face a difficult choice when navigating complex cross-media marketplace dynamics.

With increased competition, media fragmentation and budgets under pressure, marketers have to make difficult decisions: invest in promising new channels and strategies (for instance, performance-based campaigns on CTV), even if they can’t measure their ROI with absolute confidence; or stay with what worked in the past until standards or reliable common metrics emerge.

Here’s what advertisers, publishers and measurement solutions can do to move the needle.

For advertisers and media agencies

See All

Maintain constant vigilance.

The pace of change is too fast for old budget allocations to work for very long. Advertisers and their agencies should continue frequently refreshing their marketing mix models to keep up with consumer and viewer behavior. There’s a lot of room for improvement, even on well-established channels with a long research track record, like TV and display.

For publishers

See All

Be transparent with data.

It’s in every publisher’s interest to measure the value of its audiences and monetize its ad inventory for what it’s truly worth. By prioritizing transparency with buyers, you help them assess whether you’re a good match for their campaign objectives, and to help them measure performance quickly and with metrics that are highly relevant to their business outcomes.

For measurement

See All

Provide a deduplicated, cross-media view of performance.

That doesn’t mean that the industry should ignore the unique values associated with individual channels. Multiple channel-specific metrics can and should coexist. But there needs to be a basis for comparison that cuts across all platforms and works for everyone.

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Takeaways

Implications for media stakeholders

Data-backed recommendations for reaching audiences and proving impact in the age of converging TV. 

TV remains a central piece of the marketing mix, and is a more complete full-funnel channel now because it’s both scalable and addressable.

Think about TV and digital audiences in the same way: rich, varied, granular and quick-changing.

Maintain constant vigilance. Change happens too fast for old budget allocations to work, and there’s opportunity to improve even well-established channels

Seasonality isn’t gone, but there are exciting ways, like personalized user experiences, to fill gaps in the traditional TV schedule.

Seize the opportunity to analyze your own audience data to develop a distinct audience catalog that’s relevant to advertising clients.

Be transparent with data to help buyers better match inventory with outcomes.

The industry needs common metrics to live at the heart of an adtech ecosystem combining the best of linear and digital.

Prioritize media symbiosis, which requires more than just retrofitting the existing digital ecosystem

Provide a deduplicated, cross-media view of performance as a basis for comparison that cuts across all platforms.

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The challenge is real. According to data from podcast search engine Listen Notes, audiences now have more than 3.1 million podcast titles to choose from. That’s more choice than they have across linear TV and streaming services combined¹. Vast choice notwithstanding, podcast engagement continues to rise, as the number of Americans listening has increased by 45% in the last five years².

In addition to a larger listener base, audiences are listening more than they have in the past. That can be attributed to both the increased awareness of podcasts and the fact that many consumers have returned to physical offices, which requires a commute. In fact, in-car/while in public transportation is now the most popular place to listen to podcasts among people 18-34 and 35-49³.

The rising engagement with podcasts is a clear signal of the opportunity for brands. When you complement that engagement with the fact that podcast ads can boost brand awareness by 13 percentage points⁴, the upside is even brighter. Knowing how to achieve that potential, however, is where the challenge often lies, simply because measuring the effectiveness of ads in newer media is different from measuring ad effectiveness in traditional media.

For example, we reported in our 2023 Nielsen Annual Marketing Report that 54% of global marketers plan to raise their spending on podcast advertising in the coming year (in North America, the percentage is 66%). They’re not alone, as the most recent podcast ad revenue forecast from the IAB suggests that the amount could more than double over the next four years, hitting approximately $4 billion by 2025. The downside of that growth, however, is a lack of confidence in knowing if the spending is doing its job. Only 49% of the marketers surveyed for this year’s marketing report said they are either extremely or very confident in their ability to measure the ROI of their podcast advertising. That’s the lowest level of confidence across digital channels⁵.

The knowledge gap between understanding the potential of podcasts as a marketing channel and how to capitalize on it highlights why marketers don’t view it as very effective. The good news is that Nielsen has identified the five drivers of brand lift for podcast advertising, as well as how much weight they each carry in driving lift. For podcast advertising, brand recall is the biggest driver of brand lift, followed by enjoyability and how captivating the creative is.

Importantly, the influence of these brand lift drivers varies from industry to industry. While brand recall is the biggest driver of lift from an average perspective, for example, it’s far less influential in financial services and consumer packaged goods. For those industries, having a higher baseline awareness (i.e., familiarity without any ad exposures) is much more important, complemented by ads that are relatable and enjoyable. For auto brands, being captivating is the most influential.

At a more granular level, these five attributes have different effects on specific key performance indicators, such as affinity, brand familiarity and recommendation intent. And when it comes to purchase intent, enjoyability rises to the top across podcast advertising.

Among marketers, brand building and new customer acquisition remain top priorities—priorities that depend on understanding how their ads affect brand lift. Somewhat surprisingly, research from Christine Moorman, who oversees the annual CMO Survey, highlights that only 3% of marketers measure brand equity consistently.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Marketers will remain unable to assess brand equity if they don’t track it. And we know from recent years that the media industry will continue to welcome new platforms, channels and services to engage content-hungry audiences. And now, with insight into what drives brand lift in podcast advertising, advertisers and agencies have a clear blueprint for measuring brand equity—and how to improve it.

For additional insights about brand lift drivers in emerging media, download our 5 brand building factors for emerging media report.

Sources

¹Per Gracenote Video Data, audiences across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico and Germany now have more than 2.7 million individual video titles to choose from.

²Edison Research; “Infinite Dial,” 2023; P12+.

