Be Addressable news

Be Addressable becomes a JICMAIL Platinum Partner

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:53:58 GMT

We’re delighted to share that Be Addressable has been awarded JICMAIL Platinum Partner status!

This accreditation marks an important milestone for us. It reflects our commitment to embedding robust, independent insight into the way we plan, justify, and optimise campaigns for our clients.

By combining JICMAIL’s data and insights with our proprietary audience planning tool, Pinsight, we can deliver even more precise targeting and smarter media strategies. This integration gives us the confidence to position mail on an equal footing with other channels, grounding decisions in measurable outcomes.

JICMAIL has become an essential part of how we demonstrate effectiveness and deliver accountable, commercially focused work.

Be Addressable Appointed to Manage Media for La Vieille Ferme in the UK

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 14:24:54 GMT

We are delighted to announce that Be Addressable has been appointed to handle media planning and investment for La Vieille Ferme , one of the UK’s most successful wine brands.

K nown affectionately as “The Chicken Wine”, La Vieille Ferme has seen remarkable growth in 2025, increasing sales by more than 50% to reach £156 million. It is now the fourth-largest wine brand in the UK, a testament to its wide appeal and consistent quality.

La Famille Perrin has partnered with Be Addressable to advise on paid media strategy and to deliver a campaign designed to reach an even broader audience. The upcoming activity will run across cinema, addressable AV, and out-of-home channels, combining data-led precision with creative storytelling.

This appointment marks the start of an exciting journey to introduce The Chicken Wine to more consumers across the UK and to support the continued growth of other brands within La Famille Perrin’s portfolio.

Creative assets were developed in the United States by The Shipyard, with global strategic direction led by The Heart Monitors.

Be Addressable Wins at the 2025 Direct Commerce Awards

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 14:20:25 GMT

We are proud to share that Be Addressable has won the 2025 Direct Commerce Award in the TV & Video category for our effectiveness-led Addressable TV campaign with Airband.

This award highlights what we stand for: turning precision targeting into measurable growth and demonstrating that when media is accountable and addressable, it delivers real business outcomes.

Our collaboration with Airband focused on results that could be seen, measured, and proven. By combining data-driven precision with creative excellence, we showed how addressable TV can drive genuine commercial impact.

A sincere thank you to Airband and to our brilliant team for bringing effectiveness to life on screen.

Here’s to continuing to show what happens when accountability meets creativity.

Be Addressable achieve IPA Effectiveness Accreditation

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 06:53:50 GMT

Be Addressable is delighted to have been awarded IPA Effectiveness Accreditation 2025-2027.

We are genuinely proud to win this accreditation because it validates the work we do every day: helping clients unlock measurable results through first-party data and addressable media.

Addressable media is becoming essential for brands with focussed customer profiles or geographically-defined audiences. It brings the performance and accountability once reserved for mega budgets to clients of all sizes.

Since launching just 18 months ago, we’ve:
• Partnered with Airband from day one.
• Delivered a major consultancy project for a national home delivery brand.
• Won the first advertising campaign for the UK’s biggest wine brand.
...and we have exciting new wins in the pipeline.

We’re proud of how far we’ve come, and we’re only just getting started.
If you’d like to see our effectiveness credentials and explore how we deliver advertising performance on any budget, let’s talk.

https://uk.themedialeader.com/record-44-agencies-awarded-ipa-effectiveness-accreditation/

Airband has launched its first-ever linear TV campaign

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:05:15 GMT

Be Addressable is delighted to be one of just 40 UK agencies awarded IPA Effectiveness Accreditation 2025 and we are probably one of the newest and certainly the only addressable advertising specialist.

After years of working together, Be Addressable has helped Airband evolve from a local hero brand into a recognised challenger across multiple regions. From early success with addressable TV, digital video, and data-led targeting, this step into linear TV builds on that foundation, allowing Airband to reach broader audiences in their key heartland areas.

This regional launch represents more than just airtime. It’s about Airband continuing to grow visibility, challenge the big players, and strengthen their reputation for connecting communities with ultrafast broadband.

At Be Addressable, we’re proud to support this next chapter, helping Airband take bold steps forward with confidence and impact.

Gen Z insights for retailers

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 10:44:18 GMT

There’s no shortage of assumptions about Gen Z : how they shop, whether they visit the high street, and the platforms they supposedly live on. But what do they really think?

In this short video, we hear directly from Gen Z voices and explore their real views on shopping, media habits, and brand engagement. Backed by YouGov data, it reveals surprising truths that challenge stereotypes and uncover new opportunities to connect with this audience.

We have access to YouGov Profiles, giving us the ability to explore every aspect of Gen Z ’s behaviour and attitudes. Want to know what they think of your brand and how to reach them? Get in touch.

12 lessons in addressable marketing

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 13:53:44 GMT

We’ve seen first-hand how powerful addressable campaigns can be – when they’re built on the right foundations.

That’s why our co-founder, Rachel Hall, has pulled together 12 practical lessons from years of experience in helping brands use addressable media to drive meaningful results.

�� 1. Start with a commercial brief
Understand the economics of what you’re trying to achieve. How many customers do you need to acquire? What churn or retention rates are realistic? What’s your target cost per acquisition? Map the data you already have – and consider what additional sources could fill the gaps.

�� 2. Leverage first-party data
Your customer data is one of your most valuable tools. Use it to identify your most profitable customer groups, size the opportunity, and pinpoint where to find lookalikes. Pay attention to how these dynamics vary by region.

�� 3. Understand the target audience
Go beyond demographics. Dig into behaviours, needs, preferences, and purchase patterns. The better your understanding, the more relevant and effective your campaign will be.

�� 4. Know your geography
Look at where your current and potential customers are located – right down to postcode sector level. Factor in store locations, distribution networks, and localised differences in audience or media effectiveness.

�� 5. Define your campaign objectives
Be clear about what you want to achieve and how addressable media can support broader business goals. Think about how your activity can be designed to meet more than one objective at once.

�� 6. Embrace full-funnel strategies
Today’s consumers engage across multiple touchpoints. An addressable approach should span the full journey – from TV and mobile to digital out-of-home and in-store – to maximise impact.

�� 7. Be consistent and precise in targeting execution
Building audiences (especially lookalikes) requires rigour and consistency. Make sure your targeting methodology is clearly defined and applied across all platforms.

�� 8. Measure what matters
Don’t just chase channel-level metrics. Your own data – showing uplift in sales, orders, or customer acquisition – will be the most meaningful proof of success.

�� 9. Have an addressable creative strategy
Creative should be shaped by your audience insight. Plan your production carefully to get the most from your assets, and ensure messaging is tailored and relevant.

�� 10. Understand how digital media (really) delivers
Be sceptical of inflated claims. Know what each channel is actually delivering, how accurate the measurement is, and what sits behind the numbers.

�� 11. Keep informed of new opportunities
The media landscape is evolving fast. Build relationships with media owners, stay close to innovation, and don’t be afraid to test something new – being early in can be a competitive advantage.

