Traditional Media: Let's Take it Offline

Building TV campaigns just got easier

2009-11-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

What if you could have a custom TV campaign created for you in minutes that optimally reaches your target audience? We're pleased to unveil Campaign Builder, a new Google TV Ads feature which enables advertisers to create targeted campaigns in just a few minutes.

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To get started, navigate to Campaign Builder underneath the "Add Targets" tab of any TV campaign. Then specify your target audience demographics, interests, and/or Nielsen PRIZM clusters. Campaign Builder will produce a comprehensive list of dayparts and TV programs that reach your specified audience in the highest concentrations. What's more, the tool will automatically set strategic bids to increase your likelihood of winning optimal targets and spending your budget. After that, one click is all it takes to port the selected targets and bids into a newly created campaign that can begin running immediately.

Could creating effective and strategic TV campaigns get any easier? Log in today to give Campaign Builder a try.

Posted by David Wurtz, Product Manager, Google TV Ads

Targeting the right audience is easy with Google TV Ads and Nielsen PRIZM

2009-11-02T12:50:00.001-08:00

At Google TV Ads, we're constantly working to improve our platform to help advertisers find and target the right audiences. To this end, we're proud to announce a partnership with Nielsen's PRIZM lifestyle segmentation product, yet another feature which allows advertisers to hone in on the right audiences with Google TV Ads.

This partnership brings more layers of audience data to our existing targeting tools. In addition to demographic and interest dimensions from Nielsen and Equifax already available in our targeting tools, advertisers will now be able to layer on PRIZM segments to find their audience on TV through Google TV Ads. PRIZM categorizes US households into 66 unique segments, using attributes such as lifestage, income, social group, home ownership, employment, and education.

Sample PRIZM segments include:

New Empty Nests – with their grown-up children recently out of the house, New Empty Nests is composed of upscale older Americans who pursue active–and activist–lifestyles. This is the top-ranked segment for all-inclusive travel packages;
New Homesteaders – young, middle-class families with comfortable, child-centered lifestyles; and
Young Digerati – the nation's tech-savvy singles and couples living in fashionable neighborhoods on the urban fringe.

How does it work? Advertisers simply select a PRIZM cluster in the Google TV Ads interface, and receive recommendations on which TV networks, dayparts, and programs are popular with that cluster. Advertisers can then add the media they'd like to target and air ads within 24 hours of building a campaign.

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This extended relationship between Nielsen and Google complements and builds on our existing audience targeting tools and offers advertisers better targeting capabilities. We hope that all of these tools and data sources will help advertisers target their TV Ads more effectively, while allowing inventory owners to increase the value of their content.

Do you know where to find your target audience on TV? Use Nielsen PRIZM through Google TV Ads to find out today!

Posted by Bob Meese, Business Development Manager for Google TV Ads

Three contest winners making their way to television

2009-10-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Small businesses often think that television advertising is too expensive and cumbersome for them to use. They assume that they need a fancy, expensive commercial to use in their TV campaign. But Google TV Ads changes all of that — we make it easy and affordable for you to make a TV ad, plan a campaign and reach your customers through the power of television. We launched the TV for All contest two months ago to prove just that.

More than 200 companies submitted commercials for the opportunity to win $25,000 worth of free national advertising on cable channels such as CNBC, Hallmark and Bloomberg using Google TV Ads. Today, we're happy to announce the three winners of the TV for All contest based on votes from the YouTube community.

Amazing Gates, Owners.com and ZAGG.com received the largest number of votes among the 10 finalists. Each of these businesses will receive $25,000 in free national advertising through Google TV Ads advertising.

Check out the three winners and all entries at www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest. For more information on Google TV Ads and how it can help your small business succeed, visit our website at google.com/tvads.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

TV for All contest finalists announced

2009-10-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

We launched the TV for All contest on September 1st with the goal of democratizing TV advertising and helping small businesses get their message in front of millions. Over the past few weeks, over 200 companies submitted commercials to the contest for the opportunity to win $25,000 worth of free national advertising on cable channels such as CNBC, Hallmark, and Bravo using Google TV Ads. All entries showcase the hard work and creativity of business owners throughout the country.

