A+E Networks may become the first major TV network group to offer business outcome-based guarantees as its primary assurance for some TV advertising deals in the upcoming upfront. A+E says initial business outcome guarantees will focus on the number of website visits or in-store foot traffic of a marketer’s business.
The move shifts a decades-long emphasis on making guarantees on commercial TV ratings, based on age and gender. TV networks and advertisers have used additional consumer data to supplement Nielsen-based ratings currencies for years.
“What we felt was missing was the last frontier, to go a step further and guarantee the outcomes that the clients care about the most,” says Peter Olsen, EVP, ad sales, A+E Network. Olsen says the new business-outcome deals will be limited — possibly for a quarterly period of an upfront advertiser’s year-long buy or a specific campaign flight.
He believes most TV advertisers could benefit. For example, he says TV continues to be championed by many advertisers; and business outcome measures would offer more evidence of its effectiveness. “We especially hear it from QSRs [quick-service restaurants], which say ‘we know when we [advertise] on TV, people go to the restaurants’.”
For some years now, many TV networks have offered “secondary guarantees” on data other than TV-based measures — but these are not the primary, or main, negotiating Nielsen C3/C7 guarantees that have been agreed to with advertisers.
Friedman, W. (2018, May 9). A+E Offers Limited Guarantee Deals Based on Business Outcomes. MediaPost.