�� 12. Explore the possibilities and use cases
Addressable can support a wide range of business needs, including:
• Defined audience + geography campaigns
• Store support and driving local sales
• Upweighting to key segments
• Product or channel testing
• Expanding distribution
• Growing from single to multi-channel
• Launching brands on tight budgets
• Stretching limited marketing budgets
• Quick-turnaround activations

If you'd like to chat more about how to apply these in your business, we’re always up for a conversation.

Addressable: Why it matters now

Thu, 15 May 2025 09:44:55 GMT

We all know that attention is scarce, wallets are tighter, and media is more fragmented than ever, the need for precision in marketing has never been more urgent. This is where addressable media steps in, it’s not just another marketing buzzword, but a fundamental shift in how brands reach, engage, and convert target customers.

The consumer has changed and so must we

Today’s consumers are harder to identify when it comes to traditional marketing techniques. They’re mobile, multi-platform, and highly selective. Their expectations are shaped by personalised feeds, scroll based algorithm content, and seamless brand experiences that reflect their individual preferences.

They want relevance. They want value. They want it now.

TV viewing habits, in particular, have undergone a seismic shift. While traditional linear TV still has reach, it no longer dominates. Audiences have moved to streaming platforms, catch up services, and on-demand viewing. In the UK, over 80% of households now use at least one subscription based streaming service, and the use of BVOD (broadcaster video on demand) platforms like ITVX, Channel 4, and Sky Go has surged.

We’re no longer watching the same thing at the same time, we're watching what we want, when we want, on the device we choose. For brands, this means that mass reach is no longer enough; relevancy and timing are everything. Addressable TV enables advertisers to serve different ads to different households during the same programme, delivering national scale with local or personalised relevance.

And in times of economic downturn, behaviour becomes even more nuanced. Viewers are not only seeking content that brings them comfort or escape but are also more value conscious in their decision making. That mindset spills into how they engage with brands. Campaigns that speak directly to their needs, whether that’s a local deal, a flexible finance option, or simply a brand that “gets” them, are more likely to have an effect.

Recently, there has been plenty of talk about the marketing funnel and how it no longer exists in its traditional, linear format. Consumers now sit on a game of snakes and ladders, or a pinball machine when it comes to their relationships with brands and where they are engaging with them, moving between buying mindsets and making decisions in ways that are no longer logical in a world of awareness, consideration and conversion.

Geography is your strategic advantage

One of the most powerful, yet often overlooked, levers in identifying your audience, is geography. By understanding where your audience lives, shops, commutes, and consumes media, you can start to spot audience hotspots that are primed for action.

This geographic insight allows you to plan and activate integrated, multi-channel campaigns by aligning TV, digital, out-of-home, social, and even direct mail, all focused on high-potential postcodes or regions. You’re not just increasing exposure, you’re doing it smartly, with measurable frequency to the right people in the right locations.

It also gives marketers confidence. When you know you’re reaching the correct audience group repeatedly across channels and can track response and engagement at a local level, it’s far easier to justify spend and demonstrate effectiveness to the business. It’s not guesswork, it’s precision marketing rooted in location based insight.

Media is fragmented, but opportunity isn’t

With the explosion of digital platforms, connected TV, social media, and Digital out of home, media consumption is no longer linear or predictable. Audiences are everywhere, and if brands want to stay relevant, they must be everywhere too.

That’s where an addressable media strategy shines. It allows brands to tailor creative, messaging, and delivery to specific households, postcodes, or even individuals. Whether it’s showing family focused messaging to homes with children, or promoting retirement products to a postcode with penetration of over 70’s, addressable puts precision at the heart of every campaign.

Results matter, especially now

When budgets are under scrutiny, every pound must work harder. Addressable campaigns offer not just efficiency, but accountability. They give brands the ability to test, learn, and optimise in near real time, something that’s increasingly essential in a ever changing economy.

We’ve seen it in the numbers, improved ROI, higher engagement rates, and better conversion metrics across the board. Addressable TV campaigns have demonstrated double-digit uplifts in ad recall and intent compared to linear only campaigns. Whether it's driving footfall to local branches, pushing regional promotions, or boosting national awareness with local relevance.

A smarter future starts now

Addressable media isn’t the future. It’s the now. For brands willing to adapt, it offers a clear path through complexity, turning fragmented audiences into defined opportunities, and passive impressions into measurable outcomes.

In a tough economic climate, broad strokes don’t cut it. Precision does. An addressable strategy is how brands can achieve it.

Netflix and Sell: Does “Basic with Ads” transform TV advertising?

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 15:30:31 GMT

Netflix has long established itself as a giant of the streaming industry, captivating millions of viewers with its extensive library of high-quality content.

In the UK alone, the platform boasts around 17.1 million households subscribing (Q4 2024). This impressive audience is a testament to Netflix's success in delivering engaging and compelling shows like "Stranger Things," "Wednesday," "Squid Game" and one of my guilty pleasures, “Selling Sunset”. However, when it comes to its ad-supported model, there are significant caveats marketers should be aware of.

"Compelling" and "High quality" is a subjective phrase ok?

The "Basic with Ads" plan, introduced in November 2022, offers an affordable subscription option in exchange for ad viewing. Based on 2025 Barb data, Netflix reached 58.2% of all UK homes in Q4 2024. Despite Netflix's widespread popularity, only around 25% of UK subscribers have opted for the ad enabled package. This limited adoption rate means that the potential audience for targeted advertising on Netflix is relatively narrow.

Netflix is facing a challenge in attracting subscribers to its ad-supported tier, as a significant portion of its audience is accustomed to paying higher subscription fees specifically to avoid ads. This entrenched preference for an uninterrupted viewing experience has made it difficult for Netflix to entice users to switch to or adopt the ad-enabled package. In contrast, platforms like ITVX offer a different approach by providing an upgrade service to go ad-free, allowing users who prefer an ad-free experience to pay a premium for it. This model aligns more closely with user preferences and has proven to be effective in retaining subscribers who are willing to pay extra for an uninterrupted viewing experience. As a result, Netflix must navigate the delicate balance of offering attractive ad-supported options while addressing the existing expectations of its long-time subscribers. Despite this, the base size for their ad subscribed tier in the UK is slowly growing. Fundamentally this is being driven by ongoing economic uncertainty as it continues to drive consumers into reviewing and reducing financial outlays.

Recently, Netflix has integrated its ad inventory into Google's platform, allowing advertisers to access Netflix's ad space directly through DV360. This integration is a significant development for the advertising industry, particularly for Connected TV. It opens new opportunities for advertisers to reach Netflix's audience to enhance the reach and effectiveness of their campaigns. Despite this advancement, the size of the overall Netflix advertising audience means that delivering content to a targeted audience at scale is still a challenge and you may have to relax your targeting (and therefore effectiveness expectations) to reach critical mass.

Due to it’s increased scale, Sky AdSmart, for instance, allows advertisers to reach scale, even when creating highly tailored audiences based around specific geographies, demographics as well as 3rd party and retail data selections. The scale available, even when going down to local level targeting is a significant advantage for advertisers seeking to reach specific segments and makes other forms of addressable TV a very effective and affordable element of brands addressable media strategies.