Today we're excited to announce the contest's ten finalists based on our judges' ratings. All you need to do is visit the TV for All contest brand channel and vote for your favorite video! The top three submissions will receive $25,000 in free national advertising through Google TV Ads advertising. Vote now at www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Google TV Ads Welcomes Ovation TV and Sky Angel As Newest Partners

2009-10-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

We're thrilled to announce our newest inventory partners: Ovation TV and Sky Angel. Both of these partnerships expand the reach of the Google TV Ads platform, allowing advertisers to access more targeted audiences through our system.

Ovation TV reaches over 33M homes across the US with programming that highlights art, theatre, music, and performance arts. Ovation TV broadcasts classic and original content covering all genres of art such as: American Revolutionaries, Discovering Masterpieces, Everything is Art, La Boheme and Battle of the Nutcrackers. Advertisers can now target Ovation TV's sophisticated and affluent audience through our platform.

Through our partnership with Sky Angel, advertisers can target two new networks - Angel One and Angel Two. Both networks bring faith based and lifestyle programming to an audience of 14M homes nationwide. Programming on Angel One includes today's top ministries and other faith bases shows. Angel Two offers a wide array of content ranging from concerts, cooking and travel shows, to sports and news.

Advertisers can target this new inventory today along with the 98+ cable networks also offered through our platform. To learn more about advertising with Google TV Ads, visit www.google.com/tvads. Inventory owners who are interested in becoming a Google TV Ads inventory partner can find more information at www.google.com/adsense/tv.

Posted by Kristin Higaki, Technical Account Manager and Neha Mandal, Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Chickdowntown.com increases web traffic and grows order size through contextually targeted television advertising

2009-09-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about our platform is the access to television advertising it gives businesses of all sizes. Chickdowntown.com is one such company that began using Google TV Ads in March 2009 to increase qualified site traffic and revenue. In 2007 Amy Reed, a fashion-minded entrepreneur, founded chickdowntown.com, an online boutique specializing in high-end clothing and accessories. Amy and her team began using Google TV Ads earlier this year to launch contextually targeted TV campaigns that effectively reach chickdowntown.com's fashionable target audience.

By using Google TV Ads' program targeting tool, Amy and her team are able to search relevant keywords such as 'fashion' and 'beauty' to find and target specific programs relevant to those categories. "Basically, we start by targeting programs my friends and I watch because we are the target audience.” Amy says. “Google’s targeting tools then allow us to discover even more relevant programs we hadn’t thought of before, helping us establish more reach."

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“From March to April 2009 after running ads for just one month, we measured a 25% increase in direct traffic to chickdowntown.com,” reports Joey Rahimi of Branding Brand, chickdowntown.com's agency. “We saw another incremental increase in traffic of 25% from April to May, as well as a huge increase in branded keyword searches on Google. Those results clearly show that we’re reaching the right audience through our contextually relevant approach.” Not only did traffic increase, but the average order size has also gone up by 10% since their TV campaigns began airing.

Read the whole story and learn more about how your business can also drive results through a targeted approach to television ads.

Posted by Neha Mandal, Marketing Manager for Google TV ads

TV for All contest submission period ends soon

2009-09-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

We launched the TV for All contest a few weeks ago and have received over 100 submissions since then! Make sure you enter your commercial before the submission period ends on Monday, October 5th. You can check out current entries under the "Gallery" tab on the contest home page.

Google TV Ads' TV for All contest is everyone's chance to advertise on television. You can enter your small business' commercial in the contest for the opportunity to win $25,000 worth of free national advertising on cable channels such as CNBC, Hallmark, and Bravo using Google TV Ads.

Easy instructions for how to enter the contest are here. Our panel of judges will review all entries and select finalists by mid October. The YouTube community will then vote for three winners, each of whom will receive $25,000 in free national TV advertising through Google TV Ads. Winners will be announced on October 30.

Full guidelines, contest rules and tips and tricks are available on the TV for All YouTube contest brand channel at www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest. Be sure to enter today!

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Celebrity panel to judge TV for All contest

2009-09-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a little over a week since we launched the TV for All contest, and we have already received over 25 submissions! You can check out current entries under the "Gallery" tab on the contest home page.

As you may recall, Google TV Ads' TV for All contest is everyone's chance to advertise on television. You can enter your small business' commercial in the contest for the opportunity to win $25,000 worth of free national advertising on cable channels such as CNBC, Hallmark, and Bravo using Google TV Ads.

