TV 2.0: Driving measurable business outcomes
TV 1.0 was a rather straightforward affair, says Jason Fairchild, chief exec and co-founder of tvScientific. Major brands wanted to reach large audiences, and all they needed to do was choose among a group of three to four networks and maybe 10 to 20 major programs.
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That worked well for many decades until the “digital age” and the eventual rise of CTV and streaming, which led to the great cord-cutting revolution, resulting in the fragmentation of audiences and programming. This fundamentally changed TV 1.0 because, with ~50% of consumption happening on streaming services, brands could no longer reach their audiences on linear TV alone. This made TV more difficult to buy and more expensive relative to digital, with uncertain returns.
Meanwhile, digital outcome-based marketing skyrocketed past TV spending (~$300bn in Digital versus $70bn for TV in 2024), making TV 1.0 seem inefficient, with significant waste, and limited to the upper funnel in its impact. Advertisers looking to drive better return on ad spend (ROAS) migrated to social, search, and retail media, where ad spend could be held accountable to specific outcome measurements, including ROAS.
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TV 1.0, despite its ability to deliver ads to engaged, mass audiences, began to be seen as part of the “reach, frequency, age, and demo” past rather than the “advanced audience targeting, outcome-focused” future. Today, the long-term viability and utility of TV 1.0 for advertisers is being questioned.
The CTV marketplace that is evolving today is being driven much like search or social, with massive advertiser participation, ease of buying, advanced audience targeting, and precise measurement of business outcomes. It is bringing simplicity back to TV ad buying, improving the efficacy of dollars, and benefiting advertisers and publishers alike.
Enabled by the shift in tech infrastructure that made streaming services possible, TV 2.0 boasts an ad ecosystem built around the core capabilities of search and social but with a superior, large-screen “lean-back” ad format that delivers non-skippable ads with 99% viewability.
With this, brands can easily activate TV campaigns via simple, self-serve platforms that drive ever-improving ROAS and advertiser-declared outcome measurement. Thanks to AI/ML-driven automation and optimization, TV can now be measured deterministically with detailed attribution analytics.
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Now advertisers can have it both ways: Outcomes can be configured for traditional TV reach and frequency, or they can run CTV campaigns against advanced outcomes such as store visits, searches, and sales/conversions.
As TV 2.0 takes hold, we see digital dollars migrating towards TV, especially as search and social platform efficacy and ROI go under increasing levels of scrutiny.
Advertisers jumping into CTV now realize an outsized return on their investment. Just like the early days of search and social, when there was a learning curve to understand how to best use the technology, advertisers built their entire brands on those marketing channels when they were still cost-effective. Advertisers have the same opportunity via TV 2.0 as it develops to stay ahead of their competitors. And don’t forget, we’re talking about a media channel reaching 100m+ US households, delivering full (large) screen, non-skippable ad formats everyone watches.
With TV 2.0, marketers can test audience targeting strategies and learn based on data, such as which dayparts and programs provide better performance based on their objectives. Gaining that experience now helps them test, learn, iterate, and gain confidence as planning and buying capabilities rapidly advance.
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While brands tend to think of TV exclusively as an upper-funnel channel, TV 2.0 enables outcome-based planning and buying that drives bottom-of-funnel results, builds long-term brand equity, and boosts the performance of advertisers’ other marketing channels.
Despite the challenges that the evolution of TV presented to buyers and sellers, TV performs better than it ever has. It is 100% in-view, full-screen advertising that offers advantages over digital in terms of consumer engagement, verification, and brand safety.
TV 2.0 is here, so join us for a live discussion about realizing better outcomes from your marketing programs.
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tvScientific
tvScientific is the first and only CTV advertising platform purpose built for serious performance marketers. The tvScientific platform makes TV advertising accessible...