Connecting with Consumers Through Addressability

Consumers are really enjoying their favorite movies and TV shows these days. They are seamlessly switching between multiple streaming services and devices around the clock to watch content wherever and whenever they want. The advancement of cord cutting, streaming services, and different devices for steaming has been changing the media landscape including advertising. One thing hasn’t changed is consumers’ appreciation and desire of lean back, high quality, and premium movies & TV experience. There are so many options to consume premium content, Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Disney+, YouTube TV, HBO Max, Peacock, just to name a few- there are also so many devices they can use to access these. Proliferation of services and devices make marketers difficult to connect with their desired consumers consistently and effectively. Data & technology play a key role to understand, identify, and reach consumers in a way that doesn’t disrupt their viewing experiences. It’s more important than ever to focus on relevance & engagement, to connect with consumers in a way that matters to them with a deliberate, considerate, and effective message. There are many ways to connect with consumers and addressability is a better way that marketers can use to connect and maintain high quality experience that consumers expect.

First, how can this be defined? Addressability improves relevance and timing to craft effective consumer engagement at scale. It’s a way of connecting brand, content, products or offers with people who would be interested in them, at the relevant time they are open to hear from marketers. It combines data and technology to understand peoples’ needs and wants and to create experiences that they would like to engage.

Along with our Marketers, Matterkind has implemented a new, more precise audience strategy – High Value Audiences (HVAs). The method relies on the identification of specific personas that are deemed as having a stronger lifetime value than people reached through broader, more traditional methods. The HVAs are created from a large data set with audience behavior, and data from multiple touchpoints, including website browsing history, social media, surveys and purchase history. This new approach gives marketers the ability and precision to design brand message that’s specific to new and existing HVA customers.

With the growth of streaming services and devices that people use, and the maturity of data & technology, the scale of addressable inventory has been growing. Additionally, broadcasters, cable networks, MVPDs (Multichannel Video Programming Distributor), Project OAR, and Nielsen have been working on addressable solutions to convert national TV inventory to addressable inventory. We will see initial testing and beta of the solutions in Q4 of 2020. It is good news that addressable inventory will continue to grow, but now marketers must navigate multiple solutions and multiple partners. This adds additional complexities for marketers for how effectively they can reach their High Value Audiences. It also means there are more ways than ever for marketers to drop the ball. They could waste dollars by overexposing less valuable prospects, delivering a poor brand experience or failing to coordinate campaigns effectively across channels for maximum impact. For these reasons, it’s important for marketers to work with addressable experts who can operate irrespective of channel, or touchpoint. Addressability is about reaching individuals.

At the end of the day, people care about their favorite content and how they can watch said content. Also, they do want to know about products and services and to engage with brands that are relevant to them. The trick is how to deliver a deliberate, considerate, and effective message without disrupting their viewing experiences.