Our panel of celebrity judges will review all entries and select finalists by mid October. The YouTube community will then vote for three winners, each of whom will receive $25,000 in free national TV advertising through Google TV Ads. The contest submission deadline is October 5, and winners will be announced on October 30.

We are excited to have assembled a distinguished group of judges including top entrepreneurs, creative agencies, and television luminaries. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, and Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak will give an internet tycoon's perspective, while Jon Bond, partner at kirshenbaum bond + partners, and Neal Arthur, Head of Strategic Planning at Wieden + Kennedy will provide an expert creative eye. Noted television journalists and authors Daisy Whitney and Shelly Palmer round out our powerhouse panel.

Full guidelines, contest rules and tips and tricks are available on the TV for All YouTube contest brand channel at www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest. Check out our submissions so far, and be sure to enter today!

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Google TV Ads announces the TV for All contest

2009-09-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

Small businesses often think that television advertising is too costly and cumbersome for them to use. They assume they need a fancy, expensive commercial to use in their TV campaign. But Google TV Ads changes all of that -- we make it easy and affordable for you to make a TV ad, plan a campaign, and reach your customers through the power of television.

We're excited to announce the Google TV Ads' TV for All contest www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest, everyone's chance to advertise on television. Enter your small business' commercial in the contest for the opportunity to win $25,000 worth of free national advertising on cable channels such as CNBC, Hallmark, and Bravo using Google TV Ads!

We're launching the contest today in collaboration with our partner SpotMixer, a self-service video creation service which allows consumers to easily produce professional-quality videos. All you need to do is this:

1. Create a thirty or sixty second commercial for your small business -- you can make an ad on your own or use the free Spotmixer tool (it's easy!).

2. Upload your ad to the TV for All YouTube contest brand channel.

3. Vote! Once your submission is up on www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest, our panel of celebrity judges will select the 10 finalists and the YouTube community will choose three winners, each of whom will receive $25,000 in free national TV advertising through Google TV Ads.

The contest submission deadline is October 5, and winners will be announced on October 30.

Full guidelines, contest rules and tips and tricks are available on the TV for All YouTube contest brand channel at www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest. Enter today!

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Launched: National Inventory on the Game Show Network

2009-08-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

Do you love watching game shows on TV? Lots of people do. In fact, more than 65 million people watch the Game Show Network! We are happy to announce that national advertising on GSN through Google is now available (GSN is already offered through our Dish inventory). Call that a deal (or no deal)? We think it's a great deal!

The network currently offers popular programs such as Twenty Q, Deal or No Deal, Money List and much more. As the premier television network for games, GSN produces some of the most popular original casino and game show series on TV today. The typical demographic for GSN is pretty broad, with its audience consisting of adults in all ranges, who are interested in live game shows and interaction with TV shows.

Here's how to include GSN in your campaigns:

1. Go to your AdWords account and create a new TV campaign.
2. On the "Targets" tab, click the "Add targets" button.
3. Click "Choose networks, days and times" and find "GSN - Game Show Network" in the list.
4. Select the days and times you want your ad to air, and add them to your campaign.

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Once you upload your ad and set the CPM and budget, your ads will then be entered into the auction. After your ads air, you will have access to reports measuring the number of impressions, CPM and audience retention based on accurate set-top-box data.

In addition to GSN, advertisers can also target national inventory on the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, which we launched earlier this year, along with NBC Universal networks CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, SyFy, Chiller, Sleuth, Outdoor Channel and CBS College Sports. We are thrilled to be extending the reach of our platform for our advertisers.

Posted by Anand Banwasi, Technical Account Manager for Google TV Ads

Upcoming Webinar: Google TV Ads New Product Overview

2009-08-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, we hosted a webinar to walk advertisers through our new and improved AdWords interface, which allows you to create, manage, and edit campaigns faster and more efficiently than before.

If you missed the webinar, not to worry! We have a great microsite online with training videos to help ease you through the transition, and we are also hosting a second webinar on Wednesday. Hope to see you there.

Google TV Ads New Product Overview Webinar
Wednesday, August 26th at 10:00AM PT / 1:00PM ET
Please register here before the event starts

Update: A recorded version of the webinar can be found here, starting at the 3:36 mark.