In contrast, Netflix's AVOD offering lacks the scale to allow for this precise audience targeting capability. The need for broader reach on the platform means that advertisers must carefully consider how and when to use Netflix's platform. For brands looking to achieve mass reach and visibility with a wide audience, Netflix can be an effective choice. However, for those aiming for more targeted and specific audience segments, Netflix's AVOD offering may not currently be the best fit.

Whilst Netflix's place as a media channel with its AVOD offering is promising, it comes with significant limitations. The platform's high-quality content and recent integration with DV360 present opportunities for advertisers, but the relatively low adoption of the ad-supported plan and remains a hurdle we need to navigate. Marketers need to understand these limitations and strategically assess how Netflix's AVOD offering fits into their overall advertising strategy.

Author: Nathan Rose Client Development Director Be Addressable

Developing communication strategy for addressable campaigns

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 14:30:21 GMT

The received wisdom of the advertising industry is that brand fame and mass awareness should be a core objective.

Sir John Hegarty, the founder of BBH and one of the most talented creative directors of this generation put forward the view that social media advertising has stopped brands entering the national psyche and are consequently not desired in the same way.

‘One of the most profound and fundamental things you can say about the value of a brand is that it is made by people who will never buy it. A brand's real power lies in people simply knowing about it, in other words, the fame of the company.’

BBH’s iconic Levi Launderette campaign quickly achieved fame; launching on ITV on Boxing Day 1985, it reached a massive captive youth audience, it also ran in cinema. Anecdotally, people went just to see the ad. It was voted one of the greatest ever ads and generated an 800 per cent sales uplift.

Could it do the same now? It’s almost impossible to have the same access to a young audience through a few channels and any fashion brand would certainly include heavy social media investment on any schedule, especially on Instagram and TikTok probably using influencers. So, according to Sir John’s assessment of social media, probably no!

What addressable media can do is create the same level of exposure, but to a much smaller and controlled cohort of identified potential customers. Sir John’s objective can be delivered, but not to a mass audience. We can create fame, but only amongst specific high potential audiences.

But, without doubt, addressable media can be over-targeted, and this can limit its effect. It’s not direct marketing. It’s important to apply the same planning disciplines to an addressable campaign that would have been used on a traditional ‘broadcast’ campaign; but aim to build awareness by only talking to groups of engaged consumers and influencers.

Frequency of exposure is also very important; advertising doesn’t work until seen a certain number of times and can become mind crunchingly irritating if over exposed.

What worked in a simple 1980’s market with little choice can’t be delivered at scale in a complex, post channel world, but same communication principles still apply.

The solution is to address advertising to known consumers, our focus is how to find them.

OPTIMISING FOR THE RIGHT THING

The explosion in usage data generated by digital devices should mean better consumer insight, but it often doesn’t. There is too much irrelevant or inaccurate data. It makes it more complicated to get a genuine perspective. Real people have complex, messy lives and they don’t easily fit into stereotypes or segmentations that are produced by looking at one data source.

Some people are massively overexposed to digital and social media; others avoid it like the plague. Trying to analyse consumers just through the lens of social media or social listening can give a false reading, a genuine example of ‘selection bias,’ by only counting the opinions of people who are frequent users of Twitter or X.

The UK’s population is far more complex and made up of many diverse tribes. Addressable media allows brands to communicate specific messages to diverse groups.

According to the 2021 census, 40.3% of Londoners weren’t born in the UK. This probably doesn’t show up on most brand segmentations but is a critical issue for any brand to address to succeed in one of the most important markets in Europe. 10 million inhabitants of the UK were born abroad.

There is a genuine divide in the UK; London is a genuinely diverse, digital first economy, many other areas aren’t. This needs to be brought into marketing strategy.

There is a far greater nuance and complexity to targeting, it requires objective, forensic data to allow successful addressable targeting. Add to this that consumers are the antithesis of what their devices tell us about them; they are illogical, make irrational decisions, are loyal to brands, football clubs and stuff that makes no sense. Consumers respond to persuasion and emotional stimuli as well rational logic.

The old adage of advertising reaching the right people, in the right place, with the right message was never more relevant than now, but it is significantly more complicated. There is an explosion in the number of channels and data to target people and a greater chance of ineffective, imprecise targeting.

ADDRESSABLE MEDIA STRATEGY – PINSIGHT TECHNOLOGY

Addressable activity should look like ‘normal’ advertising to the groups who are being targeted, using the same channels, same quality of content, just more relevant to a particular audience.

This might involve adapting content to highlight specific shopping locations, local events, offers or any variable that will be important for an audience. Addressable TV campaigns start at less than £50,000 and can be on air in a matter of weeks, high quality TV commercials can be made from adapted assets in days and on affordable budgets. Every medium is genuinely in scope, the only limit is an advertiser’s ambition and imagination. Why is this relevant, because activating multiple media channels drives better performance.

Our approach to addressable media replicates this. We believe that addressable strategies should be multi-channel and operate across the whole customer journey.

We are developing PINSIGHT, an audience-based planning and mapping tool that will allow us to easily understand the individual addressable opportunity of each medium by audience and location. This will allow us to take an audience first approach and then assess all available channels.

Does it add up? Data solves the puzzle

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 10:22:51 GMT

Nick Manning, one of the smartest media commentators, recently wrote in the Media Leader

‘The advertising that works best is — surprise, surprise — the type that both reaches its audience (not a bad start), commands their attention (even better) and that they enjoy (not a bad goal).’

The key to developing this is real consumer insight; not targeting ABC1 adults aged 55 plus, but genuinely understanding consumer behaviour, how to reach core consumers and what motivates them.

The core of addressable media is being able to reach specific, identified consumer groups. An example is Sky’s Adsmart, which we use extensively.

Adsmart is technology that distributes specific ads to individual Sky and Virgin Media home set-top boxes, so advertisers can communicate effectively on a one-to-one basis to identified households. This is around 30 to 40 per cent of UK homes (depending on audience and location.) The key to using the system effectively is data targeting.

Sky Adsmart now has over 900 individual target segments to use as target audiences: everything from location by postcode to shopping behaviour to purchase behaviour to technology use to lifestyle. These are made up using a combination of Sky’s own household data with household-level data from a number of leading data providers, including shopper data from many major retailers.

Advertisers can also upload their own data at postcode level to the platform; they can (according to Sky…)

Target groups of existing customers with up-sell or renewal messages.
Profile existing customers to understand their characteristics.
Exclude existing customers to target potential new customers.

What is important is that clients can use their own data to target specific groups of prospects, achieved by profiling customer records and augmenting with other data sources.

This allows us to develop a SINGLE ADDRESSABLE AUDIENCE . It’s essential to have one agreed quantitatively based and calibrated audience that is used for all targeting. Most media owners use different data sources and methodologies, often creating look-alike audiences which can vary quite considerably.

To be able to run effective addressable activity across multiple channels, one audience nomenclature is essential.

