The Australian digital advertising market is now valued at $9.3 billion, according to the IAB. And research by ThinkPremiumDigital shows the fastest growing share of that pie is Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD).
In the past year, BVOD consumption has skyrocketed by more than 30%. And the addition of co-viewing data, which, for the first time, shows how many people are watching broadcaster content on internet enabled TV makes its effectiveness absolutely game changing.
Yet, there’s still this perception that digital is only good for extending the reach of other platforms and that its abilities tie more closely to the bottom of the funnel than the top.
In reality, that’s a fallacy.
Premium digital, particularly BVOD, builds brands. Premium digital, in its many forms, has been growing brands for years and its efficacy continues to get better.
When we say digital, we’re not just talking video or display. Premium digital offers so many ways to build brands that go well beyond these options.
Whether it’s literal showstopping executions in premium video such as contextually relevant pop ups or something like our Premium Pause ad product – a connected TV execution that activates when a viewer pauses a program sliding the show to the side to reveal the brand which, according to analysis by Hulu, can drive a 68% increase in brand recall – or owning an entire ad break on catch up, this is brand building on steroids.
The 2019 report, The Digital Brand Effect, found that digital delivers results on par with other media platforms driving brand effects such as awareness, favourability and purchase intent for categories including entertainment, FMCG, retail and automotive. The report found that more than 20% of original brand impact in premium digital stayed with the audience eight weeks after they saw it.
So, how can you put premium digital to work to build your brand?
In my mind, there are four basic principles to brand marketing:
- Audience: who do you want to talk to?
- Context: be where the audience is
- Creative: grab and hold their attention
- Message: deliver your message via a key insight
Context is one of the great attributes of premium digital that can be applied for brand building. That can mean the placement of a campaign within or alongside content that ties with related subject matter or it can be a case of targeting an audience via a specific genre. For example, you may want to reach 40+ women in a relaxed frame of mind.
With premium digital backed by first-party data, it is a truly addressable medium allowing advertisers to reach their desired audience. If you want to build brand with 25-to-40-year old grocery buyers and household decision makers, I’d suggest premium digital is even more effective than direct marketing because it offers a fitting context and moment.
So, what does it look like in action? And how can you cleverly combine context with a strong creative?
Well, if you’re NAB and you want to talk to socially aware consumers who are interested in the world around them, you sponsor a podcast hosted by credible journalist Waleed Aly. By sponsoring So Now What, Aly’s podcast about life in a post-COVID world, NAB is tapping into a golden moment of positive association. It’s a brave move, but it sends the message that NAB backs itself as a provider that wants to be seen as different to its competitors.
Or if you’re Menulog and you’re looking to drive brand recall in an increasingly cluttered category, why not take ownership of the digital community associated with the passionate fan base of popular reality program Australian Survivor?
Earlier this year, Menulog did exactly that as the media partner for the digital-only Survivor companion program, The Jury Villa. By aligning with 10 Play’s longest running and most popular premium digital series, Menulog was able to drive the highest brand recall of any brand partnering with Survivor for the past three seasons.
Get the creative right and by right, I mean fit for premium digital platforms, and you’ve got the viewer. Impact, music and humour are also all devices that can be deployed to grab people’s attention.
When context and data come together with a creative idea that nails the messaging, consumer connection and is relatable, you can’t beat it.
Creative must come first. I’m a big fan of great creative and brand-building campaigns fuelled by a single powerful insight.
Apply all of this and you’ll soon be building your brand with thanks to premium digital media.
Sophie Hicks Lloyd is the Digital Sales Director at Network 10 and sits on the board of ThinkPremiumDigital.
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