Posted by Aly Makishima for Google TV Ads

Check out our new and improved look

2009-08-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

The Google TV Ads team is pleased to announce that all TV advertisers now have access to the new AdWords interface to manage their TV campaigns.* Our new and improved interface allows you to create, manage and edit campaigns faster and more efficiently than before.

For the past month, all users who signed up for TV have been automatically opted-in to the new interface. For the time being, you'll still be able to use the old interface, but by the end of August when we complete the rollout, you will no longer be able to switch back.

We've put together a microsite and training videos to ease the transition, and we're also hosting a free webinar to walk advertisers through new changes. Sign up today if you'd like to participate!**

Google TV Ads New Product Overview Webinar
Tuesday, August 18th at 1:00PM ET
Please register here before the event starts

Here are some new features we've rolled out which will make managing TV campaigns easier:

The Traffic Estimator tool is now integrated into the core campaign summary view
Historical bid guidance will be available when researching networks and programs to add to your campaign
New filtering capabilities allow sorting campaigns by custom dayparts, days of the week, and current bid
Custom dayparts are much easier to build via the new drag and drop network/daypart selector

We're excited to finally unveil the new interface which hopefully addresses the feedback we've heard from our advertisers over the years. But we're not done yet -- the new AdWords interface is built on an infrastructure that lets us develop features more quickly than in the past, so you'll continue to see new features launched regularly in the coming months.

To learn more and view videos of the new interface in action, visit our new interface microsite.

Posted by Steve Stukenborg, Sr. Product Manager and Rob Murray, Engineering Manager for Google TV Ads

*Currently, Google TV Ads is only available to advertisers in the U.S.
**A recorded version of the webinar can be found here, starting at the 3:36 mark.

Google TV Ads wins a Telly!

2009-08-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Google TV Ads team is happy to announce that we've won our first advertising award - a Telly - for one of our click-to-play video ads. The Telly Awards honor the very best cable, regional, local and online video commercials.

The Bronze was awarded to Google/Camp Creative for this ad which focuses on the ease of use that Google TV Ads offers advertisers. You can also check out our other two click-to-play ads showcasing our ability to provide affordable results.

You can see even more videos on Google TV Ads on our brand channel at www.youtube.com/googletvads

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Join Google TV Ads at the SES Social Media & Video Strategies Forum

2009-08-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

This year, Google and YouTube will be sponsoring the Social Media & Video Strategies Forum at Search Engine Strategies San Jose on August 11.

Google TV Ads is excited to be a part of this track which is one of the best places for businesses to learn about TV, video and social media solutions. We'll share success stories from marketers who used our own platforms, including Google TV Ads and YouTube Promoted Videos, as well as best practices for making the most of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Meebo.

Please see the full agenda here, and register today. We hope you will join us!

Posted by Neha Mandal, Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Visible World and Google team up to offer creative options

2009-08-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

We've partnered with VisibleWorld, a video technology company, to offer our clients a discount on creative versioning. Advertisers with existing creatives can now generate multiple versions of their ads to tailor their messaging at a discounted rate of $50 per ad version.

Visible World's services allow advertisers to create versions of an ad to better tailor and target messaging to various audiences. For example, if an advertiser targets both men and women, he can create one ad version tailored for male oriented networks, and another for female heavy networks and programs. In addition, Visible World's low-cost versioning services allow customers to add unique 800 numbers or URLs in each ad to track response rates more granularly. Lenovo used their services to great success in the past.

You can learn more about this partnership here.

Posted by Sekema Newton, Account Executive for Google TV Ads

ooVoo and Gotham Direct Prove that TV Drives Online Activity

2009-07-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

These days, people are consuming more media than ever before. Consumers continue to spend hundreds of hours per month watching TV, but are increasingly surfing the internet at the same time. Marketers are wondering: does television impact online activity? Recently, we worked with video conference provider ooVoo and its agency Gotham Direct to answer that exact question. To find out the extent to which television advertising drives online activity, ooVoo launched its first TV campaign through Google TV Ads from October 2008 - January 2009 while closely monitoring website traffic, downloads and ooVoo-related search queries.

Read our in-depth case study and watch our video to learn more. We've also included a summary of our findings below.

Impact on Web Traffic
ooVoo and Gotham Direct utilized Google Analytics to track unique visitors to ooVoo's main site and download page during the time their campaigns were running. From the figures below, we found a steady increase in direct hits (those who typed the URL directly into the browser) as the number of TV impressions increased. We measured nearly a 500% increase in web traffic compared to the pre-campaign traffic.

