BRTV

BRTV – The right low-cost strategy

Brand Advertising with the strengths of Direct Response

DRTV (Direct Response TV) is often seen as the poor relation of traditional high budget Brand advertising but in the past 5 years the increased use of the internet by consumers has narrowed the gap. This has recently led to the creation of a new low cost genre of TV advertising called BRTV (Brand Response TV). These are 30-second spots that promote a URL to drive viewers with tablets or smartphones to visit a website and make a purchase. With BRTV the focus is less on name recall and more about driving online traffic. This type of ad qualifies as “direct response” and allows the clients’ media agency to purchase airtime that can cost as much as 50% less than fixed-position brand inventory in which a guaranteed TV audience level is purchased. With BRTV there is usually a more effective viewer engagement via the advertisers website and this more than makes up the difference in spend levels. Additionally, the airtime discount minimizes risk and allows first time advertisers to safely test TV.

BRTV increases traffic to your website

At ARM Direct our experience is that a hefty 20% of additional online response is generated within 10 minutes of a well made BRTV spot being transmitted. Nielsen tells us that some 60% of television viewers watch the box and surf the Internet simultaneously and we find that the multitasking 18-35yr age group react positively to BRTV ads – especially if these are highly creative and slightly edgy. Younger viewers especially are happy to immediately visit a BRTV advertiser’s website and just as importantly share what they’ve found with their friends on Facebook & Twitter. Results are even more powerful when the BRTV ad offers a free sample or special discount.

BRTV success story on a small budget

We’re on a mission to make BRTV more affordable in the UK and one of our recent successes has been to help a dynamic young online company to significantly grow sales of their hero brand.

Founder, Claire Barratt, took to social media in 2011 to sell her unique customised ClaireaBella bags and Chloe Simms from the hit TV show – The Only Way is Essex – bought one and was “papped” with the photo appearing prominently in a national newspaper. Claire says of that time, “I was bowled over with the immediate response online! A few days later Chloe was also spotted in series 2 of the TV show with her bag and my Twitter timeline went crazy!”

Later that year Claire got in touch with an online gift website called ToxicFox.co.uk and they were soon collaborating and extending the range further.

Clinton Njie (CEO of ToxicFox) decided to explore whether television was an affordable option and in September 2012 he appointed ARM Direct to make a stylish 30sec BRTV creative using the catch phrase “carry yourself with style”, featuring 3 young models and fun character animations by Nick Sneath. For a modest media budget this was tested on selected UK TV channels and ToxicFox website sales increased significantly with ClaireaBella fast becoming a “must have” bag in the all-important pre-Christmas online sales period. This initial test proved so successful that ToxicFox are now rolling out a February 2013 campaign and plan to make further BRTV ads to support their brand later in the year.

Low-cost BRTV Ads drive viewers online Research ‘TV and Online: better together’ conducted by Thinkbox & IAB, confirms that TV advertising can drive people online in a host of ways, the benefit being that the smartphone consumer journey is now much shorter and viewers often respond to TV ads as and when they are seen in real time. From their analysis it became apparent that the role of TV in driving online response has been undervalued. Partially, this is down to the fast changing technological landscape and the huge increase in smartphone ownership. Plus BRTV campaigns are based on hard facts as the response numbers don’t lie – meaning that results can always be improved month-on-month by cutting out the slow performing TV channels and testing others.

Television’s impact on website response all too often slips under the radar but the reality is this; making a low-cost highly creative BRTV ad can help drive significant online traffic especially as all BRTV ads shown on broadcast channels can now instantly be searched, shared and copied adding a whole new dimension to agency accountability. At ARM Direct we welcome this new challenge.