If you couldn’t make it last September to Reload Summit 2024, we’ve got all the insights and highlights available here on our Reload hub. Here's what you missed from the session 'VOD to Video’ with, Ross Partington lead digital lead for ITV across the nations and regions Gary Murray CEO at Leader Online and Gary Kibble CEO at Wickes.

TV advertising has radically recreated itself over many generations, but recently, the pressure is turned up even higher by the advent of advert-light streaming services like Netflix and Disney+. This is also part of a wider shift towards linear, bingeable shows driven by demand, on top of rising costs and smaller budgets for ad campaigns. So, how do you engage audiences that have grown up with TV but want something new from it? How do you make TV advertising more accessible? And, how do you make sure your ads are seen by your audience through TV? Let’s take a look at where the discussion went…

Carli: Looking at those two different types of demand and linear, completely different approaches, do you want to walk us through those formats of the targeted reach engagement and how you can control that? 

Ross Partington: Linear TV is when you watch TV at the scheduled time. On demand is on the viewer's time. At ITV we talked about offering the best of both worlds, so we have mass simultaneous reach delivered via our linear channels, and also addressability at scale delivered via our streaming service, which is ITVX. In terms of targeting linear TV tends to be more your broader demographics. (Age, gender, social-demographic) On demand really comes into its own because you've got a lot more granularity in terms of the fits of the sophistication around the target, which is a lot more aligned with the likes of YouTube and also meta as well. 

"But contrary to what you may have read about in the trade press, when we look at all our viewing across ITV, the split is still 80/20 in favour of linear."

Live events, like sports and news, still draw large audiences in real time. However, dramas and reality TV tend to perform better on catch-up services, which is where VOD comes in. So, it’s all about blending the best of both worlds for advertisers.

Carli: Wickes is obviously a very well known brand. How do you work your strategy when you're looking at linear versus the digital world?

Gary Kibble: I like to keep things simple by imagining the customer’s journey in three stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Linear TV is great for driving awareness because it reaches a broad audience. It’s at the top of the funnel. On the other hand, VOD—whether it’s ITVX or platforms like YouTube—comes in during the consideration and conversion stages. So ensure they play slightly different roles, and it depends what your KPIs and objectives are. 

Carli: You’re new to TV advertising with Leader Online. What challenges have you faced, and what are your expectations moving forward?

Gary Murray: TV advertising has always been something we wanted to explore, but with a smaller team and budget, it felt out of reach. However, with VOD, we’re starting to see how we can elevate our brand in ways we couldn’t before. Showing products like doors and floors online is tough because people want to visualise them in their homes. AI and other digital tools have helped, but VOD allows us to present our products in a more compelling way. I'm super excited to get off the ground, because I think it actually showcased the products really well, and it's something that I think we'll want to do more and learn more about, definitely,

Carli: Ross, Targeting has come a long way with breakdowns of audiences, Have you found any limitations? What are the best practices from an ITV perspective?

Ross: On linear TV, the targeting tends to be broader—based on demographics like age, gender, or social class. But with VOD, we can get much more granular. We have about 42 million registered users on ITVX, and we collect five pieces of data: name, age, gender, postcode and email address. We can match with third-party data from sources like Experian and MasterCard.

The trend that we are definitely seeing across the broadcaster environment is brands now wanting to match their data with that of one of the media owners. So Channel Four, Sky, ITV, Netflix, Disney, are all in this arena. that allows for bespoke targeting, such as targeting your existing customers if they're lapsed, suppressing your existing customers, so that every single impression is served to a new potential customer, and also building lookalikes of your most valuable audiences. It’s incredibly sophisticated and lets us serve the right ads to the right people at the right time.

Carli: Wickes is a data-driven company. Are there any specific insights that are valuable for you?

Gary Kibble: One of the biggest challenges is knowing when the juice is worth the squeeze. You can segment your audience into smaller and smaller groups, but at a certain point, it’s no longer cost-effective. Your cost per impression goes up as your audience shrinks, so there’s a tipping point where it just doesn’t make sense to go any further.

At Wickes, we built something we call the "Mission Motivation Engine," a machine-learning tool that analyses customer behaviour within our site, but also within external ecosystems. It helps us segment customers based on what projects they’re likely working on. We don't want to sell products, we want to sell projects. whether it’s a home renovation or a smaller DIY project. This allows us to deliver relevant content when it’s most likely to lead to a conversion through channels like VOD.

Carli: With Leaders just starting that journey have you got any expectations of what that data brings for you moving forward? 

Gary Murray: Data is going to be huge for us. We already use a lot of  targeting in our digital marketing, but with TV and VOD, we’re looking to dive much deeper. We rely on our agency to guide us through the process of figuring out what controls we should target, what audience we should go for, does it fit our products? Does it fit our brand, how do we kind of elevate our brand to get the right audience in as well?  but as we gain more data, we’ll be able to refine that strategy even more.

Carli: Ross, how easy is it to tailor advertising content for particular shows on ITV?

Ross: It’s rare for brands to tailor ads to specific shows unless they have a sponsorship deal with that particular program. What’s more common is tailoring ads for specific audiences. For example, brands like Jet2 create different ads aimed at younger adults, families, and older adults, and they serve these ads in the content that best matches those audiences.

"We’re also seeing more dynamic ads, where brands give us different components of the ad, and we stitch them together based on the viewer’s location or other data points. It’s all about personalisation at scale."

Carli: Gary, with a wide range of products at Wickes, how do you decide which ads to serve where?

