Challenge
In 2024, an agency partner came to TVadSync on behalf of their TV network client to launch a cross-channel digital campaign promoting the newest season of their hit reality adventure series. Their goal was to grow and retain a holistic audience across platforms, ultimately boosting the network’s overall performance. Alongside the promotional campaign, the client also wanted a clearer understanding of the impact of their digital ads, specifically which aspects of the digital ads drove people to tune-in to the show. TVadSync has been providing their measurement capabilities to this agency partner for several years for a number of their TV network clients.
Setup
The media campaign was strategically structured to drive viewers to the network efficiently, maximizing Tune-In Lift while maintaining the lowest possible cost per tune-in (CPTI). Media was executed in phases to build engagement leading up to the premieres of the first three episodes, running on Display, High Impact, Online Video (OLV) and Connected TV (CTV).
TVadSync’s audience segments were created using 1:1 deterministic TV viewing data, focusing on programming of the TV network and similar shows airing on other networks. Additionally, TV Promo retargeting was implemented, serving digital ads to audiences who had already seen a Linear TV spot for the new season. Premiere Roadblocks were set up to run on the digital platforms to increase awareness on the episode airing dates and to provide a final push for viewers to tune-in.
As a part of a multi-channel media campaign run by TVadsync to increase engagement with the show, the agency and their client leveraged TVadSync’s Smart Insights, to gain comprehensive understanding of the incremental impact of each ad, enabling optimised ad spend, and smarter data-driven decision making. While the campaign was live, TVadSync collected and analysed the ad exposure data across all digital channels like CTV, Display and Online Video (OLV). Using the multi-touch attribution model, conversion credit was accurately assigned to each touchpoint, allowing the advertiser to identify which media channels and audience segments were driving the best results. TVadSync’s advanced causal models provided a clear view of incremental lift and overall advertising effectiveness, enabling data-driven ad-spend optimization.
Results
The campaign achieved an overall Tune-In Lift of 93.67%, with media promoting the season premiere performing even stronger at 103.33%. TVadSync’s Premiere Roadblock, a proprietary tactic, delivered the best performance, achieving a Tune-In Lift of 150.29%. The combination of high Tune-In Lift and a low CPTI of $0.61 is another example of Premiere Roadblock being a consistently high performing tactic for this client. Meanwhile, TVadSync’s custom audience segments contributed significantly to the Tune-In success, achieving a Tune-In Lift of 110.48% over the same period.
The overall campaign CPTI was $0.46, with the media promoting the season premiere being the most cost-effective, achieving a CPTI of $0.39. Retargeting viewers of previous seasons of the show was the most cost-effective tactic with a CPTI of $0.26, paired with a Tune-In Lift of 129.07%, making it one of the best performing tactics. The Exposed Tune-In rate for the overall campaign was 7.05% which is the percentage of households who were exposed to an ad and tuned-in, giving insights into the accuracy of the targeting tactics.
At the end of the campaign TVadSync generated a Smart Tribe report for the show, providing the client with valuable insights into which other shows indexed highest among viewers of the first three episodes. The report found that viewers enjoyed a competitive show on Discovery Channel the most, being 7.25 times more likely to tune-in than the general population. Understanding what other content resonates with their audience helps TVadSync’s agency partner and their entertainment clients refine their targeting strategies and reach more relevant viewers in future campaigns.
“With Smart Insights, we helped our valued agency partner and their client clearly see how each media dollar contributed to real tune-ins. By combining advanced TV and digital data, we identified the most effective tactics and audiences that drove strong Tune-In Lifts and efficient CPTIs. It’s been a privilege to support a long-time partner in helping their client grow the audience for one of their most iconic shows.”
Mrunal Tipari, Director of Analytics at TVadSync
If you’re interested in learning more about how TVadSync can drive similar results for your brand, please reach out to us at [email protected] or click Connect the bottom of this page.