The chart above shows the number of unique hits to ooVoo.com (blue dots), overlaid with our predictive model of cumulative TV impressions (solid red line) along with 95% confidence bands (gray). Our holiday-adjusted model shows a strong relationship betweenooVoo's TV campaign and increase in website traffic.

Branded Search Query Growth
We also used search query data (Google searches containing “ooVoo” related keywords) to measure the effect ooVoo's TV ads had on search behavior. In the figures below, we observed an immediate tripling in query volume after the TV campaign started in early October.

This chart shows daily TV impressions overlaid with the volume of ooVoo-related Google searches. Search queries were relatively flat prior to the TV Campaign beginning, and increased steadily during the TV campaign.

ooVoo and Gotham Direct were able to use data to prove that television is incredibly effective in driving viewers online to learn more about what they saw on TV. “Substantiating the theory that TV does drive people online brings a new dimension to the power of television,” says Shattuck Groome, managing partner at Gotham Direct. “This is what it means to bring clients accountability and value for every marketing dollar spent.”

To learn more about these results and how others are finding success with Google TV Ads, visit our website at www.google.com/tvads.

Posted by Sundar Dorai-Raj, Senior Quantitative Analyst for Google TV Ads

Google Announces Agreement with Broadway Systems

2009-06-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

The Google TV Ads team is pleased to announce an agreement with Broadway Systems, a leading traffic and billing provider for managing television ad inventory. With this agreement, the two companies will integrate systems and enable Broadway Systems' cable network clients to make their inventory available to Google TV Ads advertisers more easily.

With the addition of Broadway, the Google TV Ads team is now working with most of the leading traffic and billing systems for cable networks, including Harris Corporation and VCI.

Broadway clients who are Google TV Ads inventory partners will be able to reach new advertisers through Google TV Ads, while using their existing tools to manage their television advertising inventory. In addition, these clients will have access to detailed reports on their inventory performance based on set-top box data.

How does it work? As an inventory owner, you specify which inventory you'd like to make available through Google TV Ads. Once advertisers select inventory they want to target, submit bids and upload ads, the winning ads are delivered from Google's platform to Broadway's traffic system, where the ads are scheduled for airing. As ads are approved and aired, Broadway returns verification information to Google about when and where each ad ran.

If you're a TV inventory owner and would like to learn more about how you can sell your inventory through Google TV Ads, visit our AdSense for TV website.

Posted by Bob Meese, Business Development Manager for Google TV Ads

Launched: National Inventory on Outdoor Channel

2009-06-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the launch of national inventory on Outdoor Channel through Google TV Ads. This latest partnership represents the 10th national network available through our system, further expanding the advertising footprint available to advertisers. Outdoor Channel reaches nearly 30 million homes across the US, attracting a largely male audience of outdoor enthusiasts. Outdoor Channel's lineup offers nearly 40 original programs including 'Monster Fish,' 'Jim Zumbo Outdoors' and 'Savage Wild.' We are extremely excited to add Outdoor Channel's entire national viewership to our platform's offerings, allowing advertisers to connect with this targeted audience of sportsmen.

Outdoor Channel’s launch also represents a key milestone for Google TV Ads: it is the first partnership to launch using our newly developed AdSense for TV interface. This new platform, currently in an early beta release, will allow our partners to get up and running with Google TV Ads faster than ever before. We're excited about the potential of this platform to offer rich tools for our partners to manage, track, and optimize their Google TV Ads inventory. If you are a TV inventory provider and would like to learn more about AdSense for TV, please visit www.google.com/adsense/tv.

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Advertisers can target Outdoor Channel's national inventory immediately through our system. To learn more about Google TV Ads or create your own TV campaign, please visit www.google.com/tvads.

Posted by Jeff Lu, Software Engineer, and Prabhu Balasubramanian, Product Manager, for Google TV Ads

Launched: Make a payment...at any time, for any amount

2009-06-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

We recently launched an easy-to-use feature that offers our TV advertisers more control over the timing and amount of account payments. It gives credit card and direct debit customers more flexibility by providing them with an option to make an immediate payment at any time.