The reality is that most brands have quite limited cohorts of users, in addition most brands generate the vast majority of their revenue and profit from around 20 per cent of their customer base, proving Vilfredo Pareto’s study of wealth distribution in Italy in the 19 ^th century largely correct.

Most marketing theory talks about generating mass awareness, we are entering a world where this may be impossible and need to rethink what we can achieve. Targeting and convincing the 20 per cent of customers who contribute 80 per cent of sales maybe a far better option in a fragmented media landscape. The issue is finding them.

AUDIENCE INTELLIGENCE

All of these are achievable via a data led, consumer centric addressable strategy, which we call AUDIENCE INTELLIGENCE .

Why? Because understanding consumer behaviour unlocks insight into which specific media channels they consume, also what motivates them and how they behave, therefore where advertisers should invest.

We have already established no one medium has universal effect, multiple channels are required to maximise response.

A huge benefit is that addressable advertising can be targeted using a clients’ own customer data, rather than translating data into a broad proxy defined by age or ‘social class.’ If a client has a 1 million data customer records, we can analyse and group these by location, behavioural similarity and average value. We can understand exactly what media they use, when and what combinations will influence their purchasing behaviour.

Our approach is to analyse client’s customer data, using analysing their postcode data and previous transaction data via a census-based segmentation tool, we are one of few UK agencies to subscribe to CACI’s ACORN database.

This divides the UK population into one of 65 types based on their type of housing, occupation, financial position and a lot more. We attribute every data record to one of these groups, using their postcode as an identifier. We can look at value of each group based on total value, frequency of interaction, lapsed users and emerging customers. It means we’re dividing the UK into groups of 350,000 households that we can then specifically target via addressable channels. We create granular targeting models of live customers, which link back to key business KPIs. We can go on to establish cost per acquisition and retention to fulfil commercial imperatives.

We add further ‘media’ and behavioural insight using YouGov Profiles data, effectively taking the guess work out of targeting. YouGov Profiles has a data set based on streaming behaviour, so we can get insight on how to target streamers and ‘free to air’ avoiders.

We can create very accurate targeting and acquisition models. Alternatively, it’s possible to create addressable targets based on existing consumer models and turn this into addressable audiences. So, if a client has a preferred consumer profile, developed through qualitative research or social listening, this can be turned into an audience that can be addressably targeted. We’re taking the guesswork out of targeting and create one model that works across all disciplines.

TV industry needs ‘faster approval methods’

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 16:55:02 GMT

The key word for TV advertising going forward must be “simplicity”, with one of the barriers being TV’s approval process.

That is according to Charlie Makin, founder of Be Addressable, which helps brands move beyond linear into addressable advertising to reach customers in new ways.

Makin spoke to Omar Oakes, former editor-in-chief of The Media Leader , about the challenges faced by TV players.

He described that, first and foremost, there’s “a lot of complexity” about “how data works and what to do with it”, therefore the industry must push for simplicity.

As he explained: “How we can make this a simple thing for clients to access, because at the moment it’s complicated.”

Watch the full interview:

Indeed, brands need to be able to buy AV advertising in the same way that they can buy from tech platforms.

“What you don’t need is broadcasters fighting over budgets with each other,” Makin continued. “What we need to be doing is selling against other platforms.”

For Makin, one crucial part of this challenge is the fact that TV is highly regulated in the UK. While not advocating for deregulation, since TV also distinguishes itself from other channels by being regulated, he believes the industry needs “faster approval methods”.

“There has to be a level playing field,” Makin pointed out.

The interview was recorded at The Future of TV Advertising Global in London in December.

Original article published on Media Leader, on 21 Jan 2025

Read the original article here: https://uk.themedialeader.com/tv-industry-needs-faster-approval-methods/

Out of home: the oldest medium is possibly the most addressable

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 14:23:53 GMT

Out of Home is an imprecise moniker for the poster industry, the smartphone has made everything out of home. In this section we’re looking at how to target consumers on the move, looking at posters and instore media or Retail Media, which will grow rapidly.

A lot of retail media is now digital, based around ‘phone usage and targeting people by location, but there are other emerging opportunities, especially around addressable TV, obviously Amazon Prime Video is a huge player, but there are emerging opportunities with other AV and digital channels.

The earliest poster advertising can be traced back to Indian rock art around 4000 BCE. Technology has moved on in the last 6,024 years, but the principles are the same, putting simple relevant messages in relevant locations.

There are around 400,000 sites and screens in Great Britain. They can be bought in multiple ways and there are many specific packages available by location, for example, in shopping centres. 70.2 per cent of adults see a digital screen in a week, 96.9 per cent of people see a static poster, so the reach is pretty universal.

There is more and more choice, though the process of trading and buying out of home makes addressability more complicated. Although people in the industry may push back, it’s difficult to buy high quality sites short term in specific locations. Programmatic has created opportunities and short cuts, but it isn’t infallible, and the ease of access doesn’t always justify the loss of control.

Addressable out of home doesn’t have to be some complex invisible digital channel served programmatically. London Lites is a digital poster contractor with over 40 sites in affluent, shopping areas in the capital. This is an addressable channel, it can be accessed ‘programmatically,’ targeted by location to drive awareness to affluent customers close to shops, messaging can be dynamically changed, it can be augmented with other addressable or locational channels.

Our view is that out of home is a brilliant support medium for other addressable channels, establishing the link between awareness and location. Evidence of payback as a solus medium is difficult to establish, but we believe OOH it is an integral part of the mix to amplify other channels but usually needs to run in conjunction rather than as a solus medium, with location targeted digital display or social media or even addressable TV. It is the most addressable medium because it can be targeted by precise location, in conjunction with other channels.

The fastest growing channel in the world in terms of media expenditure is Retail Media. Instore static and digital advertising is forecast to be the fastest growing area of UK commercial media. Obviously, this is all highly addressable.

The Financial Times/eMarketer predicted that US Retail Media was worth $40 billion in 2022 and is growing at more than 20% per annum.

How ever, there are a number of issues to address:

Firstly, are significant budgets shifting in the UK? There is a lot of conference and LinkedIn self-aggrandisement, but no real body of case studies where a brand has developed an integrated strategy using addressable and retail media channels to drive a significant shift in performance.

There will be the inevitable land grab by consultants and agencies and a lot of wasted money before we reach some conclusion. The issue is commentators and planners are focussing on channels rather than consumers. Forecasters are looking at the success of Amazon who make $31 billion from selling advertising and hoping other platforms will develop like this. So far, Amazon is a one-off closed loop marketplace and it’s been a long haul, over ten years of weighty investment.

Our view is that successful Retail Media strategies should be centred on customers, not channels. Analysis and profiling of first party consumer data allows targeting of addressable advertising across the whole customer journey, so that reaching a potential customer instore is just the final part of a contact strategy.

All successful media strategies are based on consumer insight and same discipline needs to be applied to the emerging Retail Media marketplace. Currently the focus is on execution and channel deployment rather than audience insight.

