Sky Media has taken a significant step towards simpler execution and management of cross-platform TV advertising on Sky properties. Its new online portal, Sky Analytics, gives direct access to media agencies and advertisers (including local advertisers) so they can plan, report and evaluate elements of their TV campaigns. This direct access is available for the first time. At launch, Sky Analytics covers AdSmart addressable TV advertising and On Demand for advertising within VoD. The roadmap for this product leads to the integration of broadcast linear TV, as well.
Sky Analytics gives media buyers the means to define, plan and price their Sky Media campaign in one place. It gives direct and accelerated access to campaign performance and reports. It also provides a deeper understanding of campaign outcomes, allowing brands to evaluate and optimise advertising in greater detail.
Specifically, for AdSmart campaigns advertisers and agencies will be able to use Sky Analytics to:
- Build and size an audience using demographic and lifestyle attributes, purchasing behaviour and location data from AdSmart’s 1,400 attributes
- Set specific campaign goals and metrics
- Define how often an audience will see an ad
- Gain accelerated access to campaign pricing
- Use impression, reach and frequency to report against campaign goals
Later this year, campaigns using AdSmart will have live pricing and buying capabilities added.
For On Demand, Sky Analytics delivers:
- Direct access to campaign reports
- Detailed delivery reports and analysis, including impression heatmaps and content
- Independently verified metrics through MOAT including the MOAT video score.
Additional planning capabilities for campaigns that use On Demand will be added this year, Sky Media says.
The MOAT verification gives clients and agencies a way to independently assess the quality of the impressions they are buying from Sky Media. Details include Reached Complete %, Valid and Viewable %, Valid and AVOC % (AVOC being audible and visual on completion) and MOAT Video score.
Sky Media comments: “These [MOAT-verified metrics] allow clients and agencies to see the exceptional completion rates, that are audible and in view and served to humans, via Sky Media’s VoD product. The MOAT video score combines all the quality metrics that MOAT compile to give a like-for-like quality score of the impressions received. On a scale of 0-100, Sky Media score on average 98, demonstrating the value of our On Demand inventory.”
Jamie West, Director of Strategy & Capability Planning at Sky Media, says: “We are on a journey to deliver a single powerful platform with the flexibility marketers have come to expect from digital, but for the brand safe premium video experience of TV. Sky Analytics is a significant step in giving agencies and clients more control of their TV campaigns. The ability to plan campaigns using the wealth of targeting attributes or combining with their own data is hugely compelling.”
The roadmap for Sky Analytics includes cross-platform reporting through CFlight and transactional capability, as well as the integration of linear TV into what would then become a one-stop shop campaign portal.
A number of media buyers have gone public with their support for Sky Analytics. Stefan Jansen, Video Director at Mindshare says: “The roll-out of Sky Analytics now means that our teams [at Mindshare] can quickly log in to see the performance of our campaigns. The inclusion of MOAT viewability metrics gives us confidence in the quality of the video impressions that Sky’s platforms provide. We will continue to work closely with Sky to develop data-led targeting and reporting capabilities for our clients.”
Tom Vickers, Partnership Director at initiative Media, says: “I’ve been able to plan for audiences that I wasn’t expecting to find… It’s just an absolute dream for us.”
Ian Waddington, Managing Director at Propeller, declares, “There’s generally a need to allocate funds to certain media activities way before they take place, so something that gives me a better handle on what costs might be is a great thing, because I can be more accurate in our overall budgeting. Sky Analytics definitely makes booking an AdSmart campaign easier for me.”
Sky Media gives this list of precise benefits that fall under the planning, reporting and evaluation capabilities within Sky Analytics….
Planning:
- Set campaign goals, and define when and how often an audience will view an ad
- Build and size an audience using demographic attributes, as well as build/size an audience using purchasing behaviour provided by Boots, Mastercard and GAME (Boots is a major pharmacy/healthcare retailer and GAME is the gaming specialist retailer selling consoles, games and accessories)
- See a breakdown of cost, driven by a campaign budget or target frequency – giving greater speed and clarity for campaign pricing
- Have complete flexibility over the geographic targeting for campaigns. See how many households a campaign could reach within a BARB region, postcode area, or 10-minute drive from nationwide stores.
Reporting:
- See how a campaign is tracking once the campaign goes live, with daily impressions, reach and frequency breakdowns
- View Sky Analytics’ impressions heatmap that show when an ad is being seen most. Top programmes and movie lists show which of Sky’s great content an ad is placed amongst
- Download daily one-pagers, full post-campaign delivery reports, and raw delivery data, ready to share with colleagues and clients.
Evaluation:
- Match transactional data back to households that were exposed and not exposed to ads
- Using this data, leads, sales or customer acquisition can be attributed to ad exposure to inform future planning
- See a breakdown of response rates and average sales values across different comparison groups, including pre-defined customer segments.
