Tag Archive for: LG Channels

Three Tips for Toy Brands Looking to Make an Impact Through CTV

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In the run-up to the holidays, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles — you name it — search high and low for the trendiest toys for the children in their lives. Guaranteeing your spot as #1 gift-giver (and therefore, family member) in the eyes of the children is definitely worth the hustle! Consumer spending on toys has increased significantly in the last year, with 2021 seeing a total spend of $38.19 billion on toys in the US alone. This marks a 14% increase from the previous year and comes despite overall reduced consumer spending as a result of the pandemic. (Oberlo, 2021)

According to ChildStats.gov, in 2022, nearly 48M members of the US population are 11 years of age or younger, signaling a considerable market for toy brands. Reaching and connecting with families through advertising, however, is not child’s play. When it comes to toys, marketing involves attracting the attention of both the child and parent/guardian because, ultimately, the decision to purchase is in the hands of the person pulling the purse strings.

For brands looking to connect with audiences through CTV advertising, here are three things to remember to ensure your brand is best-in-class.

    1. Who is your audience, really?: When it comes to finding prospective toy buyers across TV, learning about their viewing patterns and behavior is key. For toy buyers, genres like reality, daytime dramas, and football top the charts. In terms of networks, CBS Sports, Telemundo, and Estrella TV make up a large chunk of their viewing time. This reinforces that a good portion i.e. nearly 1 in 5 of the toy buyer audience is Hispanic. Reaching audiences through Hispanic content and creating specific campaigns tailored to this demographic could go a long way in forming a lasting bond with potential customers. Of the LG toy buyer audience, nearly half have a household income of $100,000 or more. This proves that this segment is affluent with a high propensity to purchase. Toy buyers skew female and connecting with these audiences through female-centered messaging could help boost awareness and conversion. Partnering with media companies like LG Ad Solutions can help you unearth insights about your audience, find target viewers across TV and engage with them meaningfully.
    2. Know Your Competitor’s Playbook: The toy market has a lot of players, and it can be hard to make your presence felt amidst the competition. Leveraging ACR technology to understand where your competitors place TV ads can give you an upper hand in conquesting them and taking back a share of voice. Nearly half of all toy brands advertise in Kids programming. This is in line with the fact that the toy buyer audience (more than general audiences) believes that their children have a significant impact on the brands they choose. Following the kids programming genre is Comedy, Travel & Adventure and Movies. Food for thought: Does your brand have a strong presence in these genres.
    3. Managing Reach & Frequency For Better ROI: As a marketer, are you worried that you are not reaching your target viewer or reaching the same viewer multiple times, without any real impact? More than half of the Toy buyer audience believes that streaming has replaced linear TV, with over two-third watching less than 7 hours of live traditional TV per week. Focusing solely on linear TV will result in a brand missing out on a large number of highly relevant streaming audiences. Additionally, with linear TV advertising, you cannot guarantee how often a viewer sees your ad. Too many times? Overexposure and ad fatigue. Too few times? No recall value. OEMs, like LG, have glass-level data and can capture what is being watched on the screen to ensure your audience firstly sees an ad and secondly, sees it an optimum number of times. For toy brands that advertise on linear TV, ads are seen by almost all heavy linear TV viewers but only 14% of light linear TV viewers. Additionally, heavy linear TV viewers are exposed to the ads ~3x more than medium or light linear TV viewers, leading to further inefficiencies.

Toy Category Linear TV Reach & Frequency

toys

LG Ad Solutions audiences are valuable for toy brands, with one in three homes purchasing items in the toy category in 2021. Additionally, more than half of these buyers spend more than $200 on toys per year. Interested in partnering with us to place your brand in front of the right audiences in a place where they are likely to convert? Connect with us at sales@lgads.tv to enhance your campaign and move metrics.

Source: 2022 MRI/Simmons Spring Doublebase USA

 

Upping The Ad Game — Interactive & Dynamic Ad Units

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What is your eye first drawn towards when you turn on the TV? For advertising to make a splash and the brand to stay embedded in the viewer’s mind, placement is of utmost importance. You can have the best imagery and the wittiest copy, but if the ad is hidden from view, it will be easily missed. At LG Ad Solutions, we recognize that one way for ads to be attention-grabbing, is through placement at consumer points of interaction with the TV. We’ve rolled out a series of new Native Ad units to ensure your brand is highly visible and consumers can interact with your brand at the point of exposure.

Show & Tell / Let’s Take A Quick Tour

Here is a quick look at some of our new ad units:

  • Halo Ads – An expandable unit that appears when a user hovers over the home launcher banner ad, this unit is eye-catching and perfect for a clickable CTA that will take the user directly to an app, website, video, or image.

  • Carousel Banner & Video Ads – This is the most hard-to-miss ad unit, taking up the entire top half of the screen. Built with up to 5 cards remaining on the screen for 5 seconds each, ads will appear in one of the slots at random. Brands can take over the unit by investing in a roadblock. Currently only available for media and entertainment industry brands, this is a sure-shot way to get the attention of your viewers! This carousel ad unit can be either a banner, video, or video with a companion banner.

  • Weather Triggered Ads – Hot coffee on a cold winter day? Allergy medication during pollen season? Relevant advertising works wonders for both consumer and brand. You can now use weather cues to add relevancy to your advertising. By deploying Weather Triggered Ads, in partnership with Clinch, brands can align campaign strategy based on weather and ultimately drive the consumer to act.kb screen

At LG Ad Solutions, we are continually exploring new ways to engage audiences and encourage conversion. To learn more about these ad units and how you can use them to boost your creative strategy, contact us at info@lgads.tv or on our contact page.

