Covid-19: no daypart off-limits in new normal for TV marketing
Author: Joseph O’Halleron. Source: RapidTV News
Looking at the realities of the business in what it said was a troubling time, the market insights firm’s TV in the Time of Covid-19 report found that while time spent watching TV is up there was now an environment for marketers to test campaigns and learn among new audiences, especially teens and young adults.
The research found that compared with the last week in February 2020, 18-34-year-olds in the US collectively spent 83 million more hours watching television during the first week of the lockdown. This broke down to a 17% for all those ages two years or over, 39% for kids 2–11 and 46% for teens 12–17.
VAB found that late night and overnight were now prime opportunities for advertisers as key buying groups were staying up later. Teens 12-7 and adults 18-34 were in addition spending 22% and 12% more time watching late night programming, respectively. VAB said that it had identified relevant, engaging programming options throughout the entire day for marketers despite the absence of live sports and production stoppages. Teens and adults 18-34 were also now spending 175% and 45% more time respectively watching daytime television from 09:00–16:00 Monday to Friday.
Reflecting the desire to keep informed during the pandemic, weekly time spent watching ad-supported TV news was found to have experienced significant growth. This broke down to an increase of 81% for adults 18-34; 66% for adults 35-49; and 43% for adults 50-64.
Looking as to how video was affecting social media, premium video content accounted for two-thirds (66%) of the top 10 Twitter trending topics at night, with ad-supported TV accounting for over half of all topics. The research discovered that 33 TV entertainment shows trended in the top tenon Twitter accounting for more than 60% of total ad-supported TV topics.
As it noted that the audience for daytime TV has particularly changed dramatically, now filled with school age kids and younger, working adults, VAB advised that marketers should not deem any daypart off-limits. “While Covid-19 is a horrible reason for our population to stay at home, we’ve seen scores of marketers rightly rush to connect emotionally with ‘here to help’ messaging, to the scale-atop-of-scale surge of 24/7 viewership, to all forms of premium multiscreen TV content,” said VAB president and CEO Sean Cunningham. “These marketers see both a mass of information-hungry viewers, as well as the spikes in viewing for comfort-of-favourites distraction. TV and TV-social is where the populations are all converging in March and April.”
The TV in the Time of COVID-19 report also found that consumers are reacting to authentic, purpose-driven campaigns that addressed current issues with real solutions. These campaigns said VAB build long-term brand health by focusing on a relevant, emotionally compelling message and yet also have a clear call-to-action resulting in practical results. Specifically the report found that 56% of consumers were pleased to hear brands taking action like making donations of goods and services and 43% said they want messages that were ‘reassuring’ from the brands they trusted.