The German broadcast sales house ProSiebenSat.1 Media is charging twice the CPM (cost per thousand) advertising rates for its ‘SwitchIn’ linear ad insertion solution as it charges for classic linear TV spots. Thomas Port, Managing Director at the company, is confident that these premium rates can be maintained. SwitchIn uses the HbbTV standard (currently HbbTV 1.0 and 1.5) to serve static graphical ads that are visible for a few seconds after someone changes broadcast channels into a ProSiebenSat owned channel.
The ads are delivered over IP and either completely ‘overlay’ the broadcast signal (in a kind of screen take-over) or they appear as a ‘wrapper’ around a reduced broadcast content window. A campaign for BMW achieved a 27% increase in net (incremental) audience reach compared to when ads were served with standard linear ads only. This is because ProSiebenSat knows, from smart TV or STB viewing data, whether a household has seen (been tuned into) the classic linear broadcast ad. It is then possible to target the homes that have missed the advertisement, so boosting reach. There is also an uptick in brand awareness and recall thanks to this advertising format.
SwitchIn is now the most valuable inventory that ProSiebenSat sells (CPM, not revenue) and the broadcaster has run campaigns for a number of major brands including P&G and Burger King. Speaking at Future TV Advertising Forum on Wednesday, Port reported that SwitchIn achieved 120% sales growth in 2017, year-on-year. As he pointed out, that is a very favourable growth rate for any sell-side initiative in the broadcast TV market today.
SwitchIn was developed as a proof-of-concept in 2012 and was launched commercially three years later. Thanks to the increasing penetration of HbbTV devices (1.5 specification and older), advertisers can reach 30 million Germans using SwitchIn. You can target according to demographic, geography (using an IP address), household income and against behavioural data.
The broadcaster has now entered the market for regional advertising, thanks to SwitchIn. ProSiebenSat.1 Media can help advertisers put their creative together, if that service is needed.