Secondly, geography matters. Consumer behaviour varies massively across the nation; economic circumstance is a huge variable but also whether a store is urban or suburban or in an area with a broad ethnic mix or a highly competitive, high-profile location, people travel further to Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush than Kew Retail Park. That said, most shops are parts of local communities and retail media strategies need to reflect this. We help clients analyse store portfolios against the proximity of key audiences they need to reach. There will be locations that require greater investment than others, this needs to be built into the targeting strategy.

The growth of Retail Media has largely been an American phenonium, physical retail is still huge in the US, whilst e-commerce in the UK is twice as large as a proportion of total retail sales (36.3 per cent versus 16 per cent in the USA.) Given the dominance of digital tech in the ‘States and the fragmentation of TV platforms, there has been huge growth in connected TV as a Retail Media channel to drive instore sales. This has yet to happen in the UK beyond Amazon Prime Video.

Roundel Media is the self-serve platform for Target (which has 1,900 US stores) and delivers access to all digital channels, including AV, from one self-serve platform. They claim 91% of Target guests subscribe to a streaming service.

The UK isn’t close to this, possibly because the size of the prize isn’t as great. Target has 165 million guests or customers, creating a huge potential advertising marketplace, in comparison Tesco Clubcard has around 20 million members, obviously massive but not on the same scale.

There are opportunities in the UK, FMCG brands can target Sainsbury’s customers using Nectar 360 data on Channel 4’s All 4, their streaming channel. Dunnhumby, Tesco’s retail media and data partner, can combine Tesco Clubcard data with Google, Meta, Pinterest, The Trade Desk, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky datasets, to deliver multi layered, precision targeting that can be evaluated beyond the Tesco Retail Media ecosystem across search, social and TV platforms, Live Ramp and Sky Media.

However, we’ve not yet seen zeitgeist shifting campaigns, where a brand has changed its performance using an addressable, data driven strategy using retailer data. They may exist and not been published, or the UK market isn’t quite ready.

That said, the opportunity is massive but requires a different mindset. Allowing brands to target known consumers via high quality retail channels across the whole purchase cycle is exciting. But it will require a coalition of disciplines and technologies that currently don’t naturally sit well together nor share similar agendas. Shopper media campaigns are often judged on driving immediate response, whereas awareness shifting advertising is judged over longer periods with ‘softer’ measurement criteria. There has to a common currency to enable this.

The IPA, the advertising trade body, recently ran a seminar on retail media and social commerce, so maybe there is a shift and evidence that the advertising industry is taking Retail Media seriously.

Agency structures don’t make linking above the line and retail media easy and there are often different budget holders at clients, digital technology and single sources of data will probably be the game changer.

Addressable TV: focus on the viewer

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 14:23:44 GMT

TV advertising is changing, driven by viewing habits and technology. Executed properly advertising on TV is phenomenally effective and there is a huge library of evidence to back this up. It is deeply researched and validated, but what worked 5 years ago is now probably redundant now.

More and more brands are trying TV for the first time. Between 2017-2021, the average number of new-to-TV advertisers a year was 1,003. It’s important to note that these aren’t just huge businesses with budgets to match, 31 per cent of all advertisers spent under £50k on TV and 53 per cent spent below £250k.

So, this is largely driven by brands trying and testing TV and this will continue grow as there are more opportunities. But it does mean we need different rules, using advanced data to target specific groups of people and more evidence to prove effect.

In the analogue world, which was only about 30 years ago, targeting didn’t really matter. It was pretty easy to reach everyone. Over 90 per cent of the population watched ‘live’ commercial TV in a week, almost everyone had an appointment to view. In the early 90’s, bars were strangely empty on early Friday nights because young people stayed in to watch the next episode of Friends at 9.00 pm on Channel 4.

Targeting was relatively straightforward because there was little channel choice; standard strategies against ill defined, broad audiences still delivered awareness. Lager brands targeted young men, consumer goods brands targeted housewives with children and financial services targeted ABC1 adults. These were broad, old-fashioned labels; based on occupational labels from the 1961 census, but it kind of worked, agencies knew roughly where to aim.

It's fundamentally different now. The world has turned on its head; universal, mass coverage is no longer possible and different groups respond to different messages in different ways.

Consumer viewing is spread across a vast array of platforms. Total video viewing a day is still huge, just over 4½ hours for everyone aged over 4 years old. But only 40 per cent of viewing is to live or scheduled TV, and this is predominantly older people.

Less than a fifth of 16-24-year-olds’ viewing is now to free to air broadcasters, compared to nearly 90 per cent for over-64s.

Adults aged 25-34 years old are the heaviest viewers of streaming (or Subscriber funded VoD*/Advertiser funded VoD* services,) at 65 minutes per day, or 28 per cent of their total in-home video time.

However, the fastest growing groups of streamers are 55-74-year-olds and children, both increasing by more than 10 per cent year on year. (This data is from OFCOM in 2024. One thing that we guarantee won’t disappear is the use of acronyms in media, VoD* means video on demand, basically a distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request, therefore not scheduled.)

The issue is important; any brand using a conventional, predominantly ‘live’ TV strategy, will run an increasingly greater risk of missing their target audience rather than reaching them, especially if they want to reach younger or more affluent, lighter viewers.

Additionally, a strategy focussed on ‘live’ channels will massively overexpose certain parts of the target audience and fail to reach others.

The old planning ‘rules’ need to evolve; we used to plan to reach 80 per cent of a broad audience in a month. Mass reach is now unachievable, because consumers have migrated to other platforms to view. Hard to reach audiences just don’t watch much scheduled TV.

We are emerging into a post-channel world. 45 per cent of households have 2 or more streaming subscription services, and this doesn’t include catch-up services like ITVX. The attraction of the new platforms is incredibly powerful, but levels of churn are significant and constant. A YouGov survey from April this year showed 31 per cent have cancelled or removed at least one streaming service in the last 12 months. Competition for viewers is intense and will get fiercer as more addressable platforms launch.

Brands need to use robust consumer data to plan future addressable multi-platform campaigns. Amazon, Disney Plus and Netflix plus others are now associate members of Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK and their audiences are measured by BARB, so the industry is consolidating and becoming accountable. All the major platforms now have broadly similar levels of monthly reach, giving advertisers many options to target specific audiences, targeting simplistic, demographic audiences should become redundant:

This is an important shift, as we get a better insight into audience behaviour and more options, it should drive better TV media planning, targeting specific audiences based on first party data.

There is real evidence that TV is no longer mass participation. However hard they try; brands can’t reach everyone. They need to focus on specific cohorts of viewers.

Viewing of mass reach programmes has tumbled; in 2014, nearly 2,500 programmes had an audience of more than 4 million. By 2022, the number had halved to under 1,200. The biggest decline was news programming, which fell by 72 per cent.

The national broadcasters are still incredibly important parts of our social fabric but can be accessed through multiple platforms.

In January 2024 ITV broadcast the four-part drama documentary Mr Bates vs the Post Office. It changed government policy within a week, it probably had a greater effect than any non-sport TV event in the last decade.

The series averaged 9.8 million viewers across all four episodes and the series, including the documentary, and was streamed 16.6 million times on ITVX. This highlights the importance of ‘event’ TV, which only really works on ‘free to air’ channels, but also how important video on demand streaming services are.

