The ability to coordinate audience reach and frequency between social media and television—typified by the partnership of Facebook and Simulmedia—represents a “transitional point” to Fox Broadcasting in its quest to reach the best prospects for its programming.
While attending the annual PeopleFront event conducted by Simulmedia, Fox’s EVP of Marketing, Laurel Bernard, likes the reasoning behind the Facebook-Simulmedia alliance because social media has a huge impact on Fox’s fan base and its involvement with programming. It was at PeopleFront that Simulmedia divulged that its relationship with Facebook is moving into the commercial phase, with some advertisers committing to a pilot test based on data about Facebook users and TV households.
“Now that I have been able to wrap my head around the way that Simulmedia looks at the marketplace and TV viewing, and now to partner with Facebook, it’s really a great transitional point for us,” says Bernard, adding that she has been involved with social media “before it was a term.”
Companies like Simulmedia help to fill in gaps in media plans that reflect where Fox wants to promote its own content. And while frequency is still important to media planning, in the TV world reach comes out on top.
“I’m a big believer in reach,” says Bernard. “I think you need to have the frequency too, but the frequency is easier to get these days than the reach.”
We interviewed her in New York at the Simulmedia PeopleFront conference where she was a speaker. Please find more video interviews from the PeopleFront event right here.
