Internet users are very good at ignoring digital ads as they navigate apps, websites and search results. But ad blindness is not exclusively a desktop and mobile phenomenon. In this environment, TV advertising stands above all other media in its ability to be seen and tell a powerful story.
That said, TV is changing as a medium in ways that are forcing change to the 70-year old approach of cycling through a small number of 15- and 30-second spots.
Winning advertisers will go beyond familiar TV storytelling approaches. In fact, the last year has delivered promising momentum in non-traditional approaches to creativity that go beyond classic TV ad formats.
“TV marketers continue to shift dollars to streaming, giving them a greater opportunity to reach precise audiences and continuously improve results,” says Peter Hamilton, director of ad innovation at Roku. "This unlocks marketers' desire to experiment so much more with video creative. Rather than producing one 30-second spot for $750,000, they are better served by testing 10 creatives for the same budget, looking for the best performance signals in real-time.
As alternative formats proliferate, here are five ways brands can overcome ad blindness and break new ground in TV storytelling:
TV streaming can give advertisers the best of both linear TV and social media. With TV streaming creative beginning to resemble social—with greater automation, lower production costs, and more precise targeting—streaming lets advertisers get more value from their social creative.
Almost all advertisers are running active social campaigns, and they should explore how to expand those creative assets to streaming TV. For example, an influencer partnership that delivers strong performance on social could gain additional traction in TV streaming.
There are many ways to reach audiences without inserting ads into the TV stream. The TV streaming journey extends from the moment a viewer powers on their device all the way through to when they complete a purchase, providing ample opportunities for brands to be unmissable.
As viewers begin navigating TV streaming operating systems looking for something to watch, brands can win them over by helping them find content they'll love or reach streamers on surrounding search and landing pages.
Tapping into all that TV streaming platforms offer can help brands engage more holistically with viewers through unique custom experiences.
For example, Roku Brand Studios can align with content that resonates with a brand’s values by curating thematic playlists. A recent “Welcome to your Walmart” campaign created custom playlists for streamers in an unmissable Roku platform takeover. From spotlight ads that appeared when viewers turned on their Roku devices to ads on the Roku search screen and tiles on The Roku Channel, the campaign engaged audiences across their streaming journeys.
In another campaign, Paramount+ moved into an entire neighborhood in Roku City, TV's biggest digital downtown, complete with patrolling Transformers and SpongeBob SquarePants outside his pineapple house.
“Roku City is a unique palette that we could completely take over,” said Mallika Dattatreya, Paramount+’s director of partnerships. “It is a great way to bring Paramount+ into everyone’s household.”
Interactive ads are a powerful tool to engage audiences and introduce ecommerce capabilities to the TV experience.
Brands like DoorDash and Shopify have found early success merging the power of commerce with the immersiveness of TV streaming. For instance, Wendy's saw impressive results when it leveraged a DoorDash-Roku integration to offer $5 off orders of $15 or more. By clicking on an ad with their Roku remotes, viewers received a text with a link to Wendy's storefront in the DoorDash app.
The campaign produced a 14% lift in return on ad spend, with 46% of orders coming from new or lapsed Wendy's DoorDash customers.¹
With any form of marketing experimentation, it is critical to assess performance, generate insights, and optimize. TV streaming creative is no different, and in fact supports far more measurement use cases than traditional TV.
Roku’s measurement partners can implement advanced lift studies to track the efficacy of individual campaigns and creatives. Resonance measurement, for example, can assess attitudinal brand metrics such as awareness, ad recall, and brand attributes. Additionally, advertisers using Roku Action Ads can track down-funnel actions such as sending a text, scanning a QR code, or making a purchase. These analytics can inform future creative planning.
As ad spending continues to shift from linear to streaming TV, non-traditional approaches to TV creative and emerging formats can give advertisers more bang for their production dollar buck—and make them unmissable across the TV streaming journey.
Contact us to discuss "out of the box” creative ideas and approaches.
¹ Internal Roku Data, 2023