TV Research: Is the Industry Doing Enough? Ad Execs Say No.

TV network research and ad sales executives are confronting a challenging reality they are investing significantly in new research data to respond to client and agency needs but ad execs are failing to reward them for these investments except in a handful of specialized cases The extensive investments made to date by many network TV companies have fallen mostly on an unimpressed ad community Among six categories of network TV sales organization performance quotadvanced research support and intelligencequot ranks last in positive perceptions Only eleven of seventy national TV sales organizations achieve positive research performance ratings from more than 50 of respondents to the new MyersBizNet Survey of Advertising Executives on National TV Value and Sales Organization PerformanceAt the opposite end of the perception scale the most positive performance ratings are for quotQuality of Sales Team and Customer Supportquot for which half 35 of the sales organizations are positively rated Ironically one of the eleven national TV organizations that39s positively rated for research is Hulu which receives positive scores from 59 of those TV buyers and planners doing business with the streaming video service owned by Fox NBCU and ABC Hulu outperforms all of its legacy broadcast and cable network competitors except Univision 75 NBCU Hispanic 68 and Nickelodeon Kids ampamp Family Group 60 There were more than 1000 responses to the MyersBizNet survey conducted among advertiser and agency executives in October MyersBizNet Survey of Advertising Executives on 70 National TV Sales Organizations amp160 amp160 Performance Category of Organizations Rated Positively amp160 by More than 50 of Respondents amp160 among 70 total evaluated amp160 amp160 Quality of Sales Team ampamp Customer Service 35 Delivers Value for the Investment 32 Provides Innovative and Creative Opportunities 28 Quality of Programming Justifies Premium Pricing 25 Offers MultiPlatform Digital Opportunities 20 Provides Advanced Research Support ampamp Intelligence 11 amp160 amp160 According to several of the ad execs surveyed positive ratings for quotadvanced research support and intelligencequot are generated primarily as a result of insights into specific market segments This explains the leadership of Univision and NBCU Hispanic both of which conduct major studies on consumer purchase behavior and media usage patterns of Hispanic audiences This research enables media planners and buyers to justify the shift of budgets from Anglo to Hispanic TV Similarly the research offerings of Nickelodeon ESPN Viacom Music ampamp Entertainment Disney Media NBC Live News ampamp Sports are all positively rated by a majority of respondents National TV sales organizations that also achieved positive ratings for research support by a majority of respondents are The Weather Channel 20th Century TV and CBS SyndicationIn conversations with agency and advertiser executives responsible for TV planning and buying decisions only automatedprogrammatic platforms and procurement realities generate greater interest than returnoninvestment metrics and advanced research initiatives The accelerating shift of budgets from network TV to digital video is prompting these discussions Marketers are pressuring their agencies to shift more money into digital video and some agencies have announced aggressive plans to do just that In response network organizations such as Turner Broadcasting have partnered with marketing mix analytics firms like Marketshare that provide clients with insights on the effectiveness and ROI of their media investments CBSTV purchases Nielsen Catalina research to demonstrate the effectiveness of hundreds of broadcast and cable series for influencing product purchase The data reflects insights such as the high impact of CBS39 Blue Bloods for driving sales in several product categories TiVo TRA Simulmedia Bill Harvey39s RMT Solutions Rentrak Nielsen and other research providers are advancing a variety of solutions in response to growing demand for advanced market insights into advertising effectiveness with a focus on network televisionHowever these investments are not yet reversing the systematic flow of budgets to digital video To date most of the data that I39ve seen establishes the clear dominance of network television programming for delivering engaged audiences and positive ROI metrics Although the data appears to be exactly what clients and their agencies are demanding the reality is that it is unlikely to reverse procurement trends toward more cost efficient lowrated inventory and often low quality digital video The greatest ally of network TV is the limited availability of network quality digital video inventory As more inventory becomes available and programmatic platforms gain industry prominence this advantage will recedeThe television industry finds itself in a Catch22 of needing to invest in improved research resources to prove its effectiveness for driving sales compared to digital and social media but confronting the reality that such investments are unlikely to drive scalable incremental growth or pricing increases at least in the foreseeable future In the meantime networks still need to invest in more traditional competitively focused research studies that are designed to capture a larger slice of a shrinking pie which does nothing to advance the longterm growth of the TV business It seems if networks want to improve their MyersBizNet research ratings shortterm tactics are more important than longterm vision and strategy That one reality probably describes the current state of the TV industry across all its business modelsRespondents for each sales organization are prequalified as doing businesshaving a relationship with the organization respondent counts vary for each organization

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TV Research: Is the Industry Doing Enough? Ad Execs Say No.

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