In the past, advertisers have used "threshold billing" to pay online for their Google TV Ads campaigns. Under threshold billing, customers are automatically charged whenever the accrued balance reaches a specified amount, or at the end of the month, whichever comes first.

Now, payments can be made at any time, with any credit card or direct debit account previously defined in the system, and for any amount starting from $10. Payments can be made to partially pay an existing balance, pay off a balance in entirety, or pay more than the outstanding balance to carry a credit balance and delay the next automatic charge. When a payment is made, the new balance is shown on the system immediately. This feature is also useful if your credit card on file is declined for any reason and your ads become at risk of not airing; simply use Make a Payment to issue a payment with a different card to ensure no pause in your account activity.

Check out the video below for more details on how this works:

Our goal with this new feature is to simplify the billing experience for our advertisers and give them more control over the timing and amount of payments made.

Posted by Gil Arditi, Product Manager for Google TV Ads

Inc. magazine features spotlight on Google TV Ads

2009-06-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

We share a lot of success stories where advertisers have used Google TV Ads with great results. But it's nice when others write about us - here's a recent article from Inc. Magazine that discusses how Google TV Ads enables small businesses to advertise on television in a flexible, cost conscious and results-oriented fashion. In particular, the article focuses on the success of two small businesses - ShoppersChoice.com and Golden Gateway Financial. These advertisers used targeting features such as audience search to find the right target audience for their ads and Google TV Ads' data reports and analytics to arrive at the best mix of networks to reach their marketing goals.

You can read more about other advertisers' successes on our brand channel or website.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Upcoming Webinar: Reaching Viewers Through Multiple Screens

2009-06-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

While traditional television viewership is still growing, today's consumer is spending more and more time online; 50% of Americans report that they view television programming online.

Join us at our upcoming webinar where the Google TV Ads team will lead a discussion on how to use Google TV Ads Online to extend the reach of your television marketing to target your customers when they are viewing shows and movies online.

In this webinar, we'll brief you on:

The recent surge in online video usage and online TV viewership in particular
Advertising on new long-form premium video content on YouTube and other partner websites
Ease of use of the Google TV Ads Online buying platform

Google TV Ads Online is a new feature of Google TV Ads that lets advertisers place commercials into the ad breaks of TV programs watched online. Hope to see you at the webinar where you can learn more about this exciting opportunity.

Register Here
(Password is agency1)
Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Time: 12:00PM PST / 3:00PM EST

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Brand advertisers make Google TV Ads part of their future plan

2009-05-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

Google and...the upfront? Last week when hundreds of media executives and advertisers poured into New York City for the broadcast upfront week, Google hosted our own "TV Ads Tune In" event for brand advertisers. Let's be clear, Google TV Ads is an auction based system and advertisers cannot reserve spots on Google TV Ads ahead of time, but they can certainly include Google TV Ads in their media plans in advance. Several major advertisers and agencies are already doing this. You can read more about in recent press coverage of TV Ads Tune In in the Hollywood Reporter and Broadcasting & Cable.

This event brought together a number of marketing leaders from across Fortune 500 companies, as well as their agencies, to learn more about how Google TV Ads fits into an their upfront and year long media plans. It focused on the importance of targeting and flexibility in a challenging economic environment, as well as the growing use of video as a creative asset across both television and online media.

Google TV Ads fits into your media plan

Matt Derella, a senior sales manager from the TV Ads team, emphasized the need for targeting, accountability and flexibility in media buying. "Marketers want to move past legacy customer proxies and hone in on narrower targets. Google TV Ads, through its millions of set-top-boxes and Equifax data, empowers advertisers to build a custom network of only the right programs for their core audience", said Derella.

Coldwell Banker's approach to multiple screens

Coldwell Banker CMO Michael Fischer shared how he has successfully harnessed the power of YouTube and Google TV Ads. He encouraged advertisers to take smart risks and "think outside the site". In a "down" real estate environment, Fischer has engaged potential home-buyers through a branded site on YouTube. This channel contains thousands of video tours of homes across the United States, all easily located through a Google map interface.

Other presenters included Rich Greenfield, a leading media industry analyst with Pali Capital, who shared his thoughts about the state of the television industry. He delved into current media consumption trends and assured the audience that television is still a force to be reckoned with. Suzie Reider, head of YouTube sales, talked about sponsorship opportunities available through YouTube, including Project:Direct.