No one predicted that it would catch the zeitgeist of the nation, but also, importantly that nearly half the viewers were via what are called ‘FAST’ platforms. Free Ad-funded Streamed Television, which are addressable platforms. This shows Addressable Media doesn’t have to niche.

It shows advertisers have powerful new ways to reach core audiences using addressable TV, they can use first party data to select specific audiences based on product consumption, all platforms offer multiple ways of retargeting through other devices and platforms. Amazon Prime, the second biggest streaming platform, has 12.4 million households paying for a regular subscription, directly linking to a huge retail platform.

The issue is how to use it effectively and simplify a complex process.

Caveat emptor: the pitfalls of programmatic trading

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 14:23:40 GMT

Bob Hoffman has burst the bubble on programmatic trading. He is one of the smartest commentators on the advertising media world, described as the most provocative man in advertising. An American former agency director, he has shown the significant risks of using programmatic platforms to reach audiences, largely due to bad practises from intermediaries.

The programmatic concept is brilliant in theory, automating the incredibly complex process of serving digital display advertising and integrating data to drive better response.

The ‘elephant in the room’ is that it is almost completely unregulated, has been hijacked by people often not working in clients’ best interests (and that sometimes includes media agencies,) is overly complicated and can deliver poor levels of response. It’s estimated at least a quarter of spend is wasted because it is never seen, and that’s from the USA’s Association of National Advertisers.

Quoting Bob Hoffman’s must-read recent book;

INSIDE THE BLACK BOX - HOW MARKETERS WASTE BILLIONS ON ONLINE ADVERTISING.

‘In 2024, marketers will spend over $650 billion on online advertising. A substantial proportion of this - perhaps in the hundreds of billions - will be completely wasted.

Between ad fraud, made for advertising sites (MFAs), hidden middleman fees, crooked publishers, unreliable data, unreliable reports, viewability issues, click fraud, false attribution, consumer inattention, and the utter lack of transparency, advertisers are being fucked blind.’

He then goes on to say…

‘According to a study by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) and PwC, half of programmatic ad money is being siphoned off by adtech middlemen before it pays for a single ad.’

‘According to the ISBA report alluded to above, 80% of the websites that programmatically purchased ads run on are "non-premium" websites. "Non-premium" is a nice British gentlemanly way of saying "crap."’

Why are we highlighting this?

The WARC/AA Expenditure Report shows in 2023 digital display accounted for 35% of all UK ad spend, a staggering £12.9 billion a year, growing at over 11 per cent a year. eMarketer estimated that 95.5 per cent of the UK’s total digital display ad spending in 2023 was programmatic, the largest proportion of any country they track. Because digital display is the most addressable medium by audience and location, it really matters how it’s executed.

The UK based company, Location Sciences, who verify location data, conducted an analysis of 500 million digital location-targeted impressions delivered in the UK and US (in early 2019) and found that 65 per cent of spend was wasted. 29 per cent of impressions delivered outside of the targeted area, whilst 36 per cent ‘may’ have been wasted due to a lack of quality location signals. If this is true, it’s genuinely shocking.

So, if £12.9 billion was spent this way, £8.4 billion was potentially wasted.

To address this, it's imperative to focus on creating engaging, locationally relevant, quality content delivered to known, premium environments. This requires close management and control of publishers and sites used, it can’t be left to a third party, and it needs close monitoring.

Adwanted’s the Future of TV Global 2024

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 15:46:37 GMT

I loved Adwanted’s the Future of TV Global conference, it was genuinely inspiring and demonstrated we are at the beginning of a revolution where data, tech and high-quality content are converging to create a completely different AV marketplace.

The key themes for me…

We are rapidly moving towards an American model, with more choice for advertisers and greater flexibility. The addressable AV market is nearly a quarter of all US TV ad spend. It’s growing the market where other channels are declining, we need to bring this to the UK.

There was a lot of discussion about customer funnels and where TV sits and what it can and can’t deliver, I think this is a bit simplistic, in the emerging era TV will be able to deliver far more with the intelligent use of data.

James Rooke, President of Comcast Advertising, made a plea for simplicity and common standards. I echo this, our role in complex environment is make it easier for clients and be able to demonstrate overall effect. We need common language and definitions of things like CTV, addressable TV and linear.

People talked about barriers to entry, which are slowly breaking down, but it’s still more difficult to transact TV than many digital and social channels and an unlevel playing field in terms of regulation.

There was a lot of debate about measurement, but I was surprised not to see more data businesses in the rooms. We are still struggling to find common standards within addressable AV.
But overall, very exciting...

Charlie Makin, Co-Founder

The Dominance of Smartphones and the Rise of Badvertising

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 09:37:44 GMT

The mass adoption of the smartphone is the most significant development in advertising and media since the launch on ITV in 1955. The evolution to be able to address digital media started on January 9 ^th , 2009, when Steve Jobs launched the iPhone. It wasn’t the first smartphone available but drove phenomenal growth.

15 years later, 97% of the population have a smartphone and spend 3¾ hours a day using their device. 16–34-year-olds spend 4½ hours a day on their screen, if not more.

The smartphone has changed media behaviour, it has become our primary life management tool; driving social media engagement, changing how we communicate and access entertainment, now available literally anyplace and anytime.

Usage is constantly changing and evolving, consumers are the agents of change.

TikTok launched in the UK in 2018, only 6 years ago. We are now the heaviest users worldwide. The number of TikTok users in the UK is expected to grow to 16.8 million users by the end of 2024. Active Android users spend nearly 50 hours a month on the platform, over an hour and a half a day! Advertising on TikTok can be targeted by a huge range of variables, ranging from specific locations to key audiences.

It's an incredibly powerful channel that reaches an increasingly difficult to reach audience.

The issue is verification and measurement, advertisers are used to audited and verified audience data, which doesn’t exist on many digital platforms who mark their own homework, this can lead to overclaim and misreporting.

THE SMARTPHONE AND BADVERTISING

The smartphone allows multiple ways for brands to communicate with existing and new customers, meaning we can ‘address’ advertising to specific devices by location and proximity, time of day, weather, pollen count plus other variables. Advertisers can retarget consumers based on their previous search behaviour, use their locational data (both in-apps and via social media,) running video ads before YouTube content plus many, many other ways.

But because we can advertise doesn’t mean we should.

Consumers are bombarded with commercial messages on their ‘phones (most don’t justify being called ads.) How many? No one really knows, but there are estimates from the USA of between 6,000 and 10,000 commercial messages a day, but whatever it is, it’s too much to have any real impact.

The massive growth in penetration of smartphones has created a goldrush amongst advertisers. The logic is simple, talk to people through the one device that is almost universal, and they also use for shopping. Win, win, win…

The issue is context; economists refer to the ‘selection effect’ or ‘selection bias’ in digital advertising; brands making wasteful investment decisions because the data is skewed, often stalking potential or recent customers across every available channel.

It’s critical for advertisers to distinguish between ‘selection’ effect and the ‘advertising’ effect, the latter where intelligently targeted advertising stimulates some brand switching or trial rather than just irritating potential customers.

