How to get more bang for your buck with your TV marketing budget

You don’t need deep pockets anymore when it comes to advertising on TV. Precision targeting can help you not only get in front of the right audience but can also demonstrate your ROI

TV has always been great at building brand fame and playing to people’s emotions, and research consistently shows that it remains the most trusted medium when it comes to advertising. The fact that every TV ad needs to be independently pre-approved before broadcast gives viewers the confidence that any claims and promises can be fulfilled.

With the creative industry bursting with new and dynamic production companies, brands no longer have to spend a fortune on making their TV adverts.

A nice touch that some franchise brands utilise in their creative is they change the end frame of a generic corporate ad to make it more personalised and relevant to the local franchise being supported.

How to get in front of the right audience

However, this leads to two questions that businesses then often ask: How do I advertise to only the homes that matter to my business and how can I get reassurance that I am only paying for the people that have seen my TV ad?

For instance, Sky’s AdSmart levels the playing field so franchisors of all shapes and sizes can benefit from the unrivalled power of TV. Businesses can select households based on factors like age, location and affluence, thus allowing different ads to be shown to different households watching the same programme. Also, at least 75 per cent of the TV ad needs to be seen for it to be chargeable.

This precision targeting radically reduces the costs, making TV advertising possible for almost any business.

How can brands demonstrate their ROI?

Leading marketing industry publication, Campaign, earlier this year noted that the last decade has seen a step-change in advertising effectiveness and confidence in the way it is measured. And that media owners continue to innovate and create the tools that brands need to show how their investment is working.

As such, advertising and media are now seen as proven drivers of growth and have increasingly become a protected investment rather than a discretionary cost in tough times.

For example, Sky offers businesses two specific tools to help demonstrate their return on investment:

• Web Attribution allows you to track on your own website the traffic and behaviours of those that have seen your TV advert and how they engage with your brand differently from those that haven’t seen the TV campaign.
• Campaign Evaluation gives you the ability to cross-match your customer data with Sky households so you can identify which of those saw your TV ad. All you need is the first line of the address and postcode, all in keeping with current GDPR regulations.

Working with the British Franchise Association to support franchisees

Clearly seeing the growing benefits that addressable TV can offer businesses in the franchise industry, this year the British Franchise Association (bfa) partnered with AdSmart.

The bfa does a fantastic job helping its members maximise their potential and we’re able to offer members additional insight sessions about research, advertising and production along with access to case studies, testimonials and a showcase library of franchise TV ads.

Emily Price, chief operating offer of the bfa, said: “We are excited to be working with Sky, showcasing the very best in digital and data technology to the franchise community. The insight and data partnerships behind the Adsmart offer really do provide for compelling reading, and with some excellent results already proven within the franchise space. We believe Adsmart to be a strong contender in the franchise marketing mix in 2022 and beyond and are pleased to have agreed on some fantastic support exclusively for our members.”

It works!

Kumon, nationally recognised and one of the largest tutor centres in the UK offering maths and English tuition to children, ran several AdSmart campaigns over a three-year period.

Its objective was two-fold: The franchise wanted to recruit more franchisees to launch new centres in areas it felt it could take more market share. Secondly, it wanted to drive student recruitment for the centres themselves.

Kumon targeted affluent households with children aged 11 to 17 years within a radius of their centres and the profile of potential franchisees in the new areas.

Louise Young, former brand and communications manager, said: “We saw a 40 per cent uplift in brand searches online when we used AdSmart to support our campaigns. 

“The low cost of entry meant we could easily justify our spend to our 675 franchises as they would see a direct benefit from the marketing campaigns we were running on their behalf.”

Swimtime used AdSmart in the latter half of 2021 and this was also its first-ever TV campaign. It is one of the fastest-growing companies in the competitive sector of offering swimming lessons to young children.

It targeted a specific radius around its swimming pool locations and targeted households with mid to high affluence with children between the ages of zero to four years and five to 11 years old.

The results were remarkable, Swimtime saw a 63 per cent increase in like for like revenues, with over 4,000 new students signing up. The quality of viewers who were arriving saw its website conversion jump from 5 per cent to 16 per cent.

The ability to target specific households in only the areas that mattered to them meant they achieved a high quality and efficient marketing campaign. “We were delighted with the results and with our first experience of using AdSmart and it’s something we will look to do again in the future,” said Theo Millward, managing director.

The author
Kurt Edwards is the regional manager for AdSmart and manages its partnership with the British Franchise Association.