Dive Brief:
- Chipotle and its agency Mediahub have partnered with Turner on a linear TV ad deal that claims to be an industry first for how targeted ads will be tied to a guaranteed sales lift, according to a news release.
- The fast-casual chain’s fall “For Real” campaign will be optimized and targeted across Turner’s networks, with ads served in Turner programs based on what best fits Chipotle customer. The impact of the campaign will be guaranteed based on a sales lift from the viewers exposed to the ads compared to those who weren’t.
- Turner called for the industry to adopt data-driven practices at its 2018 upfront, practices that drove a five-fold increase in the company's ad commitments for audience targeting. Turner is a founding member of OpenAP, an industry consortium that is working to standardize audience buying within premium video.
Dive Insight:
As marketers shift more of their ad budgets to digital video platforms, TV networks are struggling to compete and are looking for innovative ways to show marketers that their commercials deliver a demonstrable impact. Many are working to use data to optimize campaigns more dynamically, rather than having brands buy based on traditional Nielsen gender and age metrics, which have been the standard for decades. Turner’s partnership with Chipotle is an attempt to take data-driven TV ad buying to the next level by revealing an ad’s direct impact on sales.
Chipotle has said it will focus more on addressable TV ads over broadcast TV this year to better target existing or potential customers. By partnering with Turner, the restaurant chain is looking to drive sales and stand out in the increasingly competitive fast food market, especially after being battered with several food safety issues over the past few years. Chipotle reported an 8.3% total sales increase for Q2, reaching $1.27 billion. The company has also been working to strengthen its digital offerings and reported that digital sales grew 33% year-over-year in Q2 and now make up 10.3% of sales, a 20% jump from Q1.
Along with Chipotle, more brands are showing a growing interest in advanced TV options, and TV networks are seeing business guarantees as way to meet those demands. A&E announced plans to begin guaranteeing that TV commercials drive business results and has been testing a model that attributes results to ads. Comcast’s NBC Universal is launching an artificial intelligence-powered tool to scan TV show scripts and match advertisers to the show’s content. The result, a 60-second “prime pod,” will run during the first or last commercial break of a show and will be available to just two advertisers.
