Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Successful TV/CTV Media Partnerships*

*But were afraid to ask (but really, really, need to know)

We get lots of questions: from clients, prospective clients, colleagues in the business, and so on. You get the picture--there are lots of people inside, outside, and next to this business of TV/CTV media campaigns that have a ton of questions on both how it works and how we work. So we decided to dig in and answer pretty much everything. A self-service/public-service if you will.

In case we missed your question below, it goes without saying that everyone at Centriply is always happy to speak with you and yours directly, answering your specific questions, human to human (reach us here). But for anyone looking for some quick answers right now, without further ado...we present our comprehensive Advanced TV/CTV Q&A.

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Q: Who is Centriply?

A: Your best friend in Advanced TV of course! As an independent (cue fife and drum) media agency, Centriply is playing a pivotal role in the evolution of TV/CTV advertising by specializing in audience-driven video ad campaigns for other agencies and marketers. Go here to hear directly from Centriply on how we're a bit different than most others.

We did the hard stuff (like hiring the rocket scientists/analysts/buying pros) so you don’t have to. We developed our own ad tech platform (known as Tango Media Systems^®) that easily allows advertisers to reach the same audience segments for all video campaigns as their digital campaigns.

Many agencies and in-house media departments know activating multimarket, multiscreen local campaigns requires a huge amount of detailed work, so they hand it off to us. They save time, can explore different proposals for their clients, get good rates, enjoy weekly reporting and 100% in-flight delivery of impressions, guaranteed.

Q: Are you a media owner?

A: Nope. As an independent media buying agency, we have access to media across the country. That also means no previously arranged limits to inventory, no walled gardens.

Q: Are you a rep?

A: Nah (giggles). Our "Buyers Without Borders" aren’t limited to certain DMAs or rep agreements. Ever.

We don’t purchase/own and hold media. Our client reports list location, network level transparency and audience impression counts. How, may you wonder? We’re the only independent agency in the US that has tracked and can access all the cable system footprints, match ZIPs and universe numbers across the entire country, regardless of ownership.

Q: Are you restricted to certain inventory deals? 

A: No. Over 700+ million impressions are considered across the country every week, and being able to tap into the right high quality TV/CTV impressions for your ad campaign is important. No pre-arranged inventory deals for us! (Meaning no limits on our range of options and solutions.)

Q: Are you a start-up?

A: Quite the opposite! We’ve built our history and expertise with audience-driven video campaigns from three decades of successful planning and buying for over 500 advertisers—many for years at a time—while reconciling millions of spots.

Q: Is Tango Media Systems a programmatic TV platform?

A: No. Our databases and robust in-house ad tech is proprietary and support our in-house team directly. We love the speed of automation and the focus on audience buying, so we understand programmatic’s appeal. Using Tango Media Systems’ tools, we can find more of the same audiences on linear and CTV to create multiscreen campaigns. (Cue celebration!)

We use the same ID-level audience segments as any programmatic DSP to match linear TV audiences, giving you unduplicated linear TV reach beyond CTV buys.

Not to mention premium content and verified fraud-free post logs! Our value proposition extends to our unmatched access to a deep inventory pool, which goes beyond current limited, often opaque, programmatic offerings.

Q: Who do you work with?

A: Centriply, as an independent media agency, works with holding companies, mid-sized independents, “boutique” specialists, and in-house media departments representing over 450 of Fortune 1000 brand advertisers, along with political groups, educational institutions, and others who have leveraged a Centriply Advanced TV activation.

Our heritage is rooted in using audience-based location targeting technology for the fast pace of political campaigns, which organically expanded to encompass advertising agencies. It also includes an extensive list of partners and attribution companies.

Q: What media advantages can I gain by using Centriply?

A: With Centriply and Tango Media Systems, you get speed, agility, and reliability. Some key advantages:

1. We know you feel the need for speed! We won’t put a limit on your road to success, so you quickly get an unbiased view of how video options stack up in the locations you’re interested in.

