In Berlin, the DCMN Open Nights have already become quite an institution – now we’re taking them on the road. On February 13th, we hosted our very first event outside of Germany, at the Old Street WeWork location in London where DCMN’s UK team is located.
The Open Nights are our hit event series, offering a deep dive on trending topics within marketing, tech, creativity and more. The topic of this workshop was Scale New Heights with Performance TV and was directed to startups and digital brands with a focus on growth marketing.
Many young businesses are very attracted to TV but still doubt whether they’re mature enough to take this step. The purpose of the event was to learn when is the right time to get started with TV advertising, how you can use it to scale your business, and how to measure and optimise the results.
After a welcome from DCMN Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer Matthias Riedl, our senior UK media buyer Karl José Ohaka provided a detailed overview of the current TV landscape in the UK.
Examining the stereotype that TV is dead, Karl demonstrated that TV viewing in the UK is indeed still very much alive, but maybe different from what it used to be.
After a peak during recession, the average viewing time in the UK is three hours and 23 minutes – still very similar to what it was 10 years ago. Indeed, 70% of the population watch TV on any given day and 92% in a week. With its unbroken appeal and unparalleled reach, TV is able to deliver an ROI far superior to any other media.
DCMN’s Director of Offline Marketing Sebastian Göritz then took over to explain what this means for marketers and how they can leverage the power of TV to set up a performance-driven strategy to scale their business.
He started with a short video demo that showcased in real time the direct impact of spot airings on website traffic. While traffic remained relatively low while the spot was still on air, visits literally exploded within the next two minutes, increasing by more than 5000%. Once a spot is aired on TV, it has immediate effects on the website traffic and app downloads.
Sebastian also shed some light on when the time is right for a brand to launch a performance TV campaign, as well as the different steps they need to consider before they get started.
The first priority is to define your strategy and goals. If you want to reach the right people, you have to get a solid understanding of your target group and what you want to present.
The second step is the spot creation and production. For the campaign to be successful, you need the right concept for the spot. The best way to achieve this goal is to do thorough customer research before you work on the creatives and ideally to test alternative concepts.
DCMN’s Sebastian Göritz explaining how brands can set up a successful performance TV strategy
Marketers must also make sure that their website is able to cope with the additional traffic and that the funnel is tested and optimised. This may sound like a no-brainer but many brands have already burned their marketing budgets because they were not prepared for the rush on their website after the spot airings.
And then, test, learn and scale! Sebastian also explained how brands can track the results of their campaigns and optimise their performance. Once brands know what works, they can invest in bigger channels, enhance their potential and optimise their CPx.
As is is the tradition for all DCMN Open Nights, the talks were followed by drinks and pizza, where the participants had the opportunity to network and exchange with the speakers.
After the success of this first international edition, other regular Open Night sessions will be launched in our other locations around the globe. Reach out to us at hello@dcmn.com to let us know if there are any particular topics that you’d like to hear about!
