“WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO SCALE PERFORMANCE ON TV?”

Ever since we published the first edition of the playbook, originally titled “How to Get on TV and Scale,” we’ve heard not only from brands that are eager to launch their first campaign. We also have talked to companies that have advertised on TV for years, but need a better way to create more customers through TV advertising in the current climate of evolving TV viewership and increasing pressure on media to perform.

We’re updating this playbook with these more experienced brands in mind. While it still holds lots of useful insights for brands and marketers that are planning their first-ever TV campaigns, this playbook is best for brands that have experience with TV advertising and need their media to power customer creation. They need to generate app downloads, website visits and sales. To achieve this, they need TV to funnel as many potential customers as possible to their properties, either virtual or brick and mortar.

If you’ve been advertising on TV but need a strategy to attract even more customers to a website or app in a climate of falling ratings and audience fragmentation, or if you’re contemplating TV for the first time to complement search and social, then this playbook will help you.

By the time you’ve finished reading this playbook, you’ll understand the following:

The inventory and pricing TV advertisers have

Ensuring your website and app are ready to handle lots of customers

Building creative that performs and builds brands

Targeting and planning beyond age/gender demos

How to think about TV’s performance vs. digital advertising

Measurement and attribution techniques preferred by advertisers that have scaled their TV budgets

Guidance for launching your first campaign

How to Scale on TV Playbook

Whether you use TV advertising for customer acquisition, store visits, app downloads, website visits, or just increased audience reach, this guide will help you nail the audience-based strategy you need to master the scatter market and grow your brand.

In-Depth Look at Simulmedia's Approach to Planning

Navigating the Scatter Market Amidst Uncertainty

This whitepaper will explain the ideal approach to budgeting across two major sources of premium video inventory: data-driven linear TV and streaming, also known as over-the-top (OTT). In particular we will focus on the portion of OTT that advertisers can actually buy, called ad-supported video on demand (AVOD). It will explain what makes these two options the best ones for brands. We’ll also reveal why these two are not equal in opportunity.

We’ll provide a handy rule of thumb to help you budget for accounts for their respective audience reach and impression availability. Finally, we’ll share how Experian (a Simulmedia client) and Camelot, their agency, think about balancing linear TV and streaming in their media plans.


• The Truth About OTT and Linear TV’s Available Scale
• Linear TV’s Available Impressions vs AVOD
• Optimal Budgeting, Linear TV and AVOD: A Rule of Thumb
• How Top Advertisers are Thinking About The Pros and Cons of Streaming
• The Benefits of Working with Simulmedia

OTT, Linear TV, or Both? Determining the Optimal Video Strategy

CBS and Simulmedia have partnered to explore the reach and frequency imbalance currently affecting TV advertising. This whitepaper explores why this imbalance is so prevalent, how it’s impacting the efficiency of so many campaigns, and how brands can leverage technology to help them solve the problem,
increase reach against their target audience, and make TV a growth driver for their businesses.

Why the reach and frequency imbalance is so prevalent

How reach-frequency imbalance is impacting campaign efficiency

What the optimal frequency is for a campaign

How brands can solve the reach-frequency imbalance problem

Make Every TV Ad Impression Count

It’s no secret that direct-to-consumer brands are changing the marketing game. With a focus on gathering customer insights and measuring how marketing has on sales -- DTCs have a competitive advantage over legacy brands. But what does this mean for marketers at incumbent brands and how do they compete with DTCs creating more high quality, safe and reasonably priced consumer packaged goods?

Download our white paper to learn how marketers can compete in a DTC economy, including tips and use cases on the following:

How DTC companies have created a marketing competitive advantage

Why incumbent brands should be focusing on customer identity and ROAS

How advanced TV provides many of the benefits brands get from search and social

How Legacy Brands Can Compete in a Direct-to-Consumer Economy

The average TV-viewing US household now receives almost 200 channels. With viewers spread out over so many more channels, marketers need to run more ads to deliver the same number of GRPs. However, many times, marketers are unsure of what makes up their GRPs. In other words, are the impressions allocated to greater reach or greater frequency?

In this white paper, titled “TV Advertising Reach & Frequency Imbalance: How It Hurts Sales And What You Can Do To Prevent It” we examine 28 national campaigns to illustrate why marketers need to be aware of how their impressions are allocated. We also discuss common reasons why this reach/frequency disparity occurs, and finally, demonstrate how Simulmedia is uniquely suited to help marketers overcome this challenge and get more value from their advertising dollars.

TV Advertising Reach & Frequency Imbalance

Here are the facts: TV viewing is down about 3% in the last year, but the ratings are down about 9%. What accounts for such a statistical gap? Simulmedia’s data scientists sought to find out and, contrary to the alarmist headlines we’ve all read, what they discovered should assuage the fears of TV networks and marketers alike.

In this white paper titled, “The Hidden Story Behind TV’s Ratings Decline,” we’ll take you beyond the headlines to show you the truth about TV’s ratings decline, help you understand what it means for your TV ad strategy, and offer tips on how technology can help you take advantage of this new reality. As an added bonus, the white paper also contains an exclusive Q&A with Forrester Senior Analyst Jim Nail about how new planning and buying approaches can help marketers meet their brand building goals.

The Hidden Story Behind TV's Ratings Decline

While most TV advertising has been planned on index for years, audience-based planning is gaining popularity. But is it ready for primetime? We conducted a head-to-head field test to help you decide.

In this white paper titled, "Audience-Based Planning vs. Index-Based Planning," we explain what audience-based buying is and how it compares to index-based buying; which approach works best for various campaign goals; and how technology drives better reach, efficiency, and outcomes. As an added bonus, the white paper also contains a Q&A with our Chief Technology Officer and top data scientist, Kyle Hubert, where he gives an in-depth look at Simulmedia's unique approach to planning.

Audience-Based Planning vs. Index-Based Planning

As a tool for marketers, TV’s power is unparalleled—no other medium combines the same scale of reach with such impactful ad creative. It should be an essential tactic for any marketer, acting as a key driver of growth and marketshare. But even when campaign expectations are sky-high, it’s often difficult to differentiate the results from one campaign to the next.

The reason is that traditional approaches to TV advertising have some key limitations that can lessen the impact of even the best TV ad campaigns. In this whitepaper, titled “What Happens When Good TV Campaigns Underperform (And What To Do About It)” you’ll learn what those limitations are, how you can diagnose the problems in your own TV campaigns, and how new, data-driven solutions can help you overcome these obstacles to achieve superior results.

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