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Comcast wants to tempt DTC brands away from paid social


Entire direct-to-consumer empires have been built on the back of paid social media and search advertising. But empires have to think long-term to last.

As platforms like Facebook and Instagram become more expensive and quite possibly less brand-safe, Comcast hopes to lure DTC advertisers away from these performance-focused channels and bring them to TV and CTV inventory. Its executives hope a new ad-selling platform, Universal Ads, could help turn high-powered marketers into long-term brand builders.

It’s a move that many DTC brands and SMBs would welcome, according to eight media buyers working with DTC clients who spoke to Digiday. But that doesn’t mean the shift of DTC spending to TV is a done deal.

Pull and push

Created by Comcast’s ad technology firm FreeWheel, Universal Ads gives buyers access to ad inventory at NBCUniversal, A+E, AMC Networks, Fox, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros., among others.

“What we’re trying to do is unlock that.” [latent] demand and creating a front door to the premium video category,” said Comcast President James Rooke, who spoke to Digiday from CES where the platform was unveiled.

Specifically, Rooke wants to open the door to thousands of advertisers outside the Fortune 500. He described them as “digitally native, direct-to-consumer companies that have never bought into our category but are looking for a new qualified audience to grow their business.”

According to a survey of 250 non-TV performance advertisers conducted by Comcast last year, 50% said they saw a worse return on their paid social spend, while 89% said they would be willing to try TV.

The platform includes a marketing API that Rooke said will bring DTC and small business marketers the measurement and attribution for TV and CTV ads they’re used to getting for social.

We have a tremendous opportunity to steal market share from our technology competitors with a very unique, collaborative approach that will fundamentally change the advertising landscape,” said Mark Marshall, president of global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal, in an email. Marshall declined to share exact revenue expectations.

Comcast’s move follows the launch of self-service platforms Paramount last year, Peacock in 2022 and Hulu in 2020.

According to Rooke and Marshall, the goal is to attract DTC advertisers and SMB brands that may have previously avoided TV, either because of cost or lack of attribution.

“I could see it working for someone trying to get into the CTV space, but I don’t know how,” said Eric Tilbury, senior director of ad operations and product solutions at Inuvo, an ad tech startup that provides media buying. services.

Less bang for the buck

While buyers still say paid social is a key part of the DTC and SME advertising playbook, some told Digiday there are plenty of reasons for brands to look elsewhere.

From a DTC perspective, the channel is flooded with competitor ads and it’s more expensive than it used to be.

Paid social networks have really become more expensive for advertisers in recent years. According to the Performance Marketing Agency Gupta Media’s Social Media CPM TrackerMeta’s average CPM rate for 2023 was $7.15, rising to $7.50 in 2024; TikTok’s CPMs reach $3.48 in 2023 and stretch to $3.77 in 2024; and Snapchat CPMs grew the fastest, averaging $5.20 in 2023, but jumping to $7.65 in 2024.

“We’re clearly at a point where we’ve reached diminishing returns,” said Katy Geisreiter, director of planning for Media by Mother. Her colleague, account director Daniela Elvira, agreed: “It’s not scaling like before. It’s heavily saturated.”

Scott Harkey, founder and CEO of full-service agency OH Partners, noted that he’s seen diminishing returns in search and social “over the last two or three years.”

Another factor that could push nascent brands toward TV and CTV? Meta’s recent decision to fire its fact checkers and roll back the barriers of misinformation. While advertisers have so far been cautious rather than panicky, the move makes it easier for executives like Rooke to convince brands that are transitioning from short-term to long-term to consider premium video.

“What Meta has done is great for Universal Ads,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to define premium video as a highly transparent, brand-safe category, and now you can access it in a single, streamlined way with scale.”

Up the funnel

Even in an era of declining linear viewership, TV reach is a blunt but powerful tool — and marketers at mature DTC brands understand its value, said John Gladysz, head of product at Noble People, which counts Bose and Marco’s Pizza among its DTC clients. .

Streaming video and TV are powerful tools for bringing a brand to new audiences – and money spent on them could provide a greater return over time by expanding the brand’s customer base compared to a budget allocated to paid social media, which drives sales from the same set of consumers. .

“If you look at the top and middle of the funnel, lean on the richer stuff: CTV, YouTube, [premium] video. Two or three of those impressions will go a lot further than nine or 10 social impressions,” said Gladysz.

Dan Salkey, co-founder of creative agency Small World, which works with DTC brands such as Dr Squatch, agreed. “We’re starting to see scalers being added in TV in a way that’s more savvy and smarter,” he said, but declined to provide specifics on client spend.

However, these are not the only answers. Out-of-home, audio streaming, podcasts and radio can fulfill a similar role for marketers with smaller budgets.

OH Partners’ Harkey suggested that Universal Ads’ ability to attract these smaller advertisers will depend on the quality of the metrics derived from its API access, given the wariness of performance marketers about TV.

He’s on to something with that observation. And for Matt Larson, vice president of media and communications strategy at Collective Measures, that’s actually “the big question… The challenge will continue to be the ability to attribute those sales back to the effort itself.”



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