EGRP CAMPAIGNS HELP INCREASING AFFINITY AND REACH

eGrp campaigns bring greater reach and improved affinity, especially to clients willing to address a younger target group, describes Petr Hatlapatka from Media Club.

At the beginning of 2022, the media agency Media Club included a portion of online video space (digital eGRPs) in TV packages, expecting maximisation of reach and improved affinity of campaigns in a selected target group. “For example, for a healthy food product targeting women aged 18-30, we had a total of 795 GRPs in February, of which 3.3% were eGRPs. Their affinity to the target group was 260% better,” says Petr Hatlapatka, Head of Online Sales in Media Club.

Data from TV and online campaigns are assessed jointly in a single software thanks to AdCross measurement. We asked Petr Hatlapatka about his first experience with eGRPs.

Prima included digital eGRPs in sales last year as well. Can you compare the interest in eGRPs year on year?

Last year, it was a trial stage of our eGRP sales, so the comparison is pointless. However, the project of joint TV and online advertising measurement AdCross has been developed with Nielsen for more than two years. Since last November and December, we have made the results available in AdCross in test mode. Media agencies thus could watch certain campaigns in AdCross to see how the system worked before going live this January.

And if you were to assess your experience with eGRP in the first quarter?

Clients with younger target groups are interested in eGRP campaigns. In addition, we can see an unplanned effect of eGRP. Click-through URL is added to video spots, showing the size of a visitor group coming from Prima’s websites. Clients can work with it further, e.g. using retargeting.

The average share of eGRPs in Media Club campaigns in this first quarter was 1% according to the data you have published. But for younger target groups, the share is higher. How high is it?

At most it is about 5%. eGRP is profitable especially for clients targeting the 15-35 age group. In the 35-55 age group, which is strong in TV rating, the addition to the total reach is not that high. The affinity gets improved but the additional reach does not increase much. The 15-35 age group’s online affinity is up to 100-200 percent higher.

Does the reach growth in campaigns comprising eGRPs correlate to the reach growth? Do both values increase similarly?

Affinity improves with a higher number of eGRPs, which has a positive impact on the aggregate results of the campaign. When a TV campaign is strong, it can have widespread reach. Campaigns with a higher number of eGRPs clearly show that the combination of online and TV will reach weaker TV viewers. Thanks to eGRP, the reach of the target group may be higher.

The only source generating eGRPs is the iPrima.cz website. Or are there any other websites?

At the moment, it is predominantly iPrima.cz that is included in the eGRP sale. For the future, we are planning to include CNNPrima.cz but it has not been involved yet. In April, we should launch eGRPs in mobile applications. You have to take into consideration that any such step is rather demanding because content has to be equipped with measuring codes. We want to increase inventory to include advertising in IPTV going forward. Yet the implementation is very complicated. Realistically, such an expansion could occur in the autumn.

How could inventory increase with both mobile applications and IPTV?

We cannot estimate this yet because we do not know what solution IPTV operators will choose for placing advertisements. In the most ideal scenario, the increase could be up to double. But this will not happen this year. It will grow gradually depending on how successful we will be in the implementation of individual operators.

You have stated that from the following year you consider increasing the share of eGRPs in the joint sales with TV. Will this be a blanket increase or just for selected target groups?

We would increase the share just for certain target groups; doing it across the board does not make sense. Now the share is up to 3% and varies by client. Clients with younger target groups show a higher share.

Can you imagine a double-digit share of eGRPs?

It would make sense for some clients as affinity improves dramatically. It is a matter of negotiating the composition of the bundle with a client.

For what types of videos are eGRP campaigns showed?

TV videos or videos prepared for online only have a great advantage that they are made professionally and that we as a broadcaster have a full control over them. Clients are guaranteed safety and quality of view, which is difficult with user-generated videos. Clients then wonder where their ad is showing up. For example, we are able to prevent ads for alcohol from appearing on children’s programmes, or from appearing to users under the age of 18, whatever content they are watching. At present, if a client does not want their ads to appear in videos relating to the war in Ukraine, we are able to exclude the content at the level of specific videos.

Did the video advertising market show a steady upward trend in this year’s first quarter?

The video advertising in the first quarter was growing although part of the quarter was affected by the conflict in Ukraine. A number of clients delayed or rescheduled their campaigns, which is reflected in figures and the growth may seem quite low. Therefore, we do not consider this quarter to be indicative. The situation is similar to the first two months of Covid-19.

At the meeting with clients, you were talking about important trends in the TV advertising development, mainly the expected decline of linear TV and growth of video on demand. How can these trends be reflected in the proportion of eGRPs in campaigns in the medium term?

I estimate that it may go up to a 20% limit. Clients are those who should get nervous about the rating trends in the first place. If we look at it with common sense, most of the 10 million Czechs spend some time in front of the TV screen - older viewers more, younger viewers divide their time between TV and SVOD. For example, out of three hours of viewing they devote an hour a day to a SVOD service and two hours to TV. But on a SVOD service, a client will buy no campaign. And if in theory all TV viewers start behaving this way, the number of available GRPs of TV advertising will fall by a third. Clients who build their marketing and business plans on TV will suddenly have a problem to buy sufficient GRPs because GRPs will be reduced in general. Broadcasters can cover the loss of advertising revenue with subscriptions. The problem will be felt primarily by clients.

Source: mediaguru.cz