Understanding Cross-channel Campaign Reach & Frequency Across TV, CTV & Digital Space

Akhil Nair Jan 31, 2023

The last few years have indeed been a transformative period, with India witnessing a paradigm shift in the way people consume content. Several factors have contributed to the acceleration of the consumption of digital content as Indians gradually shift to all things digital. New-age customers are spending more time online and are expected to continue to do so in the forthcoming times. Owing to the surge, one medium that has significantly been noticing more growth is Connected TV or more commonly referred to as CTV.

What is CTV or Connected TV?

To put it simply, CTV refers to a TV that is connected to the Internet and includes smart TVs and TVs that can access the internet via gaming consoles, streaming sticks, and new-age set-top boxes. With Indian audiences increasingly cutting the chord, CTVs have become their go-to video source, especially during the pandemic. There’s no doubt that a substantial portion of digital ad spending is being directed toward CTVs now. The CTV market is growing at a rapid pace and offers opportunities for advertisers to reach out to their target audience in a more effective manner.

Channelising Marketing Through CTV, TV, and OTT Platforms

Currently, CTV, or connected TV is one of the most rapidly growing market segments in India. Increasing data penetration, affordable access to smart televisions and the availability of global content are the prime factors for the sudden upsurge in these internet-enabled devices that are probably all set to replace the good old linear television.

According to Mordon Intelligence, the India OTT and smart TV market are expected to register a CAGR of 5 per cent between 2021 and 2026. This transformation of television has attracted the attention of marketers who are looking forward to achieving the reach of television with the benefits of digital marketing such as content commerce and targeted reach. This has made the industry take a big bet on the future of CTV advertising in the country – a medium that has already become pretty much popular amongst OTT, BFSI, auto and ecommerce categories.

While CTV has been gaining ground, cross-channel campaign reach and frequency continue to dominate all the platforms – TV, CTV, and OTT.

There are certain advantages of marketing or advertising through these three platforms. Some of these include the following:

Benefits of TV Marketing:

● Combines Sound and Sight

● Grabs Attention Instantly

● Fosters Empathy and Emotion

● Reaches a Targeted Audience

Benefits of CTV Marketing:

● More control over Ads than traditional TV

● Reach your audience wherever they are

● Real-time advanced reporting

● Way more cost-effective

● Higher completion rates

● Fuels performance campaigns

Benefits of OTT Marketing:

● Much greater audience reach

● Advanced targeting capabilities

● Powerful data insights

● High-quality content

● Range of guaranteed audience

Reach and Frequency Across The Three Channels

Reach refers to the total number of households with modern, online advertisements, the number of individual customers exposed to a specific medium or entertainment platform over a standard time.

Frequency refers to the average, approximate, or exact number of times a specific household or individual has been exposed to the same advertisement. Marketing platforms can end up measuring the average frequency by bifurcating the number of impressions by the number of unique viewers or listeners. More in-depth platforms can help track the exact frequency for individual consumers.

Now, reach and frequency are the key factors when it comes to TV advertising in any form – whether linear TV or connected TV. These are the two main components that enable marketers to personalise and target campaigns at household levels.

Based upon the medium, the reach and frequency of marketing also depend upon a lot of things—In terms of linear or traditional TV, the reach and frequency both are limited to a certain extent. One can engage in such advertisements only when watching television where advertisements are flashed within a certain frequency.

On the other hand, in terms of CTV, the reach and frequency are comparatively higher than that of linear TVs. However, there can be certain challenges when it comes to reaching and frequency in CTV marketing.

1. The first is identifiers: During program exchanges, sellers and buyers often transact off common identifiers linked to email addresses. Following this, they match an email list to a CTV audience. This flow gets muddled when households, or even individual household members, have more than one email address. That means a group of emails may be overlooked as a household—or even a single person.

2. The second is a dearth of a unified ID for measurement: With fragmented streaming apps, a buyer is obligated to have inconsistencies amongst their publisher and platform identifiers.

Now, when it comes to OTT, reach and frequency also get monitored in a different way. While both are comparatively higher in an OTT platform for viewers, it can get a bit worrisome. Nonetheless, marketers keep targeting OTTs for advertisements.

What is The Impact of Cross Channel Campaign?

Impact refers to the measure of how fast and completely, members of the audience are receiving the message. This is affected by the consumer’s individual interests or needs that are hidden in the message as well as the message itself and even the medium that delivers the ad.

Impact acts as an important measurement in terms of cross-channel campaigns across mediums like—TV, CTV, and even digital media. So, reach, frequency and impact – are three major factors that need to be focused upon while understanding cross-channel campaign management.

Once you have a sound understanding of the three concepts and how they interact in any marketing campaign, you can begin optimising your strategy instead of opting for simple ad releases. Each campaign must have its own specific goals so that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy.

For example, campaigns focusing on brand recognition might focus on increasing your reach to engage with a whole lot of new consumers. However, a sales campaign must focus on your core shoppers.

Alternately, the chosen advertising medium also often matters. Different media has different costs that end up affecting the reach and frequency of your marketing budget. Several marketers make use of omnichannel campaigns to leverage a range of platforms and messaging.

Cross-channel campaigning has helped in reaping great benefits for the markets and players within the field. Several players have registered huge benefits in terms of monetary value and are looking towards implementing more omnichannel marketing points.

Marketers end up reaping a lot of money through the efforts made in the process of launching marketing campaigns. Various marketing strategies have helped such channels grow in leaps and bounds. As time progresses, it can be said that CTV marketing is here to grow and stay.

The future of TV advertising looks bright with CTV. Its immersive viewing experience is attracting growing audiences across India and deepening viewer engagement on the big screen in homes.