A-Z of Addressable TV: B is for Brand Awareness

In the A-Z of Addressable TV series we will introduce some of the key terminology, technical aspects, and target audiences involved in addressable TV, and explain how they enable advertisers to discover and reach new audiences. From ‘addressable’ to ‘Gen Z’, we’ve got you covered.

B is for Brand Awareness

What is brand awareness? 

Brand awareness refers to how familiar individuals are with a brand and its products and how easily they recognise and recall things like the brand logo and offering. An increase in brand awareness among a target audience is one way for companies to gauge the impact of an advertising campaign.

Television remains the best way for brands to increase awareness and expose themselves to the biggest audience, with recent research from ThinkboxTV showing TV reaches roughly 70.1% of Europe’s population every day, with 68% of adults watching 50+ linear TV ads a day. Our own Thinking Inside the Box research found that TV ads are recalled more accurately when presented on a large screen, as opposed to a smaller, handheld device – a finding consistent with previous research that associated large screens with better memory, feeling of immersion, and greater attention to the material.

Combined, this makes television the most effective and efficient means of distributing video to viewers at scale.

How does addressable TV help to increase brand awareness? 

However, not all brands have been able to use TV to boost brand awareness. Traditional large-scale ad buys remain effective for those who want to mass-market themselves and get in front of as many eyeballs as possible and have the budgets to do so. But it has been out of reach for a lot of brands who are looking to gain a foothold in their space, have a more niche offering or, perhaps, want to raise awareness only amongst a specific demographic.

In these cases, brand awareness for awareness’ sake wouldn’t be the right marketing strategy to drive the desired impact.

Finecast’s addressable TV solutions deliver reach efficiencies over broad targeting, offering targeting opportunities linear cannot. This enables advertisers to reach audiences that cannot be bought on linear TV, opening up advertising opportunities for ‘new to TV’ brands that might not have had the budgets or consideration to do broad targeting.

Addressable TV also presents a valuable opportunity for brands who have previously shied away from TV advertising for the reasons above. Using location and household derived data, addressable ads can target and reach specific audiences and benefit from the greater exposure and building brand awareness that comes with appearing on the screens of people most likely to engage with them.

It is this ‘new to TV’ group that particularly benefit from the type of brand awareness addressable TV can drive.

Let’s look at an example…

In 2020, women’s activewear retailer Sweaty Betty turned to addressable advertising in partnership with Finecast to launch its first-ever TV campaign. Having previously been unsure of reaching the right audience through traditional advertising, addressable TV allowed the brand to focus on its target audience – women with an interest in sports and fitness.

The addressable TV  campaign targeted “Upmarket female fitness enthusiasts” and segments included “New Year’s Resolution 2020” and “Do more exercise or improve my fitness” with an aim of reaching women who made health-conscious lifestyle choices.

Seeing the brand on TV led to Sweaty Betty’s target audience having an improved perception of the company. The campaign also resonated with the prospective customers with survey results highlighting increased brand awareness (+5%) and likelihood to visit the website in the next month (+11%) among those exposed to the ad.

An aware audience

If your target audience isn’t aware of your brand, you’re going to have a tough time breaking through. Addressable advertising allows brands – including the ‘new to TV’ contingent – to leverage the medium to increase brand awareness among specific audiences that would have been out of reach previously, reducing the threat of ad wastage.

Because ads can be targeted to a household and postcode level based on a combination of first- and third-party data sets such as demographic, purchasing tendencies and gender, it increases confidence that your campaign is going to reach the right people. And, with people accurately remembering 74% of all images they see in addressable ads, awareness is a natural offshoot.

For more information on how addressable TV can work for you, get in touch via the form below. And keep an eye out for the next in our A-Z series coming soon.