KRE8 Blog

Vanity Tracking connects offline advertising to online response

Published January 19th, 2011

By Stephen Pickens

Tracking response to TV campaigns can be difficult because there is not a tangible connection between the impression and the response (like a click through or cookied response online).  The closest that direct response TV advertisers can come to attributing response with 99% accuracy is with unique telephone numbers – a different phone number is aired on every network, so it is clear how much response is being generated by each network.  For push-to-web advertisers, sourcing response can be more convoluted.  We’ll use a hypothetical campaign for Kre8Media.com to examine currently available options:

- Unbranded Unique URLs:  mediaagency146.com or media25agency.com

- You have probably seen the Education Connection commercials advertising URLs like this.  These are typically used by lead generation companies that have no interest in establishing and building a branded product – they just want the lead to sell to other companies.

- Branded Unique URLs: TryKre8Media.com or Kre8Media.com/CNN 

- At least 80% of web surfing sessions start at a search engine, so you miss out on attributing these responses by depending exclusively on direct traffic to unique URLs

- Consumers are smart – they know that TryKre8Media.com and Kre8Media.com/CNN are just attempts to track their response, so some consumers may avoid attempts to track their behavior and just go to the obvious root URL, Kre8Media.com (people don’t like to feel like mice in a maze!)

- Promo Codes: DRMedia or CNN

- We recommend having the URL on screen for a large majority of a commercial so viewers will remember it more easily – promo codes are usually on screen for only the last 5 seconds, so not as likely for most viewers to remember.

- New registration survey

- Once you acquire a new user, you can require them to report where they heard about Kre8 Media and include options for the TV networks on which the URL was advertised.  This is basically a popularity contest and is unscientific and unreliable.  Some advertisers use this approach and find that networks on which advertising no longer airs still get credit for new registrations months and years after a campaign is over.

- Vanity Tracking

- Vanity tracking is the most scientific TV tracking method available that allows advertisers to utilize stylish brand advertising while still attributing response to individual spots.  The mathematical algorithms applied in a vanity buying system allows media buyers to strip out flawed human survey results and bypass other aforementioned unreliable tracking methodologies.   

Clearly, if brand awareness and media accountability are priorities for online businesses, vanity tracking is the most suitable tracking methodology for offline advertising.  Other approaches to response tracking are either deficient in their reliability and accuracy or brand building efforts are neglected.  Vanity tracking offers the best of both media accountability and brand awareness.

 

---

Return to Blog Home