TV Trends to Tap in 2021: Daytime Viewership and Multi-Screen Campaigns

Even with vaccine administration underway, it's clear that 2021 is going to look a lot different than every year that came before it, with remote working still representing the new standard among formerly office-based organizations. Here at New York Interconnect, we've identified two macro-trends that can help guide advertisers as they recalibrate their media plans to take advantage of some of the latest trends in the TV space: 1) shifting patterns in daytime TV viewership and 2) an unprecedented surge in multi-screen viewing behaviors. Let's take a look at how advertisers can capitalize on each trend in 2021.

The Rise in Daytime TV Viewing

Daytime television has largely been neglected territory on many advertisers' media plans, as a wide swath of their target audiences have historically spent their days in office environments, untethered from the big screens on their walls. Starting in 2020, all of that changed. Employees moved into their home offices in unprecedented numbers. And while many were still technically "at work" between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., their TV viewing habits shifted along with their office locations. According to an August Nielsen report, 29 percent of employees are watching TV or streaming content (with sound!) every day while working from home. Of the types of TV and streaming content viewed while working from home, 47 percent of viewers over 18 are watching news content, with comedy content coming in second at 40 percent.

Those viewing news content during the daytime are largely focused on local outlets, with Nielsen reporting that 64 percent of news-watching consumers are tuning to local channels to keep them informed. That's a trend we've seen strongly reflected in the New York market. We have seen strong ratings growth across two hyper-local news networks, News 12 and New York 1. In fact, local news viewership has increased 165 percent year-over-year in daytime (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) on News 12 and 213 percent on New York 1.

Advertisers are starting to take notice of the increase in daytime viewing. Recently, NYI ran a campaign measuring the impact of TV ad exposure on driving web visits. Daytime was the best performing daypart and delivered the most efficient cost per conversion (web visits).

Surges in Multi-Screen Behavior

In a trend that likely surprises no one, people spending more time at home has led to them consuming more TV and video content, particularly on streaming devices. This means it's more important than ever for advertisers to be thinking multi-screen when it comes to their budget allocations. While the migration of TV spend into digital and OTT channels might seem like a complicated endeavor, given all the different services and delivery methods, it's a necessary path to reaching the "new normal" consumer who watches TV wherever and whenever. Here at NYI, we've seen a dramatic increase in RFPs that include OTT as part of the budget allocation, and that's a trend we expect will only accelerate in the coming year.

NYI is dedicated to making multi-screen campaign-buying as simple as possible, and we're actively looking to enhance our clients' linear and addressable media campaigns with OTT, CTV and VOD executions. Our team of strategists regularly create end-to-end integrated media plans, and our data-driven, multi-screen platform, Audience One, puts those plans into action by enabling advertisers to capture impressions everywhere their audiences are watching. With a single buy, NYI clients can connect to more than 7.5 million households, 20 million consumers and 66 million screens in the nation's largest TV market.

As campaigns increasingly go multi-screen, attribution is also becoming more important than ever. At NYI, we are regularly enhancing the types of attribution studies we offer to clients, such as tying ad exposures on linear, addressable, digital and multi-screen campaigns to business outcomes like sales match backs. We are also seeing increased interest in tying TV investment to web visitation and app downloads. By incorporating attribution reports with a TV campaign, advertisers can see the strong impact TV has on driving business outcomes.

In 2021, advertisers should take advantage of daytime viewing shifts and new multi-screen behaviors within their media plans. By creating seamless, unified campaigns that reach audiences at every touchpoint, advertisers can harness the strength of every screen to reach audiences in the "new normal."

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