Does TV Advertising Drive Online Sales? 

CHALLENGE

The UK’s rapidly expanding fast food delivery market is highly competitive, with the ongoing evolution of technology platforms continuing to open opportunities for new players to join the race to consumers’ plates.

Delivering ROI on advertising spend is therefore essential.  But in a fragmented and multi-channel world, measuring this key figure is a challenge.

Our client, a fast food pizza delivery service, needed insight on whether its TV advertising was generating online sales.  Making a fact-based decision about continuing this investment required in-depth understanding of its own TV presence as well as that of its competitors.

7M SOLUTION

We undertook a complete overview of the fast-food TV landscape with our 7M Discovery tool, scanning every one of the UK’s live TV channels and programmes for mentions of the client’s brand, specific products within the brand, and competitor names and relevant terms.

The report uncovered:

•   Trends in brand, product, and competitor mentions on TV programmes, as well as when TV ads were aired.
•   Where and when competitors were most likely to advertise.
•   The TV channels and programmes that scored highly for mentions of relevant products, both for the client and its competitors.

RESULTS

Layering the 7M Discovery insights on top of its own data enabled the client to see the direct effect of TV mentions and adverts on its digital performance, both in terms of sales and visits to the website.  Isolating specific ad spots also identified the TV moments that were most likely to encourage people to place an online order; live sports events on TV, which create specific behaviour and buying patterns, were also separated out.

Granular data of this level allowed the client to pinpoint the activity on TV that directly resulted in people placing an order.  For example, one event generated a 5% increase in visits to its website, and a 6% increase in sales (equating to 9000 extra products sold).