Someone wittily said advertising had moved from being mad men to math men. This was possibly true; the downside was that we are in danger of focussing on quantitative data at the expense of consumer insight. The same standards should apply to mobile advertising as any other medium. Many people have favourite TV or cinema ads, they don’t feel the same way about mobile advertising. They should. It’s often interruptive, repetitive, needy and poorly executed. It needs to inspire and engage.

Digital advertising has become a Faustian pact; any successful brand needs to invest heavily in digital communications, but they know that many potential customers are actively trying to avoid their communication through adblockers and the rest, and the cookie-less future makes it tougher.

Additionally, there is often inaccuracy in data used with mobile advertising platforms buying in third party data for targeting and not understanding the nuances of the data they are using.

We believe that mobile advertising is an incredibly important and powerful addressable channel, but needs careful execution, it shouldn’t be a quick fix and standards need to improve, especially around programmatic execution.

Why advertising isn’t working (and what might fix it)

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:01:05 GMT

Parts of the ad industry are in rude health; but the particular issues agencies face is a key challenge for anyone who wants our industry to do better.

We went to the Who Cares? conference a couple of weeks ago, a collective of concerned individuals about the future of the ad industry. Their main issue was that we are all producing advertising that not only doesn’t work but is at the same time unpopular with the public whilst abusing their trust.

However, UK adspend is growing at around at 6-8% a year in the UK, so it’s relatively healthy. The issue is a lot of this growth is from search, digital display and broadcaster VoD (albeit from a low base.)

Agencies don’t seem to be growing at this level, most of the major holding companies are showing low single digit growth, if at all. I suspect some ad revenue growth is from clients spending directly with media owners and platforms; Meta’s revenues (worldwide) grew 22% in Q2 2024, probably not generated by agencies.

But the concern Who Cares? should address isn’t the health of the advertising sector. it’s how agencies of the future should develop.

And I’m not convinced the current operating structure of agencies will be the most effective for the future.

Quality and quantity concerns

Two stinger facts from the day:

>> Sir John Hegarty said that only 6% of advertising is truly effective. I don’t think it means that 94% of advertising is truly ineffective, but it’s still shockingly low.

>> Michael Farmer (an American advertising business analyst) said that in 1992 the average creative employee at an American ad agency worked on seven briefs a year. In 2019 it was 311 briefs, that’s churning out about one ad a day.

These are stark findings. The latter probably partially explains the first fact.

Who Cares? easily identified the issues facing the industry: a lot of low-quality ads, many inaccurately targeted, agencies being poorly remunerated, and recruitment of talent being a struggle.

I think they should add that many clients are testing non-agency models and don’t necessarily see agencies as a solution to fixing communication issues.

The conference didn’t come any clear solutions; the consensus seemed to be we need to make better ads and be more trusted by consumers and clients.

Meanwhile, better craft isn’t a viable solution if clients are avoiding agencies, it’s a more fundamental issue about demonstrating where agencies can add real value (in terms of financial performance).

The real media issue: behaviour

But there was remarkably little mention nor insight into how consumers are behaving.

How have people changed, especially managing 14 years of economic stagnation? How are they ‘coping’ by being bombarded 6,000-10,000 commercial messages a day (in the US) and increasingly blocking and avoiding advertising?

This is the real issue, and better ads isn’t the solution in a world where half of the UK’s Gen Z’s watch no scheduled, live TV in any week.

I was surprised that it wasn’t really explored. It’s a tipping point that will dictate the whole future of the industry.

Meanwhile, the consumption of ad-funded media is rapidly changing.

Take-up of subscription video-on-demand services has levelled out at just over two-thirds of the UK population and just over 20% of UK adults now listen to at least one podcast a week — that’s 11.7m people, podcast brands are now live events, both The News Agents at the Royal Albert Hall and The Rest is Politics at the O2 will probably sell out.

Media consumption is fundamentally shifting, and this has implications for every aspect of developing advertising content.

Why the agency model is broken

At the most basic level, paid-for advertising exists to fund commercial media channels and brands invest in it because it gives access to audiences and ultimately deliver sales. It always evolves, as both consumers and media change driven by economic circumstance and technology.

The agency model needs to evolve as this changes, the current structure of agencies is possibly inappropriate for a more complex future. If we don’t, we run the risk of being increasingly marginalised.

But there was no discussion at the Who Cares? about what the agency of the future might deliver.

We are entering an era where mass reach is almost impossible and doesn’t guarantee interaction — it’s a fundamental shift. Driving growth for brands is increasingly competitive, consumers are tribal, cynical and often highly critical.

The launch and recent collapse of the second-hand car marketplace, Cazoo, is, perhaps, a case in point. Cazoo spent hundreds of millions on brand advertising and sports sponsorships which built 74% brand awareness, but probably achieved less than 1% share of the used car market (it said it had sold 120,000 cars in the UK).

Mass fame now doesn’t necessarily equate to mass appeal nor interaction.

The issue we used to face was scarcity of opportunity to reach consumers, however there is now an overload of channels. As an industry, we still measure mass awareness, because we assume that ads will be universally seen, we now need to measure attention and focus on reaching people who are genuinely in market; mass reach is now longer viable nor affordable.

The rules of engagement have changed massively, but we still operate through legacy agency models.

Key challenges for agencies

So we need to redefine what effective role agencies can contribute in the future:

>> The role of advertising is to help generate consumer demand for brands, which means driving long term engagement with core prospects. It affects everything from share price to long-term valuation of a client’s business. We need to help clients get better insight into where investment in communications will create long term value. I think advertising is often regarded as a short-term cost rather than a long-term value creator.

>> Agencies need to change their business models to align more closely with clients’ objectives, perhaps sharing more of the risk. I think the reason many clients go directly to digital platforms is because agencies may be regarded as slow, expensive and opaque. We need to show where we contribute value through our expertise and objectivity.

>> The constant pitching process means that all effort goes into winning business rather than delivering value to existing clients and means that clients focus on short term solutions rather than long term value creation. The industry is obsessed with volume and the consequence is that many agencies become large generalists, competing fiercely for competitive briefs that are broadly executional and increasingly short term, and offer little real differentiation. There should be more room for specialists, working on specific projects, on shorter term, high value contracts, working with bigger generalists.

>> The pitching process, procurement and focus on costs rather than value has also eroded the number of senior staff. In an increasingly complex world, clients need expert advice. The Who Cares? conference highlighted how difficult recruitment is, agencies should consider bringing back experienced people, perhaps on flexible contracts?

>> Agencies need to be genuine experts on consumer data and insight, this needs to be detailed, robust and forensic. I see a lot of briefs with inaccurate or superficial descriptions of potential consumers. I think a huge opportunity is being able to articulate who the future customers of a brand are, how to reach them, what will persuade them to engage and how valuable they are. We claim to be in a data driven economy, a lot of consumer data I’ve seen is often pretty superficial and generated from unverified digital sources.

