ORLANDO, FL — Throughout decades of car TV ads, the medium has typically been used to ignite initial buyer interest, while dealer commercials struggled to prove their worth.
Now auto marques can get effectiveness at both ends of the funnel.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, David Spencer, Manager, Emerging Media & Partnerships, General Motors, explains how GM has a fresh approach to driving impact with new TV capabilities.
Toward the audience
Spencer acknowledges that drivers are now using media very differently, with TV consumption having fragmented across a range of platforms, each with their own unique capabilities and points of inertia.
That means GM has “to blend together to try and get to the same level of reach that we were able to achieve 10 years ago in one channel”, Spencer says.
Still, the prize on offer is considerable – a switch from large-scale campaigns, which could prove inefficient, to a real understanding of individual buyers’ points in the purchase journey, even their individual preferences.
“We’ve been working towards flipping our model from a network-to-network planning strategy to an audience-based strategy,” Spencer adds.
Targeting propensity
Spencer says GM is now starting with developing unique audience segments and then building creative to match them.
He is working with Dentsu’s Merkle and with NBCU on both ends.
He says: “(Dentsu) have got a platform called M1 which we merge with our GM first-party data that helps us to build what we call our ‘high-propensity audiences’ … based on indicators that would suggest someone is more propense to purchase this vehicle versus that vehicle, a Chevy versus a GMC, and even down to a Bolt versus a Silverado.
“NBCU has worked with us to incorporate that M1 data and allow us to figure out where those M1, high-propensity audiences are across the NBCU network, which is also massive and expansive, and transact in a way that allows us to feel confident that we’re getting what we’re paying for and we’re achieving the reach that we want to.”
You’re watching “Assessing TV Performance in a Changed Landscape,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series produced at the 2022 ANA Masters of Marketing, presented by EDO. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
