Hotels.com used the real-time results from TubeMogul’s integrated survey tool with the launch of “Captain Obvious” to determine that its online and television ads work better together.
TubeMogul has experienced a great deal of growth over the past year. The California-based company went public, opened an office in Vancouver and now employs about 470 people globally through operations across North America and in London, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney.
Most notable for the industry, TubeMogul also launched programmatic TV, the world’s first software that enables automated buying of TV advertising.
Grant le Riche, managing director, TubeMogul Canada, says, “We’ve created a platform where advertisers can buy video ads on any screen, anywhere and use data to make smarter decisions – it’s that simple. Through our software, advertisers can consolidate their entire brand advertising budget into a single place and quickly see what’s working, what’s not, and to let the software do the dirty work so they have time to focus on what’s important.
“Since launching programmatic TV, Mondelez has used it to buy the Super Bowl and DigitasLBi has used it to buy the Oscars across eight markets just three days before it aired. Through our software, it took only a few days for brands to be able to reach an audience during events that are usually sold out months in advance.”
Results like that have quieted industry critics who believed that TV spots sold programmatically would only end up on shows like late-night local news or syndicated reruns but never during primetime events like the Super Bowl or the Oscars.
Today there is more content available on screens than ever before. In the last year, the total amount of mobile inventory available in Canada through TubeMogul’s programmatic platform increased over 50%. Tablet inventory is the fastest growing format.
Le Riche says, “We obviously think that programmatic has transformed all advertising through the benefits of using automation and data and the ability to measure ads on a site level – but not just clickthrough rate, completion rate. We’re measuring 60-plus key performance indicators (KPIs) on a site level. We’re looking at audience metrics so people can start guaranteeing who they are buying.”
He says the benefits of automation – the power of using data to target, the ability to measure the impact of online video ads and to make changes in real time has made the advertising process much more accountable and transparent.
Brands are increasingly attracted to the type of control that programmatic provides. Large marketers such as Heineken USA are shifting big chunks of their media budgets into digital ads. In Heineken’s case, 25% of its ad budget goes into digital and it is now buying 10% of its ad budget programmatically using the TubeMogul platform.
The real-time results available in the programmatic platform helped Hotels.com discover that online and television ads worked better together to deliver its brand message. Message recall was 32% for those who saw the ad on TV only and was 34% for online only compared to those who did not see the ad at all, 11%. Recall was greatest at 39% for those seeing the ad online and on TV. Le Riche says results like these are why TubeMogul has seen tremendous growth with brands wanting access to software to start executing their buys, owning the data and using that data in ways that are more effective.
For marketers not wanting to use the platform on their own, TubeMogul handles it but also provides a level of control through an online login that allows them to see the buys and the data. They can then choose to transition to handling it themselves or through their agency.
“We provide a ton of educational resources and training,” says le Riche. “We offer marketers that want to learn how to do this, a classroom setting in California where they get the training they need to use the software. We know this skill set is extremely important and we have had a number of companies in Canada take us up on our offer to do this.”
He adds, “This is why programmatic TV has become a reality much faster than what people expected – advertisers are realizing that they can bring the same advanced audience targeting and operational efficiency from online video and apply it to TV, and TV programmers are realizing that they will make more money from programmatic – not less.”
