An Audience So Nice You Bought It Twice (And That’s Not A Good Thing)

An Audience So Nice You Bought It Twice (And That’s Not A Good Thing)

The art of finding and engaging with the right audience has become a cornerstone of modern marketing. Brands have gotten adept at tracking their target audience across the media landscape, from linear TV and CTV to YouTube and the open web. However, while attention now flows seamlessly across screens, media plans remain stubbornly siloed. This disconnect puts a drag on performance, leading to wasted spend, reduced effectiveness, and a breakdown in brand trust.

The Problem: Siloed Media Plans

The current state of media planning is a tale of two strategies: upfront and programmatic buying. Upfront buying establishes reach within premium inventory, often securing high-quality ad placements in advance. On the other hand, programmatic buying identifies and targets high-value audiences across digital environments, optimizing for efficiency and effectiveness. The issue arises when these two approaches operate independently, without a shared view of the audience or a unified strategy.

• Siloed media plans: Linear TV, CTV, YouTube, and open web strategies are often developed in isolation, with separate budgets and goals.
• Lack of coordination: Upfront and programmatic buying teams work to find and engage the same audience without a shared understanding of the overall media plan.

Where Performance Breaks Down

The symptoms of this problem are familiar to many marketers. Campaigns often launch with strong engagement, only to plateau as frequency accumulates in pockets. This can be mistaken for normal campaign fatigue, but it’s actually a sign of a deeper issue: uneven exposure. Some audiences see the same message too often in one place, while other high-value audiences are never reached at all.

• Fragmented experiences: Brands create disjointed and repetitive ad experiences, rather than intentional sequences of exposure.
• Wasted spend: Brands pay to reach the same audience multiple times, without coordination or intent.

The Consequences

The consequences of this system are twofold. Firstly, there’s the measurable negatives: wasted spend and reduced performance. When brands pay to reach the same audience multiple times, they’re essentially throwing money at a problem that could be solved with better coordination. Secondly, there’s the hurt brand trust: redundant ad experiences cause the opposite of what consumers desire – for brands to know and understand them.

• Brand trust: When consumers see the same ad repeatedly, it can come across as invasive or even creepy, eroding trust in the brand.
• Consumer expectations: Audiences expect brands to understand them, not to bombard them with repetitive messaging.

Why the System Still Works This Way

The root of the problem is structural, with upfront and programmatic buying having been built for different audiences and never designed to compete. This has led to a system where media plans remain siloed, with separate teams and strategies operating independently.

• Legacy systems: The upfront and programmatic buying models have deep roots, making it difficult to change the way media plans are developed and executed.
• Lack of standardization: The industry lacks standardization in cross-channel measurement and optimization, making it hard to coordinate media plans.

Unique Angle and Original Insights

The industry’s focus on audience targeting has overshadowed the importance of coordinated media planning, leading to a lack of standardization in cross-channel measurement and optimization. The rise of CTV and streaming services has exacerbated the problem, as brands are now able to reach their audiences across even more channels, but without a unified view of their media plans.

• Insight 1: The industry needs to prioritize coordinated media planning, rather than just focusing on audience targeting.
• Insight 2: The proliferation of CTV and streaming services has made it even more essential to develop unified media plans that account for the complexities of modern audience behavior.

Conclusion

The issue of siloed media plans and the consequences of paying to reach the same audience multiple times is a pressing concern for brands and media planners. To optimize performance and build trust with their audiences, brands must rethink their approach to media planning and coordination. This requires a shift towards more unified and intentional media plans, that account for the complexities of modern audience behavior and the need for coordination across channels.

By prioritizing coordinated media planning and developing a more nuanced understanding of their audiences, brands can create seamless and engaging experiences that build trust and drive performance. The question is, will brands continue to pay to reach the same audience multiple times, or will they take a more holistic approach to media planning, one that prioritizes coordination, efficiency, and effectiveness?