2. You don’t need to let people know your plans. We’re independent, which means the marketplace never knows who our client is during planning. By keeping your media strategy to yourself, you can focus on your goals away from the curious competition.

3. Find desired audiences in the locations that work for you (HHs, ZIP Codes, counties, states, etc.) that can then be measured, along with client KPIs reports, creating a full ROI loop. WIN!

4. You can create highly targeted yet near-national multimarket plans and buys, driven by client digital signals or any other 1st party data.

5. The same audience segments can be used to extend the reach across all video, to bridge any gaps between HH addressable all the way up to broadcast.

Q: Can Centriply directly integrate with MVPD, streaming, FAST inventory sources (i.e. not just through TV aggregates)?

A: You betcha! Cheap aggregators and opaque programmatic options tend to offer the inexpensive, remnant, or poorly rated time slots that are measured by cheap CPMs only. We’ve all heard and read those stories—all video placements are not created equal, particularly when it comes to CTV/OLV and campaign effectiveness. However, Centriply has direct vendor relationships in all markets, with buying access to actual premium inventory.

Meaning we don’t rely on vendors who say “trust us”—bottom line is we serve our clients and their goals, so we know where and when your TV campaign is running, Cheap CPMs may be appealing on the surface, but not if your video campaign does nothing for your goals. Knowing where the custom audiences are is important—so is what they’re watching. As they say in real estate "Location, location, location."

Q: Can you explain your pricing?

A: Buying TV advertising can be tricky when combining traditional TV and Advanced TV/CTV/OLV. Knowing what you pay for impressions allows a client to decide the value of the media in comparison to other TV advertising costs. Compare a digital video TCPM of $35 to a TV TCPM of $35 to see what kind of scale and impact each can have. Since we purchase media for named advertisers, each plan is custom, no cookie cutter packages here. AND a straightforward sales lift analysis can be included so you can validate your TV budget and ROAS (comes at no extra cost).

Q: Can you send us a timeline of how long things take? How much time do I need to plan a campaign?

A: Once you have your audience segment decided, 24 hours is usually all we need to ingest and analyze what options you have for finding TV ad campaign opportunities.

Then, depending on questions/clarifications anyone may have and how long it takes to resolve, we need just another 24 hours or so to create a proposal that is geared to your CPM or impression goals.

COMING SOON*: PART TWO, TAKING A DEEPER LOOK AT SOME REAL-WORLD SCENARIOS 
*Follow us on LinkedIn to catch it when it drops

DATA RULES, GUESSING DROOLS

Q: As a marketer, we have lots of CRM data. Can you handle it?

A: WE LOVE DATA! Our in-house DSP has many APIs that handle many kinds of data including CRM. Just a sample of what we ingest and process (3^rd party): political affiliation, Census, Lat/Long, Nielsen, LiveRamp IDs, and so on. Or if you prefer, first-party: loyalty programs, ticket sales, inventory delivery tracking, search/IP matches, CDC disease states, even weather triggers. We believe data-driven TV plans are supportive of the entire marketing process.

Q: I don’t have much data. Can I still get audience buying?

A: Sure! Whether we start with 12 addresses, 1,000 clusters, a congressional district, or the entire country, you can choose from a library of hundreds of LiveRamp audience segments that can drive far superior results to “traditional” demos and buying methods.

Q: Can my first party data be integrated into audience targeting?

A: Having first-party data is almost always the best. Often, it’s considered crucial since it can provide the most direct campaign performance tracking that is important to you—nobody knows your strategic goal better than you do.
Adding additional data sources is a useful strategy when considering:

1. Is increase in foot traffic per store important?
2. Is an increase in ‘same store sales’ your goal?
3. Are you opening many new locations that people need to know about? You may need breakthrough frequency, and so additional data sources, to ensure a impactful “Share of Voice”

GEO-TARGETING AND AUDIENCES, OUR FAVORITE COUPLE!

