TV and Digital Advertising the Boosting Volume for Mobile Apps

I have been lucky to work with several drive-to-app advertisers as well as web client that evolved to drive to app, like PokerStars, FanDuel and other working with some smart folks that I truly respect. For most mobile app developers marketing their product is simple, digital and mobile advertising are inexpensive, measurable, and widely seen by their target audiences, not to mentioned that consumers can react quickly to the call to action. This is great for apps that are starting out or for those marketers just testing the waters, however larger apps have started to take advantage of large scale TV advertising as well. Take Facebook for example, who during this last Q4 and this Q1 did a large-scale network and Cable TV buy for the launch of their Facebook Live service. I believe that the folks at Facebook understand the volume generating power of TV and used it to boost their users into trying this new service. If my live broadcast newsfeed is any testament I can say it worked well for the social media giant. In a similar manner, a strong mobile campaign is key and TV can be the key that helps provide the final bump that turns an unfamiliar mobile app into a household name.

To formalize some thoughts here is what TV can do to support a well-executed web campaign –

TV Dollars are now more accountable than ever – Marketers can now quantify the impact that their TV ads have on their sales, giving them concrete numbers to justify their campaign. With the use of several solid attribution tools that have a strong algorithmic engine mobile app marketers can pinpoint what registration, download and/or deposit corresponds to what TV network, program, daypart, even the commercial break. In other words, it brings online analytics to TV (even radio) advertising. No to sound informal but --This technology absolutely rocks!!

TV puts online brand awareness on steroids -- while digital and TV ads can both lead directly to sales, TV provides an extra boost to brands do to its wide reach and ability to generate brand recall among consumers. I have personally seen both retail and online campaign get upwards of a 35% bump versus previous benchmarks in the first 4 weeks of campaign. A comparison I like to make to better explain myself to the digital only crown is – It is the equivalent of doing a Home Page takeover of a major online destination (ESPN for example) – but with the ability to do it at minimized financial risk. s

Consumers generally trust brands that advertise on TV – TV ads are still the gold standard when it comes to advertisers legitimizing their brand. We all receive a myriad of in app ads, banners and videos that ask us to download something to our phone --- no thank you --- this is where having a multi-channel campaign specially in TV helps. TV provides the credibility that consumers need to trust a mobile brand, when couple with a solid mobile campaign it provides the path to having accelerated the growth of an apps user base. 

While neither TV nor digital are yet to be the only answers to our campaign needs what is important is to look at the data, do the research and understand the what we are trying to achieve in communicating with our targets. TV complements digital and digital complements TV and it is safe to say that help brands go mainstream. There is not always room for both in a budget but we need to understand and share data and insights to make the best of what we’ve got while pushing the envelope. Be open and do not think in absolutes TV is an old medium that can be flexible and accountable and it is worth the exploration from us digital folks. I can attest that it made a significant difference when launching Fanduel, growing PokerStars, even when we were launching online publishers; our level of success would not have been possible without a combination of accountable traditional media and digital performance and social campaigns.