Not Just Sports: Understanding TV Genre Trends for Year-Round Engagement
Using LG Ad Solutions’ Automatic Content Recognition technology, we explored the relative rankings of non-sports genres to understand what audiences are watching and when. Whether you’re focused on year-round engagement or leveraging seasonal spikes, knowing the trends can help you maximize budgets effectively.
In our analysis, we discovered three different content groups, with each requiring a slightly different strategy for activation. These groups included:
- Consistent Strong Performers
- ‘Q4 Flaggers
- Strong 1st Half Starters
Let’s explore each of these genre categories in more detail!
While advertisers love to connect with audiences through sports, a sports-forward strategy doesn’t always work for everyone. Not only can sports be expensive, but the particular sport your audience is interested in isn’t live year round. Every sport has its own version of an off season. So if you are an advertiser looking to expand or diversify beyond sports, how do you do that?
Consistent Strong Performers
From an engagement standpoint, it is hard to top the big three of News, Talk, and Reality which held on to their top 3 spots respectively for every month of the year. These three genres always have new content and entire channels are dedicated to them. No matter where we are in the year, there is always new news, different cultural moments for talk shows, and reality television. For advertisers looking for evergreen opportunities, these genres are a solid bet.
‘Q4 Flaggers
Unlike the Consistent Strong Performers, ‘Q4 Flaggers start off strong during the beginning of the year and maintain their performance up until the start of Q4 and the holiday period. Perhaps the whodunit suspense of Mystery or Crime lose some of their luster and Sitcoms aren’t as compelling when competing with holiday content. Either way, the budget for these fans might be better spent elsewhere during the end of the year.
Strong 1st Half Starters
Similar to the ‘Q4 Flaggers, both Action and Documentary start off strong for the first half before becoming more erratic in the second half of the year. There are still months where media investment might make sense (for example in October, Action checks in at 6, while Documentary hits 8), but an “always on strategy” makes less sense during the second half of the year when we see more variance in fans’ consumption.
For Linear TV Advertisers
Understanding seasonal trends allows advertisers to reach their desired audiences throughout the year, regardless of how their viewing habits change or what sports are on or in the off-season. Depending on strategy and goals, Linear TV advertisers will likely want plans for both content that is always on like Consistently Strong Performers while having specific strategies for other genres that change during the year like ‘Q4 Flaggers and Strong 1st Half Starters.
For CTV Advertisers
CTV advertisers don’t need to worry about changing their ad placement strategy throughout the year. CTV enables a data-driven approach to directly reach desired audiences, unlike linear TV’s reliance on approximations of audience presence during specific programs. Additionally, by using LG Ad Solutions’ Automatic Content Recognition technology, advertisers can understand individual households’ exposure to specific ads (including competitors) to better manage frequency or engage in competitive conquesting.
Ready to enhance your CTV advertising strategy? Contact us for more information!
