An introduction to the TV and video landscape for ad campaigns
The TV and video landscape is complex, with multiple ways to consume content – including traditional TV, connected TV, and online video. With the variety of choices, marketers and their agencies must adapt quickly to keep up with existing and emerging channels to reach their desired audiences.
Biopharma marketers need to reach highly qualified health audiences to ultimately influence actual health outcomes, such as driving new patient starts. This eBook provides an overview of available TV and video channels, including audience targeting and measurement capabilities, to help biopharma marketers choose the right video platforms to achieve their campaign goals.
Video as a holistic strategy
While the video landscape is fragmented, it’s still important for marketers to think about reaching their target audience across these various channels as a holistic strategy. After the target audience is identified, marketers and their media agencies can determine the different video channels where they can best reach their audience. Through upfronts, marketers can buy any type of video inventory in advance to secure discounted pricing. While most TV inventory is bought during TV upfronts, video can also be bought outside of the upfronts and throughout the year.
Once marketers determine the right media mix, measuring every TV and video dollar across the entire plan is crucial to understanding how media is working to influence actual health outcomes and if and where any optimizations make sense.
Video platforms: Understanding the basics
To successfully expand and execute a video strategy, marketers need to understand the available platforms, including the audience targeting capabilities and how the media is measured.
Measuring and testing campaign performance once the campaigns are in flight can provide key insights to determine if and when marketers should make optimizations. While traditional digital marketing metrics, such as unique viewers and click-through rates, show high-level campaign engagement, biopharma marketers need to understand the impact on actual health outcomes. Third-party measurement and analytics providers specializing in life sciences can provide additional granularity by connecting media exposure data to health behavior to tie media investments to health outcomes. Having a common currency to compare all video placements across the plan makes it easier for marketers to optimize campaigns quickly.
Once metrics are in place to evaluate media effectiveness, it is important to measure campaign performance. Audience quality, based on health data, is an early indicator of campaign success. Marketers can then reallocate investments within and across publishers if initial metrics indicate the campaign is not performing as planned.
Making timely optimizations throughout a campaign can increase media efficiency by as much as 10-25%. Media partners can help marketers improve campaign performance by helping advertisers reallocate spending within their platforms. Here is a breakdown of the various video platforms, including how media is purchased, targeted, and measured.
LINEAR VIDEO
Linear refers to TV delivery in a passive, “lean back” environment where network programming runs continually and is synonymous with what we call traditional TV.
Traditional TV
| Linear TV | Live or Time-Shifted [Video-on-Demand (VOD), DVR] |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | Delivered via over-the-air broadcast, cable, or satellite set-top box services (Multichannel Video Programming Distributors, MVPD, and Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributors, vMVPD) Often serves as the anchor within video launch plans because it is an effective way to reach a broad audience and drive awareness |
| EXAMPLES | Network providers such as ABC, ESPN, and NBC Time-shifted live TV such as YouTube TV or Hulu Live |
| AD PURCHASING | Purchased directly with TV networks by a media agency during annual upfronts or through scatter buys throughout the year A fraction of spots are reserved for local placements; cable companies or streaming platforms can place those spots with their own advertising |
| TARGETING | Targeted toward large demographic groups First- and third-party data sets used to evaluate the audience composition of networks, dayparts, and programs For time-shifted live TV on streaming platforms, ads can be targeted with third-party data, such as health audience segments, to reach highly qualified health audiences |
| MEASUREMENT | Measured using panels that can be matched to health data; health metrics can include audience quality and prescription lift |
| Addressable Linear TV | |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | Delivers targeted ads to different households watching the same program through MVPDs |
| EXAMPLES | Cable and satellite providers include DISH Media, Comcast, Verizon, and Spectrum |
| AD PURCHASING | Based on impressions of advanced, custom audiences and executed directly with cable and satellite operators Mostly purchased during annual upfronts, buyers also have the ability to buy throughout the year |
| TARGETING | Targeting includes household interests, habits, geography, health audiences, and demographics Data sources for targeting include cable or satellite set-top boxes, third-party offline data, and subscription data |
| MEASUREMENT | Measurement connects household level set-top box data matched back to health data; health metrics can include audience quality and prescription lift |
| Data-Driven Linear TV | |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | National linear TV approach with the ability to overlay custom audience segments MVPDs Marketers can select the programs where they want to advertise based on specific target audience indices |
| EXAMPLES | Direct partners such as NBC, FOX, and AMC |
| AD PURCHASING | Generated and executed with direct partners such as TV networks by a media agency Usually bought quarterly to allow for optimizations; minimums apply (time, investment, reach) |
| TARGETING | Strategic health audience segments are established using partners such as Crossix or Epsilon that are activated across multiple TV networks |
| MEASUREMENT | Measured using panels that can be matched to health data; health metrics can include audience quality and prescription lift |
NON-LINEAR VIDEO
Any method or technology that allows viewers to select which content they watch and when they watch it.
