How to Control Frequency for Maximum Viewer Enjoyment of Your Advertising

Advertisers suddenly became sensitized to the problem of excess frequency circa 2018 after both Nielsen and Kantar published studies indicating that it is a major cause of consumers turning against specific brands The problem had existed for decades but digital had exacerbated it dramatically Today CTV is also guilty of adding to the problem often showing the same ad again and again in the same program sometimes backtobackOne way that this problem is being solved today is by the shift to Creators However this very effective form is not yet a medium which in itself can provide high reach even with a bevy of Creators In fact Nielsen ONE shows that the way to get high reach is to disperse across as many media types as possible and within each media type across as many different publishers and vehicles as possible with about 30 of impressions in linear and another 30 in streaming another 30 in mobile and 10 in computer My consulting relationship with Nielsen enabled me to put together a series of metaanalyses aimed primarily at maximizing reach while minimizing spend The whole series is now in one place which is hereOne of the findings of this study has been that linear is still the reach steamroller and that there is a tendency nowadays to use too little linear and therefore wind up with extremely low reach levels as compared with the past and as compared with campaigns dispersed as described aboveToday letamp8217s turn to frequencyLetamp8217s start by looking at a campaign that used very high spend as indicated by the GRP level which was about 1000 GRP per week for about 14 weeks totaling 14515 GRP This campaign went too far in the linear direction 99 of the impressions were in linear Nowadays that is a very rare pattern typically the errors are in the opposite direction The reach was 671 P2 Average frequency was 216 slightly more than 2 impressions per person per day 425 of the population was reached 20 times and 108 of the population were reached only 13 times in the 14 weeks which might be considered insufficient frequency The reach in what might be considered the optimal frequency range for the 14week period of 419 exposures constituted only 138 of the populationThere might have been good reasons for this campaign design perhaps the introduction of a new product or a brand repositioning or an aggressive move to increase market share Also although we are using persons 2 for our own convenience in conducting some of these metaanalyses if we knew the actual target and objectives this unusually linearheavy tonnage campaign might make complete senseLetamp8217s look at a campaign with a pattern closer to the type we recommend This second case is a campaign that ran for just under 12 weeks and used 1908 GRP Impressions were 576 in linear 170 in CTV 231 in mobile and 23 in computer Reach was 886 P2 Something like 13 of the GRPs as the prior campaign but 32 more reach Average frequency was 22 just under 2 exposures per week 330 of the population were reached 20 times 386 were reached 419 times and 171 were reached 13 times totals to 887 due to rounding errorIn this second case without knowing the real objectives or target the numbers look more desirable other than perhaps some concern over the 171 of the population who having been reached only 13 times over the 12 weeks might not have had a conscious exposure to the ad at all Frankly as I look over the 100000 campaigns in Nielsen ONE it looks to me as if there is more of a problem of insufficient frequency than of excess frequencyHere is a third case which exemplifies the most common pattern I see across all of these campaigns which is the tendency to underuse linear This campaign lasted about 4 weeks and used 3529 GRP It achieved a reach of 128 P2 The average frequency was 276 or about 9 exposures per day The impressions were distributed 0 to linear 981 to CTV 16 to computer and 03 to mobile 70 of the population received 20 frequency 29 received 13 frequency and 28 received 419 frequency Note that the prior case which used linear and had something closer to the recommended 30303010 balance used a bit over half the GRP and delivered just under 7X the reachThis is just the beginning of our studies into frequency control so stay tuned for more case studies and learnings Turning for the moment away from the case study approach letamp8217s explore a couple of new ideas which a few practitioners are already putting to use today to control for both insufficient frequency and excessive frequency at the same timeOne way to do this is to use addressable media to add frequency to the people who have gotten too little while also adding reach by bringing in the people who have not been reached even once Ampersand is already doing this focusing on reach extension and capable of also filling in insufficient reach if specifically requested by the clientagencyIn a related development also focused on reach rather than frequency CIMM and GoAddressable published a report put together by Howard Shimmel Jim Spaeth and Alice Sylvester which demonstrates that buying the first 40 reach of your target in linear then switching to addressable TV to reach the people who were not reached by linear targeting the unreached specifically based on the household level knowledge received from the linear set top box data is the most cost efficient way to maximize reach And anything that maximizes reach automatically flattens the frequency distribution tending toward alleviation of insufficient and excessive frequency although not totally solving those frequency problemsamp8220Myamp8221 sales effect amplification advertising technology company RMT Resonance Mapping Technology in partnership with tvbeat has created a venture called UltiMedia which uses the above learnings plus RMT to maximize reach and efficient brand growth at the same time The idea includes pooling of inventory so that broad frequency capping can be applied amp8211 because such capping is fairly useless if applied only within siloed platforms Spectrum with its programmatic linear streaming VOD and addressable inventory covering 25 of the US population is the base for the first proofofconcept testing of UltiMedia expected to begin this year with a number of other media interested in coming along Here is a white paper on the subject of using pooling and addressable as ways to control excess and insufficient frequencyBuilding HighPerforming TeamsOur new podcast explores the topic of Being in the Inbetween Phase a liminal stage of growth when we can feel disoriented lonelyamp160or frustrated and why itamp8217s also a powerful indicator that real growth is happeningamp160Rather than rushing to amp8220fixamp8221 the discomfort this episode invites listeners to slow down listen more deeply to themselves and learn how to navigate uncertainty with trust patience and selfawarenessThis monthamp8217s podcast length is amp877646 minutes Watch 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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How to Control Frequency for Maximum Viewer Enjoyment of Your Advertising

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