Vibe.co makes sure that you no longer think that advertising on TV is a kind of bygone novelty reserved for your grandparents’ generation; you would be mistaken. Because the game isn’t gone; it’s just gotten a makeover. Today’s successful brands aren’t just buying airtime. They are mixing up their massive reach by using both traditional and digital tools.

Two Sides of the Same Media Coin

A modern TV has to live in two separate but interconnected worlds: traditional TV and Connected TV or CTV. Traditional TV (Broadcast and Cable) is still the king when you need to get your brand out to a massive crowd, especially during major live events such as sports, concerts, or breaking news. If your goal is simply to get your brand out there or your name in front of everyone, traditional TV is the way to go.

But there is also advertising on CTV through top services like Vibe.co, which is all about the ways that people stream video to their TV screen. This is more targeted to the digital audience because you can aim for specific households based on their habits, where they live, and what they’re actually interested in. Plus, automated, real-time bidding makes buying ad space more efficient and driven by real data.

Know Thy Viewer

Before you spend a single advertising dollar, you need to ask yourself two questions:

1.   What are You Trying to Achieve?

Be clear about your target audience. Are you trying to boost brand recognition, get traffic to your website, or increase sales volume? Because you’ll be measuring your success using metrics like how many people you reach, how often they see the ad, the cost of showing the ad (CPM) against returns, and whether it led to more engagement online.

2.   Who Are You Talking To?

Modern targeting goes beyond basic age and gender, the metrics of past generations. Today’s brands use smart data to better focus their efforts, such as what the target audience is doing online, where they live, if ads should be tailored to specific households, and if the content aligns with the show or genres that are attached to them.

Taking a detailed approach to your advertising means your money will be better spent. You can deliver the right message to the people who are most likely to care about it.

Making Ads that Stick

The world is full of fast distractions, and often, it’s difficult to get people to put their phones down, so your creative content needs to work hard by hooking them fast, preferably within the first few seconds, showing your name to make sure your brand is visible early on, and telling them what to do by having a powerful Call to Action (CTA).

And when you work with streaming platforms, you can do more. You can use interactive elements like onscreen QR codes or clickable banners to let viewers jump instantly from watching to doing. You may also want to aim for shorter ads like six to 15-second spots, which are better designed to hold the attention of digital streamers.

Putting Your Money Where Your Audience Is

Before you even begin to design an ad, consider looking at where your customers are spending the bulk of their time.

• Traditional TV: Good for older viewers and for campaigns that need big, universal coverage.
• CTV: The go-to for reaching younger and more digitally savvy audiences.
• FAST Channels: A more cost-effective way to get visibility among people who have cut the cord and utilize Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST), such as Tubi, YouTube, or Pluto.

Many times, the smartest way to spend your advertising dollars is to mix and match, using Traditional TV for a wide net and CTV for more targeted precision.

How to Connect the Dots

Rating points are now a thing of the past. Today, advertisers look at the actual impact of a TV ad, including web traffic spikes, the rise in people searching for a brand’s name after an ad airs, and sales tracking to find out which touchpoints lead to sales conversions. A sales conversion is when a potential customer completes a desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a form. CTV allows for digital-style tracking. For traditional TV, brands need to use more sophisticated modeling to better isolate the effects of an ad.

And then there is the final piece: using Vibe.co to link your TV campaign to your digital efforts. You want to run your search and social media campaigns at about the same time as your TV spots. You also want to retarget your audience by showing digital ads on platforms like Meta or Google to the people who were first exposed to your TV ad, since it’s generally accepted that: “The Rule of 7 asserts that a potential customer should encounter a brand’s marketing messages at least seven times before making a purchase decision,” the University of Maryland explains. You may also want to use personalized follow-ups and customer data to tailor the next message a viewer receives.

By bringing all of these marketing elements together, TV, digital, and online advertising create a smooth, high-impact experience for the consumer. TV advertising is no longer about just surviving, but thriving in an environment powered by data and precision planning.