 

TV Trends — Hit a Home Run with MLB Audiences

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Major League Baseball (MLB) is in full swing as we cross the halfway mark of the 2022 regular season and move steadily towards October. What can we expect from this year’s playoffs in terms of audience viewership and advertiser trends? We looked at data from the 2021 playoffs to set the stage.

In 2021, 52% of LG TV users watched the MLB. The 2021 playoffs, specifically, saw a slightly higher viewership within LG Ad Solutions households compared to the 2020 playoff season. As watching the games on TV becomes more accessible as a result of streaming, viewership is only expected to grow.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Who is really watching the MLB games? Let’s dig into the numbers. A large chunk of MLB audiences are female. Brands often think that the typical sports viewer is male. However, the data proves that the ‘women don’t watch sports’ stereotype is just that — a stereotype.

MLB games strike a chord with almost all age groups. They have the highest resonance with ages 45+ and the lowest resonance with the younger demographic (ages 18-24). These audiences also have a higher purchasing power; nearly two-thirds of MLB playoff audiences have an annual household income of $75,000 or more. In terms of ethnicity, one in five MLB viewers are Hispanic. Brands can take marketing to the next level by creating specific campaigns that speak to this diverse audience in a meaningful way. States that saw high MLB playoff viewership included Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina.

LGAds MLB banner

MLB Audiences watch a mix of linear and streaming TV. Nearly one-third of MLB audiences watch TV content only through streaming, while more than half use both linear and streaming options. 61% of MLB fans using LG TVs say that they watch less than 7 hours of live traditional TV per week. The shift towards streaming is real and brands must use a combination of linear and CTV to capture audience attention. 79% of MLB audiences enjoy watching content on ad-supported TV apps with 62% agreeing that they prefer streaming free video content with ads instead of paying for a subscription. In fact, nearly half the MLB fans believe that the commercials they see on streaming services are relevant to them.

LGAds MLB banner

At LG Ad Solutions, our ACR technology helps us understand audience viewing preferences and target them wherever they are across TV. Especially for viewers that watch both linear and streaming TV, we can pinpoint audiences not reached or reached at an insufficient frequency on linear TV and connect with them through CTV.

Brand Batting Order

The top ranking brands by number of ads aired during MLB playoffs (excluding the MLB itself) include GEICO, T-Mobile & CopperFit. Electronics & Communication, Restaurants and Life & Entertainment are the top categories to advertise during the MLB playoffs.

Make Your Pitch

Ultimately, if you’re looking to pitch your brand to audiences interested in MLB, you don’t have to limit yourself to baseball games. MLB fans are spread out across TV. In fact 57% of MLB fans like to stream live sports. Our ACR data can help you find where these audiences are and place your brand commercials across their screens when they are most likely to convert. Interested in learning more? Reach out at info@lgads.tv or on our contact page to partner with us.

Note: All analyses carried out are based on national ad airings only

FASTs Are The Next Big Thing For TV Viewers

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With new streaming services cropping up almost every week accompanied with varying levels of subscription fees, consumers are feeling the drain on their bank accounts. The solution? Free ad-supported streaming TV channels (FASTs). FASTs have changed the game by providing consumers with engaging, premium content at zero cost. Consumer attitudes towards FASTs are positive, paving the way for brands to reach their target audience efficiently.

We conducted a qualitative and quantitative research study earlier this year, examining the attitudes of consumers in CTV households towards FASTs, including LG’s own offering, LG Channels, among various other types of platforms and services. Our research shows how FASTs have increased in popularity over the last few years, with 80% of smart TV owners being aware of FAST Channels and more than half using them to discover and watch content.

Here are a few takeaways from the study:

FAST Channels Are Seen As A Replacement For Cable / Satellite TV

Nearly two-thirds of CTV users agree they’re less likely to subscribe to cable or satellite TV because of the easy accessibility and wide prevalence of FAST channels. Over 70% of those who have never had a cable / satellite subscription or who have canceled their cable / satellite subscription agree that they are less likely to subscribe to cable/satellite TV. Even a majority of current cable / satellite subscribers agree that they are likely to cut the cord in direct connection with the growth of FAST channels.

LGAds FAST banner

FAST Channels Provide An Alternative To More Subscriptions

With the proliferation of subscription streaming options, smart TV owners view FAST Channels as an alternative to paying for a subscription. Over 80% of smart TV (including LG) owners prefer watching shows for free through FAST channels versus paying for more subscriptions.

LGAds FAST banner

FAST Channels Viewers Are More Receptive To Ads

Nearly two-thirds of FAST Channels viewers have medium to high ad receptivity. This means that brands that place their ads on FAST channels are more likely to have higher audience engagement. In addition, ad receptivity on FASTs is higher than on cable or satellite networks.

LGAds FAST banner

LG Smart TV Users Have The Highest Awareness Of FAST Channels

Nine in ten LG TV users are aware of FAST Channels on their LG smart TV, which is significantly higher than other brands. Nearly half the LG smart TV users regularly use LG Channels. LG Channels offer opportunities for brands to connect with audiences through CTV video ads. Like the linear TV experience, viewers see ads during regular breaks in programming.

LGAds FAST banner

With piling subscription costs, FASTs are the next big thing for TV viewers. FAST Viewers are expecting to see ads and are more likely to pay attention to them. This makes FASTs an ideal platform for brands looking to enhance awareness or improve conversion. In our report below, we outline further details about FAST audiences including demographics and the kind of ads that resonate most with this group. To learn more, download the full report below or contact us here.