Overall, Google TV Ads Tune In 2009 gave attendees a look at how Google TV Ads can be a strategic addition to brand advertisers' media plans.

You can learn more about Google TV Ads through our website: http://www.google.com/tvads.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Loyalty comes in different flavors

2009-05-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Our final installment of the TV Viewership Insights Series looks into viewers' television consumption behavior and how viewers are loyal to certain networks and specific programming on those networks.

Each graph takes a single network over the course of two weeks and examines the amount of overlap between the audiences at every half-hour period in those weeks. Overlap means that a viewer watching this network in this half hour was also watching the same network the previous half hour. If an audience member stays tuned to the same network for long periods of time, you will see this as a purple band.

Check out this video to see what we found:

Comparison of different networks gives us insight into how different types of viewers consume TV content in different ways. In the first set of charts, Bloomberg's large purple blocks were very broad, suggesting that viewers are staying tuned for very long periods, monitoring the market throughout the day. The neighboring chart shows the audience overlap for a large children’s network, and there are bright purple bands throughout the week, only turning black late at night. Children seem to be a lot like bankers, except they don’t take the weekend off.

Even loyalty comes in different flavors. In the second set of charts, the left-hand chart shows the audience overlap for a major adult entertainment network. The diagonal purple lines indicate that viewers do watch at consistent times from day to day. But notice how thin the lines are horizontally and vertically compared with the posters showing children’s or financial programming. Viewers are tuning in to this adult network regularly, but they don’t seem to be watching very long.

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The right-hand chart is an example of super-niche programming: Armenia TV, which calls itself “the largest, private and independent television operation in the Republic of Armenia.” This chart is a sea of red, showing that a lot of the same people are watching Armenia TV all week long. The network doesn’t reach a huge audience, but many of viewers seem to watch little else.

It is thus important to understand what audience you are trying to reach, what networks they are watching and their viewing habits. This research can help media planners focus their marketing spend on the networks and dayparts that are most effective at reaching their target customer and reduce waste in their marketing spend.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Every second counts

2009-05-18T09:46:00.001-07:00

Today's installment of the TV Viewership Insights Series looks under the hood of the Google TV Ads' measurement system. Every day, Google analyzes anonymized data from millions of set-top boxes tuned to several thousand different ad airings in order to describe precise second-by-second tuning behavior for each commercial break.

In this example, we looked at audience tune in and tune out behavior before, during and after a commercial break. Check out this video to see what we found:

Immediately at the start of commercial, a small percentage of the audience tunes away. The audience starts to grow again about halfway through the break, presumably as some of these viewers return in anticipation of the programming resuming. Once the programming resumes, the audience builds back up to roughly its original size, over the course of about two minutes.

We also looked at the exact number of tunes in and out at each second. All the numbers are relatively small, meaning that at any given second only a fraction of 1% of set-top boxes are tuning (i.e., switching channels) at all. Before the break there is some tuning going on, but the tunes in and out are generally about matched. This is probably ordinary channel surfing “noise” that is unrelated to the specific programming on this network. Set-top box data can help better understand the reasons why the audience is changing the channel.

In addition to other signals, second-by-second data can be helpful in understanding viewer response; advertisers can see whether viewers are responding positively to their ads or tuning away. Thus, advertisers can make better decisions on what ads to run in order to reach their target audience.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads

Networks deliver audiences in different ways

2009-05-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

In our latest installment of the TV Viewership Insights Series, we look at how every network delivers its audience slightly differently. Even networks with similar audiences can elicit different kinds of viewing behavior from their followers. We looked at two networks in particular, Oxygen and SOAP, both of which serve an audience composed mainly of women.

Check out this video to learn what we found:

We saw that Oxygen generates more unique impressions as we increase the number of total impressions in a campaign, while SOAP offers more frequency of exposure for any given level of total impressions. Presumably, Oxygen is reaching a large number of women who tune in for a specific show or movie. SOAP, on the other hand, benefits from women tuning into their soap operas day after day at the same time. Advertisers might choose one of these over the other depending on their marketing objectives.

In this TV Viewership Insight, set-top box data enabled us to confirm a plausible hunch regarding Oxygen and SOAP's abilities to deliver on different campaign goals. Applying this type of research more broadly across other networks whose audience delivery is less well understood will help marketers build better media plans and understand their ad viewing audience better.

Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads