Buoyed by trial campaigns involving major brands and its own advertising spend, AT&T has big plans for expanding its addressable cross-platform offerings. By year's end, its targeted ad solutions will encompass nearly 14 million addressable television households, more than 30 million mobile devices and new inventory within its DIRECTV app.
In an interview with Beet.TV, AT&T AdWorks President Rick Welday explains the results of addressable cross-platform tests the company conducted for AT&T Mobility wireless and several FORTUNE 100 brands. When a portion of the AT&T Mobility campaign was devoted to addressable TV targeted to specific households, it produced a 19% lift compared to a control group of the brand's typical Mobility advertising.
"More impressive is that we followed those customers anonymously to the mobile devices associated with those households," Welday says. "When we did that in a cross-screen addressable effort there was a 27% lift. That's phenomenal."
AT&T AdWorks saw the lift across the board, whether it was at the top of the funnel with brand or message favorability, mid-funnel with consideration or bottom of the funnel with sales, according to Welday.
A luxury automotive brand involved in the trials got an 87% lift in conversion compared to a control group. "Crazy good results," says Welday.
Asked about supply and demand for addressable inventory, Welday is clear that making as much available as possible is a big focus. Hence the addition of ad inventory in the DIRECTV app, along with an increase to 14 million addressable TV households from 12 million at the time of the merger with DIRECTV.
"As where we sit here today we can meet the demand. It will be interesting to see it play out over time," Welday says.
Quality of the mobile video experience and relevancy of ads to consumers are two key concerns to AT&T AdWorks. "Nobody has yet to deliver the mobile video experience as seamless and simple and integrated as it should be," Welday says, adding that since the merger, enhancements to the DIRECTV app were followed by a 50% increase in unique streamers.
Speaking to the merits of addressable ads, Welday cites the statistic of 3% of the U.S. population being in the market for an automobile at any given time. "Think of all the car ads you see," says Welday. "It's hard to envision that that other 97% is all effective, efficient brand building."
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