Social media optimizes your ad dollars! When networks publish upfronts in the spring, advertisers are waiting with baited breathe to see gross rating points, target rating points, total households of the most popular programs. But that's the problem, isn't it? They're all looking at the same information and vying for the same advertising action. Want to get the jump on your competitors when the new line-ups are aired this fall?

1. NETWORKED
INSIGHTS
Fueling Intelligent Brands

2. Outfront of the upfronts
Use social media to optimize your ad dollars
Spring brings more than flowers in the TV business. It’s the
season for upfronts, and amidst the star appearances and
preview clips, advertisers will pour over familiar numbers –
gross rating points, target rating points, total households.
Today, though, a new metric is assuming an all-important
role in how ad execs calculate the value in buying a particular
daypart – social impressions. Social impressions are an
indicator of the social media discussion under way around
a show.
Importantly, social impressions represent more than just
the raw volumes of posts appearing on blogs, Facebook
pages, Twitter feeds and the like. Built on a Networked
Insights-developed formula, social impressions emerge
from analysis of conversation volume, page views, frequent
visitors, and the traits of the posters and forums where the Idol recently delivered 14.2 GRPs
discussions are happening. for a 30-second ad, at a cost of
nearly $600k.
What does this mean for you? Social impressions are
indispensable complementary data for more traditional An alternative approach to
measurements. They deliver insights on brand integrations capturing a like audience
and validate leftover daypart inventory for spot buys. Social would be to buy a combination
impressions are a word-of-mouth machine that can identify of shows with lower GRPs, and
hidden diamonds that a sampled households approach thus lower costs, but with higher
normally buries. social impressions.
American Idol (Idol) remains on a roll, reaping a huge
Idolize, chuck it or live on the fringe?
harvest of viewers every week. But is it really the most
efficient investment of advertising dollars?
Idol recently delivered 14.2 GRPs for a 30-second ad, at a
cost of nearly $600k. An alternative approach to capturing
a like audience would be to buy a combination of shows
with lower GRPs, and thus lower costs, but with higher
social impressions.
For example, purchasing a week’s ads on episodes of
Saturday Night Live, Chuck, Fringe, The Vampire Diaries and
Supernatural would deliver GRPs equivalent to Idol (see table
Social Impressions – The Top 20). But for the same GRPs, you
would reach an audience 60 percent more engaged than the
Idol audience. And those five buys together would be less
than half the cost of Idol, leaving you $300,000 to invest in
even more ads, impressions and GRPs.
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3. From a raw GRPs per household-to-social impressions ratio,
Chuck receives 60 percent more value from every GRP than
Idol. The Vampire Diaries is even more impressive with an
incredible 215 percent more social impressions per GRP
than Idol.
Many Idol viewers are unquestionably engaged in the
It’s more than numbers, too
competition, contestants and judges, and they take to social
media channels to talk about it. However, the show doesn’t
have a monopoly on viewer passion.
Chuck and Fringe enjoy dedicated fan bases that have been
campaigning with viewers and the networks for two years to
keep the shows on the air. Fringe has waged a particularly
inspiring battle, keeping up the fight in a Friday night slot
that has been a dead zone for previous Fox shows except From a raw GRPs per household-
The X-Files. Little surprise, then, that the two shows together to-social impressions ratio, Chuck
capture 10 percent more social impressions than Idol, whose receives 60 percent more value
near-term viability is unthreatened, at a quarter the cost. from every GRP than Idol.
Social impressions reveal the power of good storytelling in The Vampire Diaries is even more
creating and maintaining viewer engagement. Four of the five impressive with an incredible 215
shows in the alternative buy, the late-night workhorse SNL percent more social impressions
excepted, are generating extensive fan fiction. Fans are per GRP than Idol.
writing stories that involve the programs’ characters, help-
ing keep them top of mind and expanding mentions. Story
sharing and peer-reviewed material are building community,
helping sustain the franchises.
The story-driven shows in the alternative buy also offer ad-
vertisers the chance to integrate their products and services
into programming in clever ways. Subway sandwiches have
become a fixture on Chuck, with characters’ discussions of
fresh ingredients taking product placement to a new level.
Because Chuck continues to live under the guillotine of
potential cancellation, fans accept this commercialism as a
small price to pay for keeping the program on the air – which
Subway’s sponsorship deal has done – and to even embrace
it. In contrast, Idol fans may simply have become inured to
the ever-present Coke glasses at the judges’ table and the
rolling-down-the-road sing-alongs for Ford.
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4. Where’s the ad value?
Analyzing social impressions can reveal trends that lead you
to more efficient placements and higher viewer engagement.
Social Impressions – The Top 20
Networked Social Est. Avg. Total Est. Avg. 30-sec.
Insights Rank Network Show Impressions Households Ad Cost
1 FOX Glee 82,399,089 6 $214,300
2 CBS Two and a Half Men 45,714,274 8.2 $226,600
3 FOX American Idol 31,746,773 14.2 $599,900
4 ABC Dancing with the Stars 29,934,923 13.6 $590,100
5 ABC Modern Family 23,722,073 7.1 $108,300
6 NBC Saturday Night Live 19,831,993 4.3 $69,400
7 NBC Chuck 19,655,604 3.5 $72,700
8 NBC The Office 15,343,751 4.2 $103,200
9 FOX Fringe 15,033,387 3.8 $63,000
10 CW The Vampire Diaries 11,983,281 1.7 $59,700
11 CW Supernatural 11,310,245 1.6 $23,500
12 NBC 30 Rock 7,858,690 3.1 $100,400
13 CBS How I Met Your Mother 7,156,432 5.8 $157,300
14 ABC Grey's Anatomy 6,707,748 7.5 $90,300
15 CBS The Big Bang Theory 6,255,278 8.6 $191,500
16 CW Smallville 5,063,450 1.6 $27,300
17 FOX House 4,380,371 6.5 $183,400
18 FOX The Simpsons 3,912,207 4.4 $174,200
19 FOX Bones 3,519,712 6.7 $107,700
20 FOX Family Guy 1,625,128 4.4 $153,600
Estimated Average Total Households based on averages of daily and weekly HH numbers published by blog.zap2it.com.
Estimated Average 30-Second Ad Cost based on averages published by AdvertisingAge.
Report data collected from posts made 12/25/2010 through 3/25/2011.
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5. Questions about this report? Want a free consultation on how social data can improve
your media planning and other marketing? Contact us.
Email: info@networkedinsights.com Phone: 608.237.1867 Web: networkedinsights.com
Networked Insights was founded in 2006 by industry leaders and seasoned entrepreneurs in
the fields of social media and customer intelligence. Headquarters are in Madison, WI, with
offices in New York and Chicago.
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