³Nielsen Scarborough Podcast Buying Power, May 2023

⁴Nielsen Podcast Brand Impact norms database, Q2 2023

⁵Digital channels include email, search, social media, native advertising, online display, online video, CTV, streaming audio and podcasts.

The post As podcast advertising grows, brand lift data can help brands demystify the ROI of their spending appeared first on Nielsen.

Webinar | Sep 21, 2023

Cracking the code of brand success

in emerging media channels

Watch the webinar

Discover:

Why marketers are gravitating towards podcasts, branded content, and social influencer marketing to connect with growing audiences.

What content resonates and understand its impact on enhancing your brand presence across emerging media.

The latest trends and insights in this dynamic landscape.

We’re joined by Arica McKinnon, VP of Commercial Growth & Strategy at Nielsen for Campaign Analytics and Angela Povia, VP of Client Consulting.

Interested in learning more about Brand Impact?

Learn more

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Secrets
of success:

Building brands with emerging media

Download the insights

What do podcast ads, influencer marketing and branded content have in common? 

They share the same key factors for driving brand lift. 

Marketers understand how these emerging media execute on reach. However, there has been very limited research on how they deliver on brand building—until now. 

Our report pinpoints exactly what moves the needle for brand building across branded content, influencer and podcast marketing. 

In this report you’ll discover: 

• The 5 key factors that drive brand lift 
• Advertising impact on brand KPI growth 
• Emerging media’s ROI potential 

The post 5 brand building factors for emerging media appeared first on Nielsen.

And as consumers adjust their spending to adapt to inflation and higher interest rates, many brands and advertisers are following suit. According to data from Nielsen Ad Intel, the U.S. advertising marketplace shrank by 7% in the second quarter of 2022 versus the same time last year, signaling that many marketers expect, or have already experienced, cuts to their budgets. 

But while dialing back media spend may seem to make sense for short-term budgetary concerns, marketers focused on mitigating the impact of a recession and maximizing the effectiveness of their marketing budgets need to think of—and spend for—the recovery.

Recessions don’t last forever

The good news for marketers dreading a protracted downturn is that many recessions are short lived—historically, 75% of recessions end within a year, and a full 30% only last two quarters. So, any cut in spending will likely only be short-term and result in nominal savings, while putting brands at a disadvantage heading into the bounce-back period that is likely just around the corner. 

Considering most brands are already under-spending—depressing their ROIs by a median of 50%—any additional cutting of media expenses could only serve to reduce ROI further, at a time when brands need to maximize profits most. 

The solution isn’t to slash the budget, but to optimize media mix and invest in channels that are performing well. Finding the right balance ensures that spending is properly allocated for reach, efficiency and frequency. For example, an auto manufacturer recently increased its reach by 26% and its impressions by more than 39% by simply optimizing its media allocation without adjusting its budget. 

And investing in media during a recession can actually end up saving a brand money, as industry pull-back creates a supply-and-demand dynamic that favors ad buyers and lowers media costs. In fact, some brands actually step up their media investments in recessions. In addition to a favorable media costs environment, brands may also find competitors have scaled back on advertising, which creates an opportunity for campaigns to have greater impact.

Growth is possible, even in an economic downturn

Before assuming a slump in sales due to a recession, brands should assess the landscape and closely follow consumer behavior for changes in spending patterns. A shift in spending habits from large indulgences to small indulgences, for example, creates opportunity for growth in certain categories, like lipstick, while contracting others, like dining and hospitality. 

And as consumers become more price-sensitive, brands will need to change their media plans, and messaging, to match. Recession-friendly messaging can help reinforce the value of a brand and help ensure consumer loyalty beyond the recession.

Brands and advertisers that want to make the most of potential category growth during a recession should focus on analyzing consumer behavior to optimize messaging and increase the impact of their ad spend.

Making the (right) cut

Sometimes, budget cuts are inevitable. If you know you have to adjust your spend, make sure you’re cutting the right costs, in the right places, to maximize the effectiveness of your remaining dollars and minimize negative impact to your ROI. 

And while pulling back on media spending may seem like the obvious way to cut costs and hit financial targets, the benefit can be relatively low. A Nielsen study of media plans found that only 25% of channel-level investments were too high to maximize ROI, and within this group, the median overspend amount was 32%. And while reducing spend would improve channel ROI by a modest 4%, brands would also see significantly reduced sales volume due to a drop in ad-driven sales.

It can also be tempting to increase promotions when consumers decrease spending, but this approach comes with its own challenges. Promotions done regularly can condition consumers to only buy when there is a promotion, leading to lower sales on regularly-priced items and margin compression. ROI also tends to be lower for promotions—45% lower than that of media, according to Nielsen marketing mix models—as only a small portion of promotional sales are truly incremental, and promo sales need to be much higher to make up for lost margins.

Instead of relying heavily on promotions, consider which channels can be reduced or cut with minimal impact to ROI. If results in one channel are already lackluster, it may be better to cut it out entirely and reallocate your spend to channels with better metrics and higher ROI potential. 

No matter what media mix and budget allocation you ultimately decide on, remember that any spend is better than no spend at all. According to Nielsen Marketing Mix Models, brands that go off-air can expect to lose 2% of their long-term revenue each quarter and, when they resume media efforts, it will take 3-5 years to recover equity losses resulting from that downtime. And your bottom line isn’t the only thing that will suffer if you cut your media spend—Nielsen data shows that marketing accounts for 10%-35% of a brand’s equity.

The post Marketing during a recession: Finding the upside of an economic downturn appeared first on Nielsen.