With its growing prowess in measurement and data analytics, Sky Media intends to focus more on the business outcomes that result from TV advertising when talking to clients. As Jamie West, Deputy MD at Sky Media UK and Group Director of Advanced Advertising at Sky plc, told an audience of broadcasters, agencies and brands recently, ratings are irrelevant if reach is not your objective.
Sky Media is the sales house for Sky channels plus a portfolio of third-party channels, including from Viacom. The declaration is further evidence of the growing confidence among companies who are leading the advanced advertising transformation. Moving from measuring media outcomes, like reach (the % of a target demographic that an advertising campaign has been seen by) and frequency (the number of times the target consumers saw it) to measuring the impact of these media successes is a giant leap.
In a wide-ranging presentation to delegates at Future TV Advertising Forum Manchester earlier this month, West outlined Sky’s leadership in data analytics, targeting and cross-platform campaign management. He added: “In the past, we have talked about products but that is the wrong language. We have been guilty of selling you [advertisers] a technology rather than talking to you about an outcome.
“Increasingly, the language you will hear from our teams is about outcomes – understanding what your business challenge is and building a solution for it. This is not about transaction or price; it is about outcomes, delivering against an objective.” One of the metrics for success could be the profit that is driven from TV advertising, as an example.
Sky knows it can link outcomes to TV exposure with a high degree of accuracy. A team at Sky Media, called Performance Trading, has even spent two years working with advertisers directly and trading against outcome guarantees.
Google and Facebook have had success working with brands directly and taking an outcome-led approach to their relationship. It looks like more television sales houses could try the same. As we reported recently, ITV (the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster) has said it will work more directly with clients, ideally in harmony with their agencies, and talk about outcomes. The focus is on how ITV advertising can help drive the bottom line for a business.
The focus on outcomes forms part of a wider fight-back from TV in the face of increased competition for media budget. West told FTVA Manchester that the industry no longer has the right to assume it will be on a planning schedule when marketers decide where their advertising budget goes, and must face up to the fact that the competition today is search, outdoor and social rather than fellow broadcasters.
