TV is ‘doing a Southgate’
Opinion
Euro 2024 has reminded us of TV’s storytelling capabilities and its power as an advertising medium. And it is working hard to adapt to the new consumer and marketing reality.
We can predict everything except the future.
This column is being written the day after England beat the Netherlands in the Euros but will appear after Sunday’s final, so fingers crossed for another fortunate result.
We’d all become reconciled to cutting back to a sullen studio, St George flags draped over slumped shoulders and other familiar scenes. Then Jude Bellingham got that goal and we got that dodgy penalty on Wednesday. Hope springs eternal.
Television has also been written off at various points in its history — to the extent that it’s already a cliché to say it has been condemned prematurely.
Wednesday’s match was the best possible reminder of TV’s storytelling capabilities. The sight of Ian Wright and Gary Neville going in studs up on each other at half-time, only to hug each other in joy at the end, was pure theatre. Never mind the match itself.
TV may have lost some of its audience, but it remains a powerful advertising medium. The Euros have led to a bonanza in ad revenue for ITV as brands roll out their special copy, all of which seems to feature David Beckham.
Changing mood
While one swallow doesn’t make a summer, there are promising signs that TV is seriously addressing its commercial future and could emerge stronger as a result.
Last month was the 50th anniversary of Egta, the international TV and radio sales association, and the change in mood at its conference was palpable. There is a humility and challenger brand mentality emerging within “big TV” that was summed up by one presentation: TV is going from “we can’t because…” to “we can if…”.
They recognise their position in the changed consumer and marketing world, and realise that they have to adapt to the new consumer and marketing reality.
More partnerships
An interesting change being discussed in the halls of the Egta conference was the once heretical idea of making long-form library content available on other platforms, specifically YouTube. The younger audiences won’t be coming back to the linear feed, so the programmes will need to go to them.
There will be monetisation issues galore, but it seems to be inevitable.
Also present at the conference was a new esprit de corps whereby new and existing partnerships will be developed in the common interest.
As for marketing, we know that research study after research study based on market mix modelling demonstrates the unrivalled long- and short-term effectiveness of TV as an advertising medium and why it works (The Context Effect and Profit Ability 2 from Thinkbox are cases in point).
But this isn’t enough. “Big TV” is not only aware of this but is actively doing something about it.
Focus on measurement
Key to this is the changing face of marketing. The focus of the advertising industry is turning inexorably to the measurement of impact and effectiveness — or “outcomes”, as many prefer.
Now, it would be churlish to say “about time, too” given that Manning Gottlieb Media (as it then was) appointed Sally Dickerson as our first director of effectiveness 25 years ago. So, yes, somewhat overdue.
And the irony of this new-found focus on something we took for granted in the old days is that it is partly happening because of digital media and specifically now commerce media options such as retail media networks.
The ostensibly direct measurement of digital media and the closed-loop ecosystem of the new “flywheels” has led to the measurement of effectiveness often being defined as whatever happens right away. Purists may not like it, but it’s real.
There is also a need to better understand cumulative effect and that “last click” is the final penalty in a shoot-out — important, but only possible because of what has gone before.
And the eventual demise of third-party cookies changes the game, although there is a lot of additional time being played.
Beyond delivery of audiences
This has helped prompt a sea-change in “big TV” towards the generation and measurement of outcomes and away from the pure delivery of audiences. This approach aims to quantify the full effect of TV, not just the more normal and obvious.
This is best illustrated by the investments ITV has made in people and data to build a suite of tools that provide real evidence of both TV’s ability to generate immediate response and also its multiplying effect on other channels. And specifically the kind of channels that underpin commerce media.
These investments have been made at a time when money is too tight to mention but innovative thinking is essential.
Central to this are the learnings imported from digital media and the measurement techniques it uses. ITV recognises that advertisers need robust and hard data that shows rapid effect and which compares well with digital-only options. The kind of data it already uses daily.
Standouts include a new approach to sensitive geo-testing, pay-per-click uplift analytics and TV’s ability to drive pricing premiums for brands.
Hybrid model
There is more to come as TV moves towards a hybrid model of mass audience reach with interactivity via the digital feeds — potentially a hugely powerful combination.
There are some attributes that TV will never have that digital-only channels do, but the reverse also applies. As we move from a cookie-led, retargeting world where the illusion of personalisation has finally been exposed, audience size and context will matter more. TV scores well (geddit?) on these dimensions.
TV also delivers attention with retention in terms of its ability to influence behaviour in the short and long term, and this lies at the heart of its influence on other channels, including in-store and online buying behaviour.
We’re deep into stoppage time, but changes in formation and tactics can make all the difference.
One factor is the new partnerships being formed: the level of collaboration between ITV, Channel 4 and Sky is greater than ever and CFlight is a good example.
Data partnerships are crucial, too, and ITV is teaming up with specialist data providers such as ViewersLogic, Kantar and Dynata to create a fusion of techniques that help to both deliver outcomes and their measurement.
Plenty of obstacles
Meanwhile, there are obstacles in the way. Genuine cross-platform measurement is a work-in-progress, but Project Origin will start to make inroads.
However, the nature of such a fragmented media landscape will always throw up challenges over measurement, so data analytics using a variety of sources is essential, especially as audience measurement is accompanied by effectiveness data.
One other obstacle is the contract rights renewal (CRR) mechanism that is 20 years old this year and which is about as relevant now as fax machines.
While some form of protection for advertisers may still be sensible in any new system, the problem that CRR supposedly solved is no longer a factor. Yet it acts as an unnecessary brake on progress in a world that has changed immeasurably in 20 years. Retention makes no sense.
Also long overdue is the evolution of TV trading techniques that have not changed enough in decades. The system is still hamstrung by now irrelevant ways of working that are rooted in the past and a “beat the audit” mentality. Great planning can be let down by crude buying behaviour.
As previously noted, TV trading currencies also need to be updated to reflect the vast differences between viewing experiences.
Reappraising TV
“Big TV” is operating in an evolved media market that has been transformed by consumer and technology trends. Businesses and brands are being built differently these days and TV is no longer a must-have medium that some companies need to grow a significant business.
However, as TV adapts to become a compelling hybrid of significant audience delivery, married with the kind of functionality that digital feeds provide, its ability to shift the needle will grow and it will be used to drive the new commerce channels faster and harder.
TV’s proven ability to multiply other media and accelerate the digital commerce flywheel should lead to a reappraisal of its full effects.
This lesson has been fully digested and the wheels are in motion.
Nick Manning is the co-founder of Manning Gottlieb Media (now MG OMD) and was chief strategy officer at Ebiquity for over a decade. He now owns a mentoring business, Encyclomedia, offering strategic advice to companies in the media and advertising industry, and is non-executive chair of Media Marketing Compliance. He writes for The Media Leader each month.