Q: What is the importance of a HVA (High Value Audience) What’s the difference between a standard Nielsen demo and an HVA?

A: Great questions! Brands can create groups of people who have expressed an interest in their products and services, known as an HVA. It might be through a loyalty card program (first-party), or the company can use a prepackaged audience segment (third-party) from our friends at LiveRamp.

Finding segment traits that indicate interests, lifestyle, or identified activities(behaviors) that align with the company’s desired customer profile, makes messages more relevant and effective. Standard Nielsen Demos are broken up by age and sex, which can work for some campaigns but we find the more specific the better the impact.

Q: Why is geography so important below the DMA level?

A: HH-level TV advertising campaigns often produce a far greater 'target impression value' for advertisers than just program targeting. Finding priority TV/CTV audiences anywhere in the country highlights the desired audience concentration and thus, better media-spend value. Why settle for 210 DMA locations when you can have 43,000 ZIPs, or over 122 million TV households available to choose from?

We’ve built the foundation for accurate targeting and measurement from Census track up, so you can find out where your best potential audience is—and where it isn’t.

Q: I’m a national advertiser, why do I want to geo-target my audience?

A: Network viewing across the whole country is extremely uneven. Centriply’s proprietary ad tech, Tango Media Systems^®, delivers audience-driven, multimarket national TV solutions analyzed at a local level, and as such can uncover superior efficiencies.

This approach to better value will make a difference in your TV/CTV campaigns by:

1. Reducing out of pocket expense where it’s not necessary or unlikely to yield the right audience or results.
2. A national-level, audience-driven hyper-local TV/CTV campaign can yield affordable results by targeting specific audiences within trading areas across the entire US.

Q: Why is index data important to any given location? 

A: Indexes compare concentrations of desired audiences, which are revealed by applying a comparison of data across video coverage footprints in client-requested locations. Indexes are mathematical calculations based on multiple data points. If we see indexes greater than 100, we know there are high concentrations of desired audiences in that location. Perhaps more importantly, index values let us see other opportunities to reach prospects that a client may not have originally scoped in their RFP.

Our ability to find audiences below the DMA level often uncovers pockets of impact. Planning campaigns and measuring impact of media value and effectiveness can be done with far more precision if analysis is done at least to the ZIP Code level (HH or ‘roof top’ is even better). There are 40,000+ ZIPs compared to 210 DMAs. You’re bound to find the best options when you look closely.

Worth considering, along with index numbers:

1. Are certain types of audiences spread out and/or have lower than average index numbers? How about combining areas into counties, states and regions to see trends or match franchise areas?
2. How does the indexing provide insights into concentrations of audiences, or consumption patterns?
3. Once you know where the audience is, the next consideration becomes can you/your media vendor reach them with your TV ad campaign?
4. Are certain media vendors unable to insert in that area?
5. Do certain media providers have gaps in coverage, or limits on how many ad slots are available

Q: Why would you sometimes use low ranking networks?

A: We always consider multiple factors—index is not the only factor in choosing a network. Ratings, frequency of reporting (some areas have daily, some don’t) and insert-ability are important, along with high indexing geography, CPM (too high?), universe (large enough?), and so on.

So here are some considerations we use when choosing a network for your TV/CTV campaign (you don’t have to remember this, we do it for you):

1. Is local insertion available on the systems in the location you want? Y/N
2. Are the CPMs in line with your budget? Y/N (for example, some options are small and expensive)
3. In this market is the network getting the viewers/ratings you need (viewing is different around the country) Y/N
4. Is the universe too small in the local system to be worth higher costs? Y/N
5. Would the interconnect offer lower cost for your target audience? Y/N
6. Some agency payment policies and contracts require Nielsen ratings. With that in mind, what if a market only reports quarterly, can we still place the campaign there? Y/N
7. Can we go beyond standard network and find spots on other networks if we’re not restricted? Y/N Advantages?

