Unmute the Myths: Tuning into the Real Benefits of TV Advertising for CPG and Commodity Board Marketers

TV isn’t just the multiplex-sized screen on your living room wall anymore. There’s never been more video content, or such a wide audience consuming it — at home, during commutes, and at work. Yet CPG and Commodity Board marketers remain resistant to TV ad spend. Why?

The truth is, there are a few misguided notions about TV advertising that get in the way. And even if your marketing team understands the nuances of TV, your executive team may not. You may have a hard time convincing your C-suite that TV is a guaranteed marketing win.

TV has the capacity to engage consumers, pull them closer to consideration and purchase, and then take action. It does this as well as — or even better than — your current marketing efforts. And you don’t need a six-seven figure budget to do it, either. 

It’s time for an update on the definition of TV and how to use it to drive the consumer journey. Because if you’re not reaching customers where they’re consuming media, your brand might as well be on mute.

3 Myths About TV Advertising that Are Keeping Your Marketing Mix Static

Here are the biggest TV advertising myths that are keeping you from connecting with your audience. 

Myth #1: TV Advertising is Out of Reach for My Brand

It’s not that you’re against TV advertising writ large. The real problem may be your budget. You can only allocate so much for video content like website videos and promotionally-driven social media ads. With that limited ad spend, a long running branding effort just doesn’t make sense. It may feel especially far-fetched if you’re only interested in driving sales. You need a purely digital media plan that includes three-to-four-month promotional campaigns, not long ad runs.

But what if we told you that a digital media plan can include TV advertising and meet your campaign parameters — without breaking the bank? 

When you partner with an advertising and PR agency that’s full service, they can produce broadcast-quality video content at a fraction of the budget. Not only that, but the content they produce can live in multiple places beyond just your website and social feed. They can combine traditional TV with mediums like connected TV (CTV), online video (OLV), and over-the-top (OTT) streaming as part of a fully integrated campaign. 

Here’s an ad EHY created for a client for under $100,000:

So when you think of “digital-only” media plans, think big. Even food brands with modest advertising budgets have an opportunity to do more storytelling, create emotional connections with their audience, and drive relevancy.

Myth #2: My Target Audience Doesn’t Watch TV

Sure they do. You may just need to expand your notion of what counts as “TV.” The truth is, all video content and video platforms fall under the current expanded view of TV. Hulu and YouTube ads, TikTok, primetime — it’s all video content, and there are a multitude of platforms where your audience consumes it. 

But you don’t want to add TV to your media mix simply because it casts a wide net. With today’s advertising technology, you can easily target specific segments of your audience, as opposed to the “adults 25-54” broadcast television audiences of yesteryear. New buyers, lapsed buyers, B2C, B2B, regional, national, or international retail operators, restaurant owners with 1-20 restaurants — they’re all within your advertising reach.

Myth #3 I Can’t Measure TV’s Impact on Sales

Okay, so you can reach your audience with TV advertising. But can you measure relevant KPIs? 

Absolutely. Measurement used to be a sticking point for advertisers because it was close to impossible to measure the impact TV ad campaigns had on audiences. This posed a challenge for marketers to prove ROI to stakeholders and justify the ad spend as well. But with advancements in analytics technology, not only are advertisers able to target specific audiences, but they can track attribution all the way to sales.

This is partly due to retailers’ ad offerings that provide accurate and sophisticated sales data. For example, CPG companies can buy streaming TV ads through a retailer like Walmart, which then provides the company with sales attribution connected to those ads. And in the e-commerce realm, platforms like Instacart enable features like shoppable video that measure sales lift, allowing your sales team to see exactly which promotional videos are driving purchases.

With TV ads, your CPG marketing team has the potential to track meaningful sales that are specific to every stage of the funnel, too. From awareness to purchase, clicks to information requests, you can flag KPIs that are most relevant to particular points in your customer journey.

You Don’t Have To Do it Alone

This is perhaps the biggest misconception that keeps your brand from meeting its full marketing potential. Just because you don’t know the difference between CTV and OTT, or have a studio to create high-quality video content, doesn’t mean TV isn’t within your grasp. 

At EHY, our expert marketers and in-house creative studio ensure that powerful promotional video content reaches your desired audience at the right place and the right time. And we can do it efficiently, without your advertising budget taking a hit. We also track compelling sales data to prove ROI and enable stakeholder buy-in. With this kind of support, you can keep TV as one of the most powerful marketing tools in your toolbox.

Curious how we can enhance your marketing mix with video content? Reach out.