Are We Willing to Keep Sacrificing Reach?

In this column my readers have seen many articles about the apparently decreased abilities of many media experts to maximize target reach in the complex new media environment and we have also seen that there are ways which a few of the best media minds have discovered to get terrific reach with remarkably modest GRP All of this insight has come through Nielsen ONE which has been reporting on nearly a hundred thousand TVCTVdigital campaigns per year since 2023 Here is a link to the prior collection of such articles in this columnErwin Ephron Award Winner Howard Shimmel needs no introduction here Howard has contributed an astute analysis focusing on excess frequency amp8211 the stuff that gets in the way of reach the way crabgrass gets in the way of flowers as Erwin himself had once jested Howard also focuses on the two highest ROAS and brandbuilding media linear and streaming television the core storytelling media at the heart of every media plan aimed at growing brands by convincing new customers to give your brand a tryItamp8217s my pleasure to pass the mic to Howard hereReach mattersIamp8217m a giant disciple of Les Binet and Peter Field and the work that theyamp8217ve led on what drives the effectiveness of brand campaigns In Effectiveness in Context A Manual for Brand Building they stated that reach against a broad category target is a key variable in driving the success of branding campaignsNielsen and Bill Harvey were kind enough to share a database of thousands of Nielsen ONE campaigns that Iamp8217ll use for much of the analysis that followsA lot of the dialogue in the US market is that we have an issue with frequency management in streaming Thatamp8217s generally technology driven due to campaigns being activated across multiple DSPs leveraging different identifiers The Nielsen data clearly illustrates the CTV frequency issue Among the 1282 campaigns with 25 or more CTV GRPs154 campaigns or 12 of all campaigns had average frequency over 10 these campaigns accounted for 56 of total CTV GRPs across the 1282 campaigns51 campaigns or 4 of all campaigns had average frequency over 25 these campaigns accounted for over 43 of total CTV GRPs across the 1282 campaignsItamp8217s important to remember that this is average frequency Heavier CTV viewers are likely to have frequency 2 or 3 times higher than the averageBut at the same time we need to be cognizant of linear TVamp8217s frequency issue Among the 514 campaigns with over 25 linear TV GRPs233 campaigns or 45 of all campaigns had average frequency over 10 these campaigns accounted for 88 of total linear GRPs across the 514 campaigns68 campaigns or 13 of all campaigns had average frequency over 25 these campaigns accounted for over 60 of total linear GRPs across the 514 campaignsIamp8217ve been saying for some time that we donamp8217t have a CTV frequency or a linear frequency problem we have a TV screen frequency problem that impacts consumers advertisers and publishers When a consumer gets 14 frequency on linear and 2 frequency on CTV thatamp8217s annoying to the consumer thatamp8217s wasted spend for the advertiser and itamp8217s a missed monetization opportunity for the publisherThe industry has struggled with analytic approaches that can seamlessly in a predictive fashion activate across linear TV with its onetomany distribution approach and all things addressable including CTV To be effective the optimal approach needs to offer scale across all digital avails and needs to align with the way advertisers plan for reach daily reach weekly reach monthly reachThe need for this analytic approach is clearly evident in the Nielsen ONE data especially when you remember Les Binet and Peter Fieldamp8217s guidance about the importance of optimizing reach For campaigns with linear TV reach above 40 and CTV campaigns over 5 the Nielsen data shows on average that just about half 47 of the CTV reach is duplicated with linear so more frequency to people who already have high frequency For campaigns with linear TV reach between 30 and 40 and CTV campaigns over 5 thereamp8217s still a material overlap 36 of the average schedule CTV reach is duplicated with linear TVJust remember the greater the overlap the more reach is misseddatafuelX has a patented forecasting capability called PrecisionX PrecisionX takes a set of digital IDs and forecasts expected reach and frequency of a linear TV plan against all those IDs Those forecasts could be for tomorrow for next week for next month depending upon the planning cycle for the campaign PrecisionX forecasts can then drive incremental reach activation targeting IDs forecasted to have zero frequency for the linear campaignLeveraging PrecisionX will provide far more scale than other methods used in market like targeting cordcutters for incremental reachPrecisionX can be used for a publisher selling across linear and their CTV and FAST assets it can be used by an agency across their entire linear TV and CTVFAST buyThink about what leveraging PrecisionX means from the perspective of missed reach or achieving more reach without spending an additional media dollarAlso think about this from the perspective of how much more money it would cost to achieve 44 reach points if an advertiser accepted the overlap and tried to achieve the incremental reach by spending more money it would take about 87 million dollars to achieve those incremental reach pointsNow letamp8217s think about this from a publisher39s perspective Iamp8217ve long advocated that all major publishers with linear TV and CTV assets should guarantee total crossplatform reach not crossplatform impressions agesex or advanced audiences Especially in a world where weamp8217re taking heed of Binet and Fields Assuming we move our pricing model to cost per reach point taking the same pool of spots and impressions and driving 10 more reach means 10 increase in yieldWe have the necessary data and analytics to solve this and improve consumer experience advertiser ROI and publisher yield Whatamp8217s holding us back We shouldnamp8217t keep sacrificing reachamp160Building HighPerforming Teams May 20 2026Understanding the seasons of growth why contraction ampamp expansion are part of the processamp160This podcast discusses how growth is not a linear path but a series of seasons from the 39winter39 of shedding old identities and habits to the 39summer39 of external expansion and aligned opportunities It also addresses the common tendency to resist these cycles explaining how fighting a contractive season only leads to further frustration and prolonged stagnation Learn more about the power of curiosity how asking questions can help pull you out of apathy and move you toward progress during difficult times the art of detachment Bill explains the hidden switch of letting go to better enjoy the process of living Podcast length 55 minutesamp160Watch the VideoPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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Are We Willing to Keep Sacrificing Reach?

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