Gary Kibble: We break it down based on the customer’s journey. If someone is just becoming aware of our brand, we’ll focus on broad messaging through linear TV. As they move further down the funnel—considering a specific project or product—we shift to more targeted ads through VOD. The key is aligning the right message with the right moment in the customer journey.

In Ross's example, we do work with dynamic Ad creative. So we effectively build a top and tailed ad with key promotional and brand messages. From there, we tap into data from our Mission Motivation Engine (MME), which helps us understand whether customers are on one of the nine DIY or seven trade missions. Based on that, we serve relevant content via video-on-demand (VOD).

"We also have a substantial customer base of about 6.8 million people, which allows us to create hashed lookalike audiences and fish in an even bigger pond. So it's how we use the data to actually increase our reach, as well as focus on the conversion of our existing customers. The primary goal for now is to increase brand visibility."

Carli: So Ross, obviously, it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's not just for TV, and it does impact the wider market in channels such as YouTube campaigns, social campaigns. How can you see that amplifying across those other channels?

Ross: There’s definitely a growing body of evidence which demonstrates that TV has an energising effect on your other channels. TV can boost digital performance, influencing click-through rates, cost-per-acquisition (CPAs), and even search engine auctions. I don't think it's anything that demand platforms or the broadcasters have really cracked yet and been able to provide really robust evidence across the ecosystem.

"At ITV, we have a team working on understanding how it affects search behaviour, digital auction prices, and more. In one recent study, we analysed data from 37 brands and found that TV advertising drove a 5% uplift in impressions, clicks, and conversions. For some brands, that increase went up to 20%."

Carli: How does Wickes integrate these TV-driven insights, especially in terms of store traffic and digital performance?

Gary Kibble: Whether you’re a CFO or a CMO, one of the most important questions is: How effective is your marketing mix? More broadly your marketing spend. We’re really passionate about data at Wickes, and over the years, marketing has become more of a science, with many decisions being data-driven.

"We work with a third-party company, Ubiquity, which specializes in statistical moddeling. This helps us measure the impact of every piece of marketing activity. For example, we can see the return on investment (ROI) for paid search compared to VOD, allowing us to allocate budgets more effectively. Data is absolutely critical in the art of decision making when it comes to optimizing marketing spend."

Over the last 12 to 18 months, we’ve expanded our data teams to gain deeper insights. it’s becoming increasingly competitive. Cost-per-clicks (CPCs) are rising, spend is higher and you have to make your pound work more. That’s why we’re exploring new channels to complement our digital strategies.

Carli: Ross, how do brands dip their toes in? What are the first steps? 

Think the first place to start would be the Thinkbox website. There's lots of information on there about different forms of television. It almost kind of guides you through the process. Focus on what your actual marketing objective is, you know, is it more brand or performance, or the performance based on who is likely to be in this room? 

Once you’ve figured that out, partner with a media agency that can look at the broader landscape and guide you. Decide on your strategy—whether it’s an always-on approach or a burst campaign—and define your budget, target audience, and timing. Then, it’s about creating your TV ad and analyzing the results for future campaigns.

Carli: Gary, Wickes has obviously had a lot of advertising experience. So what advice would you give about key learnings? 

Gary Kibble: One of the key lessons is that it’s not always just about immediate ROI. TV advertising can have a long-term multiplier effect on brand value.

"Econometric modeling, the multiplier impact of TV is sometimes 2.4 times. For every one pound I spend over the long term, gives me 24 pounds. The takeout is how to use data to make the best use of limited funds, because no matter how big your budgets are, everyone's got limited funds."

Another big takeaway is being clear on your objectives from the start. Investing in TV is a significant upfront cost, but if you approach it with the right data, you can have more productive conversations with stakeholders like your CFO.

The one thing I realised is the single biggest asset that we have is our brand. It's critical that you have very clear brand guidelines that all partners follow. From fonts and colour schemes to tone of voice, everything has to align. The production process is very structured, and pre-production meetings are critical. Once you’re on set, every second costs money, so you want to minimize any debates or changes at that stage by preparing thoroughly in advance.

Carli: TV advertising got a reputation for being costly. What are the most accessible, budget friendly entry points for us for TV advertising?

Ross: Many broadcasters offer incentives, like match funding, which reduces the financial risk for new advertisers. There’s no minimum spend on platforms like ITV. We’ve had advertisers spend as little as £1,000 a month. For brands that are just starting, one strategy is to focus on regional advertising before scaling up. Advertising during the day is also more affordable, which can work well for performance-driven brand with strong CTAs that generally get a higher response rate. One option that’s gaining popularity is "pause ads," which can be shown on TV for as little as £350. It’s a budget-friendly way to dip your toes into TV advertising and offers great value for brands looking to make an impact without spending a fortune.

Gary Kibble: We follow a strict production process with well-defined stage gates. When you’re on set, time is literally money, so the more prepared you are beforehand, the more you can control costs. Pre-production meetings are key to ensuring everything runs smoothly.

Gary Murray: It was all about clearly defining our budget upfront and knowing what we were committing to. We had a lot of meetings to make sure we were confident in our approach. That’s helped us manage our first campaign effectively, and now we’re ready to launch. We’ll keep refining as we go, but having that initial structure in place was crucial.

There’s certainly plenty to digest and take on board, but if you’re after even more from 2024’s Reload Summit check out roundup summaries for TikTok, Google, Klaviyo and Shopify, all available right here.