It goes without saying that a creative can make or break an ad campaign. TV advertisers spend millions to create visually memorable, emotion-driven and even humorous ads that will resonate with viewers. But there’s a “fire-and-forget-it” mentality when it comes to TV creatives, and it’s detrimental to campaign effectiveness.
Brands are increasingly measuring and optimizing TV media – adjusting buy elements such as days, times and channels to improve performance. But most advertisers are not measuring and optimizing TV messaging – the creatives – and are missing out on valuable optimization opportunities because of it.
And while some brands are making attempts at creative testing for TV, they’re often using flawed approaches that measure intent vs. real-world response.
Traditionally, most advertisers have relied on “gut feel” or feedback from focus groups or online panels and surveys. The flaw with the former is obvious, and the flaw with the latter is that they presume intent instead of measuring accurate, real-world response.
It’s important to note I am not talking about creating multiple spots in the sense that they’re different from one another, which would lead to messaging confusion. Rather, it’s about making small, subtle changes to campaign spots – even in post-production. The changes could range from something as simple as color, music, voiceovers or inserts or be a bit more complex, with different actors or script versions.
The whole purpose of the creative is to convey a message that is informational, emotive and creates a resonance with the target audience. As audiences vary across gender, age, ethnicity, economic status and general interests, the reason why a message resonates changes.
Advertisers can now gain a deeper understanding of audience segments and better insight into how to optimize creatives, so the right messaging reaches the right targets in the right programming.
O’Reilly, K. (2018, July 2). Missed Opportunities: Creative Testing for TV. AdExchanger.