>> People in media agencies need to be more forensic and objective about distribution issues with digital and programmatic media. As Bob Hoffman has shown, there is massive misattribution and overclaim, we need to be real experts in the pros and cons of platforms rather than acting as resellers. This is where agencies will add value to clients and be able to move spend back into the agencies rather than going directly to the likes of Meta.

>> We should reconsider a new form of full-service delivery with creative and media people working as one team, where we deliver comprehensive responses to briefs across multiple channels. It needs to be driven by data and consumer insight, generating a channel strategy that is matched by inspirational content that resonates with specific groups of consumers.

>> Clients’ remits are increasingly complex whilst the advertising and media world is becoming more complicated. The explosion of choice makes finding the right investment strategy riskier, whilst there is increasing commercial pressure to deliver. We need to get involved in upstream business and investment planning. This is where trust comes in, we can only achieve this if we are seen to be truly impartial.

Opportunity knocks if we focus on what matters

Who Cares? is a really interesting initiative. Whilst it talks about issues with the ad industry, I think the real focus should be around the future of agencies.

Parts of the ad industry are in rude health; but the issue is how to help agencies deliver what clients need to grow their businesses. We need to look to the future, I think we are potentially at the beginning of an era of significant growth in the industry.

But the agency operating model needs to evolve to drive this.

Challenging marketing myths about the UK population

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 15:54:55 GMT

We do a lot of hyper-local analysis. Census 2021 is a brilliant data source that challenges many marketing myths about the composition of the UK population and how brands need to communicate in a new era. For example, Braintree and Brent are 60 miles apart: 7% of the population of Braintree were born abroad, while 56% of the population of Brent were born abroad; yet most communication plans wouldn’t take this into consideration

The Office for National Statistics has mapped the latest census data, looking at levels of deprivation from national down to neighborhood levels in England and Wales.

It's granular and examines multiple variables of deprivation, including education, employment, health, and housing, as well as areas where people are less exposed to deprivation.

Traditional campaign planning taught us to think that the South East is wealthier than the rest of the UK. This is now a massively inaccurate generalization; the distribution of wealth is far more complex and patchy. Areas of Hampshire, like Havant, are deprived, juxtaposed to Winchester, which is wealthy.

London is fascinating, and I think we rely on old stereotypes of an affluent capital city at our peril. Over 40% of Londoners were born outside the UK, and it's far from uniformly wealthy.

Former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Alan Johnson said on the Rest is Politics podcast that "the difference in life expectancy between North and South Kensington is the same as the difference between North and South Korea." Fifty-four percent of the borough's population were born outside the UK.

This data should influence the choices we make in developing marketing propositions and targeting advertising, as well as the messaging to motivate specific groups of people.

It also shows that London needs to be treated in a completely different context from the rest of the UK and, in many respects, is increasingly an outlier. Get in touch to find out more; we're still burrowing through the data!

Why Addressable?

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 10:11:12 GMT

Imagine you are relaunching a product in the UK; you have fought hard to secure distribution with a retailer in a 100 or so of their flagship stores spread all over the country. Your data from other markets shows your product appeals to mid and upper affluent customers in mainly urban areas. You don’t have enough budget nor need to advertise at a significant weight nationally

To make the launch successful you need to rapidly build demand; your brand is remembered in a kitsch way from the ‘70’s, but you need to update the appeal and communicate values that are relevant to a modern, highly opinionated audience telling them about the environmental benefits you now deliver. However, you only need to communicate to about 20% of UK households to be successful, but you need to communicate to them in a compelling way. You need more than digital or direct marketing; you need to change attitudes and convince people to go in store.

This is the magic of addressable media, it delivers high quality, integrated communication, but targeted at specific consumers. It eliminates waste.

Using data profiling techniques, it’s possible to identify high potential households using the latest census data. So, you will know which postcode sectors are most important for you and closest to the stores where you have distribution, you can start to think about which media channels are available for you to target these potential customers.

The development of addressable media technology means all media channels are available to target to specific postcodes, so there is no compromise.

We ran this campaign for the relaunch of SodaStream for Christmas 2018 and won the Thinkbox TV Planning Award for the best use of a small budget.

SodaStream had won distribution in Boots, but only the top 88 stores. We profiled their potential customers using Experian MOSAIC data and ran a pre-Christmas campaign in proximity of those stores using Sky’s AdSmart addressable TV platform, local cinema, posters and hyper-local digital channels.

We were able to retarget people in Sky homes on their smartphones via their Advance digital platform as well as other digital media. So, we built awareness, consideration and conversion, but in a highly targeted way. We almost completely eradicated waste.

The campaign increased spontaneous brand awareness in homes reached by +49 per cent and spontaneous purchase consideration by +89 per cent, meaning SodaStream over delivered on sales targets and secured valuable long-term distribution with Boots and other retailers.

This was 5 years ago, and a lot has changed since then.

The campaign would now include other TV platforms; ITVX is a significant addressable platform and streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video could have been a game changer with a link to immediate purchase. However, what has changed most profoundly is the consumer.

The other gamechanger with Addressable Media is the ability to reach light viewing consumers who reject traditional media, like scheduled, broadcast TV.

‘Broadcast’ TVs weekly reach declined last year by 5 percentage points to 75%. In two to three years free to air, live TV will no longer be a mass reach medium, especially to younger or lighter viewers. In the US, there are slang terms for this; cord-cutters or cord-nevers, about 100 million people who only stream.

Already, less than a fifth of 16-24-year-olds’ weekly viewing is to live broadcasters and half of 16-24-year-olds don’t watch any broadcast TV in a week.

This doesn’t mean viewing is in decline, it’s booming, especially including viewing via smartphones.

Overall AV viewing is now over 4½ hours a day across all audiences and all platforms, some groups are way higher and encouragingly 84 per cent of TV viewing is via TV sets and increasing. We are not witnessing the decline of TV, but we are seeing a shift in how people watch it.

Audiences are spread across multiple channels and platforms, and we need new rules to be able to successfully advertise to them.

A lot of YouTube content is now viewed on TVs. People spend 49 minutes a day watching video sharing platforms. Perhaps more pertinently, audiences are switching to catchup platforms like ITVX and My4, viewing has increased 29 per cent to nearly 20 minutes a day.

We are in the middle of a media revolution that allows brands access to consumers in precisely targeted and controlled ways. Subscription VoD (or streaming services) are now in 68 per cent of households. Netflix average viewing is 21 minutes per person per day, it now has the second largest monthly reach of any platform or channel.

Our view is that addressable media provides massive opportunities for advertisers to communicate with consumers in far more precise and accurate ways, using relevant copy for specific groups of people and testing and leaning what is effective.

To do this we have to change how we think, we’ve got used to planning advertising according to certain rules which are becoming increasingly redundant. We’ve built immutable, quasi-scientific laws around brand fame and mass awareness. They were only relevant to when we had free, ad-funded TV channels with little channel choice that delivered mass audiences, we are entering a post-channel world where consumers are increasingly living in tribes defined by their media consumption, often originating from social media. This means that mass awareness is impossible to achieve.

We are entering a data and technology driven advertising world, brands need to look at the opportunities and issues involved in addressing specific messages to specific audiences…