Picking Shows Carefully Is Key To Ad Success

With hundreds of media channels now open to advertisers, TV stations can maximize the value of their inventory by matching particular advertisers with specific programs, according to one expert.

“We are not dealing anymore with demographic targets but brand targets,” says Bill Koenigsburg, president-CEO of Horizon Media. “Television programs and dayparts are not universally appropriate anymore.”

Speaking at the TVB’s Forward conference Wednesday morning in New York, Koenigsburg says particular programs could be worth 30%-40% more or less to advertisers depending on which consumers they want to reach.

Consumers are showing “which channels are most relevant and most important when making product placement purchases,” he says. “If you can figure that out than you’re building in much bigger value proposition to your inventory.”

For example, banks do better reaching consumers through advertising on primetime dramas, local late news and sports cable than on other kinds of programming.  On the other hand, advertisers in the packaged goods category do better buying time on morning news and primetime sitcoms.

The value of advertising can be boiled down all the way to particular shows, Koenigsburg says.

When it comes to morning programs, for example, data shows that the retailer Kmart is more likely to reach its target consumer by advertising on Good Morning America than on the Today Show, he said. Advertising on the Today Show has greater value for Toyota than BMW, he says.

A $5,000 unit on Modern Family could have as much value as spots that go for $8,100 at other times, he says, but for other advertisers, that same spot would not be worth its price tag.

At the same time, local broadcasters need to weight the importance of their other outlets, too, he says.

Online or mobile advertising may be a better means for particular advertisers to reach their goals, which could range from promoting brand awareness to convincing consumers to try products, Koenigsburg says.

“As marketing objectives change, the role of each medium will change. Understanding marketing dynamics will be critical.”