That’s the beauty of our in-house ad tech software—it can find value everywhere. Each proposal looks at all available networks in your targeted areas. In some areas it’s up to 85 networks in each area!

Our proprietary ad tech looks at thousands of spots at once, anywhere in the country. With unrestricted programing options often there are more places to find programs on networks at better prices. Technically this is called “non-sequential elimination.”

Q: If I send you a list of ZIPs that are important to our client, do you need anything else?

A: Well firstly, thanks! And yes, a bit more. When we get a question like this, sometimes we’ll have a few questions for you to create a winning proposal for an audience or location-based campaign, like:

1. Is there a priority to these ZIPs? We can tell you things based on your answer, like if they’re grouped together or very far apart. We want to support your larger marketing strategy. For example, if you’re looking to drive foot traffic, we might ask “are these ZIPs near a weak retail location?” which helps us determine proper media weight when planning.
2. What kind of audience are you looking for? One of the traditional demos like W 18-34 or something far more granular/specific? We can ingest custom audiences data of all types, and there are audience segments available that may create better/enhance results. Or even better—use your own first party data (that may be used on other media channels).
3. Is there a CPM goal? Knowing your target price will give us areas to create more opportunities.

REPORTING, AKA "THE PROOF"

Q: How do I know that my commercials ran?

A: With “proof of performance.” From our weekly posting against affidavits, using Nielsen reporting, or foot traffic or sales lift studies against ID level audiences, you’ll be able to gauge whether your campaign “worked” and will know how many impressions to the target audience were achieved.

Q: What kind of transparency and reporting do you provide?

A: We make it easy. We report by daypart, network and location. If you want, an API can be set up to work with your campaign management software so that reports are delivered regularly to your team. Mediaocean, WideOrbit, or Strata files are all compatible.

Q: Can’t the vendors do this analysis for me?

A: Some reps can do parts of this process—we can do it all.

Your strategy and your data are your advantage. Knowing inventory breaks across the most closed segment of media, the local cable systems, gives you—the demand side—powerful capabilities and insights into the media marketplace.

YOU: NEED OPTIONS; WE: HAVE OPTIONS

Q: We’re a digital advertiser interested in new options; can audience-based TV advertising be a unified media option for me?

A: Absolutely! Targeted advanced TV solutions offer you a low risk/high value media option that will give your new—and existing—business pitches a unique flavor.

Centriply’s team of experts, are all about innovative ideas, with unique perspectives on what audience-driven TV ad campaigns can do to deliver results that delight. As a media partner we can set you apart from the competition. For example:

1. Confidently shed one-size-fits-all methods for media metrics; audiences are calibrated to selected locations, far beyond ‘DMA’s-only’
2. You’re provided with comparative metrics, such as impression delivery and CPM comparison, for unique positioning to enhance media plans.

We bring a data-driven, audience-targeted approach, just like with digital ad placement, which can unlock performance goals such as sales lift, along with larger brand awareness and consideration goals. Using applied data at a granular level and tracking consumption, Centriply finds opportunities in TV for digital advertisers.

Q: My planning group needs budget allocation across many types of media in one place. How does advanced linear TV/CTV/OLV fit in?

A: Cross-screen media comparison is vital these days. With our solutions, you can make informed decisions and know how your media types perform by measuring the impressions delivered to your target audience, and can compare impressions across screens. At Centriply, we track the large-scale TV audience by HHID, ZIP Code or custom area. We can start with an ID-level audience, the same ones you’re using across all your other media channels, and then we find your best prospects based on your requirements and/or our advice on getting your TV ad campaign the desired results. We look at where your ad should be—and where you shouldn’t bother.

CHECK OUT PART TWO OF THIS ARTICLE FOR SOME REAL-WORLD SCENARIOS AND A DEEPER LOOK INTO THE DETAILS

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