Local TV may be commonly thought of as that linear channel from which advertisers are retreating to digital – but Brendaon Condon says it doesn’t have to be that way.
The chief revenue officer at Comcast Spotlight, Comcast Cable’s ad sales unit, says he can help bring ad spend back to local cable – by proving to advertisers the effectiveness of their spending.
Spotlight just launched Instant Impact, an analytics software platform that shows the impact on web traffic from airing an ad on Comcast, within 30 minutes of transmission.
And it seems to be working. “We’ve seen sizeable double digit growth in spend, as well as in renewal rates,” Condon tells Maryann Halford, senior advisor at MTM Consulting in this video interview for Beet.TV
So, why has Comcast launched Instant Impact, which is powered by TVSquared? Chiefly, because marketers – especially auto dealers – have been turning away from linear local TV, finding they can get results and proven effectiveness in digital channels.
“In order to stem some of that share shifting and also to grow with the spend for these automotive marketers, we needed to ensure that we could show, when they advertise on television, that it actually works, that we can attribute the traffic to their dealerships or respectively to their websites,” Condon says.
Comcast initially launched a proof-of-concept in three to five markets, followed with a pilot involving 25 advertisers and the full roll-out announced this week.
Whilst it initially focuses on auto dealers, the company wants to make the software available to all advertisers across its 67 markets, and plans to target financial services, quick service restaurants, insurance and travel categories.
This video is part of a series from the Beet Retreat in the City, “We’re Going Local!” hosted by GroupM Worldwide and sponsored by Amobee, Comcast Spotlight, TVSquared and WideOrbit. Please visit this page for additional segments.
