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Streaming Can Be Elevated with Dynamic Creative Versioning Technology
Addressable targeting on linear TV and more precise targeting on streaming have long been promoted as the way forward for converged TV advertising. However, many brands, particularly larger brands, do not see much financial benefit in audience segmentation.
Their goal in using television is to reach as many people as possible, and they have a large audience. Frequently, their television commercials are not so much about selling a specific product as they are about creating an image of the brand in the minds of consumers.
At the same time, their audiences are not homogeneous, with significant regional and demographic differences that make a strong case for some variation in their messaging.
The tension between the need for scale and the need for better targeting is real, and the ability to quickly create more personalised versions of a campaign could be just what the industry needs.
The most significant issue with television and premium video for most brands is cost.
The higher CPMs associated with attempting to reach multiple audience segments via a targeted buy can easily drive up the cost of that buy to the point where it no longer makes sense.
Similarly, the cost of filming different creative executions to target all of the brand’s different potential audiences is even more expensive because production and agency costs would skyrocket.
These high costs contrast sharply with digital display advertising, where all purchases are targeted and personalised creative variations are simple to create and generally quite cost-effective.
So, how can converged TV compete?
The solution is to use software-based solutions to create alternative versions of commercial spots without (a) adding budget-busting extra production costs, (b) changing the inherent message of the (inter)national brand campaign, or (c) forcing the brand to abandon the effectiveness of a broad-based national buy.
These solutions can be as simple as inserting different still frames at the beginning, middle, or end of a commercial, or they can go much further—current software solutions like Flashtalking allow you to insert actual video frames within the creative and dynamically deliver them across streaming, CTV, and digital video to specific audiences within a larger media buy.
It’s as simple as creating your flagship commercial and then using technology to create iterations of that ad at a low cost. It’s been used in digital advertising for years, but it’s only now being used on a large scale for converged TV.
Brands that know ahead of time that they will want different versions of their commercials can shoot the extra footage during the main shoot. For other brands that don’t have the budget to shoot multiple versions or are deciding on an existing campaign, the software is now sophisticated enough to take still frames and video clips that the brand already has and turn them into segments that can be cut into the original.
Brands can then test these versions to see which ones perform best by utilising CTV’s superior data capabilities for a variety of performance metrics—everything from determining whether exposure to the commercial resulted in a website visit to determining whether the viewer simply sat through the commercial until the end.
These insights can then be used to iterate on other versions of the spot and double down on placement of variations that appear to be the most successful.
As previously stated, creative versioning is especially beneficial to brands with large but diverse audiences. Consider a mobile phone service provider. Everyone requires a mobile phone, but their reasons for doing so may differ greatly, and today’s consumers expect brands to speak directly to them.
With creative versioning, the brand can keep running their big budget branding spot while adding tags aimed at each specific audience segment. This gives them the best of both worlds: targeted creative without having to pay for multiple distinct audience segments or distinct creative units.
Another party that benefits from creative versioning is the advertising agency. TV’s sight, sound, and motion create an emotional connection with the viewer that digital display ads simply cannot replicate.
The agency still plays the primary role in designing the concept, coming up with the idea, and creating that with dynamic creative versioning technology.
The technology simply allows them to quickly and easily create multiple variations of that campaign. It’s not AI, and it doesn’t come up with campaigns on its own. It’s simply finding a way to repurpose existing assets in a way that allows for multiple variations of the same spot.
This will eventually make streaming television a more effective advertising vehicle by providing more relevant commercials that resonate with consumers. So, it’s a win-win situation all around.