Streaming
Includes video content accessed and consumed on internet-connected devices (TVs, desktops, tablets, and mobile devices). Streaming is often an umbrella term for video content served over the internet, including connected TV, streaming live TV, full episode players, and free ad-supported on-demand video.
| Streaming TV | |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | Distributors aggregate live and on-demand TV and deliver the content over the internet On-demand apps sometimes referred to as full episode players (FEP) |
| EXAMPLES | Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney + Peacock, and Paramount + |
| AD PURCHASING | Purchased during TV upfronts; Can also be purchased throughout the year Direct insertion orders or programmatically |
| TARGETING | Ability to layer third-party health audience segments to reach highly qualified health audiences |
| MEASUREMENT | Measured by exposures to devices and then matched back to health data; health metrics can include audience quality and prescription lift |
| Connected TV (CTV) | |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | Any TV that has the ability to be connected to the internet to enable the streaming of video content, usually through native streaming applications within the operating system or through devices that plug into a TV’s HDMI port |
| EXAMPLES | Samsung TV, Roku Amazon Fire Sticks, Apple TV, and video game consoles |
| AD PURCHASING | Purchased during TV upfronts; Can also be purchased throughout the year Direct insertion orders or programmatically |
| TARGETING | Ability to layer third-party health audience segments to reach highly qualified health audiences |
| MEASUREMENT | Measured by exposures to devices and then matched back to health data; health metrics can include audience quality and prescription lift |
| Free Ad-Supported Video on Demand (AVOD) | |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | Apps where customers watch content free of charge but are shown ads during breaks in the content stream |
| EXAMPLES | AVOD apps include Pluto TV and Tubi |
| AD PURCHASING | Purchased as part of upfronts with the app parent company (e.g. Fox, Paramount) Direct insertion orders or programmatically |
| TARGETING | Ability to layer third-party health audience segments to reach highly qualified health audiences |
| MEASUREMENT | Measured by exposures to devices and then matched back to health data; health metrics can include audience quality and prescription lift |
| Online Video (OLV) | |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | Delivered within websites, apps, or rich media |
| EXAMPLES | YouTube and Vimeo Pre-roll, mid-roll, or interstitial ads within traditional websites such as news or sports sites |
| AD PURCHASING | Usually bought programmatically; can also be purchased directly through an insertion order |
| TARGETING | Ability to layer third-party targeting segments to reach highly qualified health audiences |
| MEASUREMENT | Measured by exposures to devices and then matched back to health data |
| Social Video | |
|---|---|
| OVERVIEW | Appears in social feeds, often set to auto-play Usually limited to shorter placements, such as 6-second creatives |
| EXAMPLES | Video ads on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok |
| AD PURCHASING | Directly through social platform providers |
| TARGETING | Ability to layer third-party targeting segments to reach highly qualified health audiences |
| MEASUREMENT | Often only accessible through media owner |
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