ISpotTV study: TV/video Ad impressions up in first half of 2022

iSpotTV recently issued its 2022 TV advertising snapshot which among other topics included TV ad impressions covering the first six months of 2022. The report includes only “new” (no reruns or syndicated) programs.

The audience measurement company reported year-over-year live TV ad impressions rose by 7.29%. The ad impressions for all Spanish language programs were above average increasing by 11%. In what was called a “test and learn phase” with NBCU, among 67 marketers the average mix of TV ad impressions was only 9% for OTT with the remaining allocated to linear TV. For the 2022-23 upfront NBCU announced 40% of upfront negotiations were not based on traditional demographic guarantees. Moreover, Disney’s upfront haul of $9 billion included 40% allocation to digital and streaming.

As usual, the first half of 2022 was filled with premiere live sporting events which led all ratings. From the usual post season NFL games to “March Madness” and NBA, the first half of the year also had the quadrennial Winter Olympics. As a result, live sports accounted for over one-quarter (25.5%) of all TV ad impressions, an increase from 22.4% last year.

To highlight the ratings dominance of the NFL, leading up to the Super Bowl the final three weekends of NFL playoff games that encompassed the twelve highest rated telecasts of the year, generated nearly one-quarter (24.1%) of all TV ad impressions from January 15 to January 30. The leading product categories for the NFL playoffs were insurance, automotive and QSRs. On February 13, Super Bowl LVI and other programming linked with “Super Sunday” accounted for 63% of all TV impressions for the day with just the live telecast at 36.5% of impressions.

For the first time, The Winter Olympics coincided with the Super Bowl. Both events were aired on NBC. Despite being the lowest rated Winter Olympics in decades, NBC’s coverage accounted for 38.1% of total primetime TV ad impressions among the four major broadcast networks. Additionally, over the course of the Winter Olympics (February 4-20), the Super Bowl ranked second in TV ad impressions at 18.5. iSpotTV notes that during the Beijing Games the four product categories with the highest ad completion rates were automotive, theatrical movies, streaming providers and credit cards.

The Men’s NCAA basketball Tournament (a.k.a. “March Madness”) on CBS and Turner Sports garnered 16.28% of all TV ad impressions over the three long weekends. The tournament dominated TV ad impressions accounting for more than 9X the next-best program during that time.

Besides sports, another genre that scored well were the three cable news networks which recorded 11% of all TV ad impressions. Such events as the Russian invasion of Ukraine coupled with an increase in commercial minutes can be attributed to the year-over-year growth of 3.6%.

Looking at product categories, with the country opening up TV ad impressions for travel related marketers nearly doubled (+91%) from one year ago. With more theatrically released movies in 2022, TV ad impressions promoting movies grew by 64% from the previous year. As state legislatures vote to legalize wagering and a number of companies providing the service, the TV ad impressions for sports betting saw a sizable increase of 81% in TV ad impressions from January-June 2021.

The three leading product categories in TV ad impressions during the first half of 2002 remained unchanged from one year ago; they had been; insurance, automotive and QSRs. With concerns about the economy, several financially related product categories reported notable year-over-year increases in TV ad impressions these include; investment services (including crypto), banking and payments and credit cards. Other categories that were stronger in 2022 were theatrically released movies and streaming providers.

In the first half of 2022, the same three insurance companies, Liberty Mutual, ProgressivePGR +1.8% and GEICO topped the list in TV ad impressions as they had one year prior. There were a few advertisers that recorded a sizable leap in TV ad impressions across several product categories including; Balance of Nature, Indeed Toyota, Disney+ Walmart and TargetTGT -0.8%.

Although marketers have more choices than ever to invest their ad dollars, the iSpot.TV report points out the continued relevance of television as an important marketing strategy to build brand awareness for new products, to change a media strategy to meet the economic times or to sustain a media objective.

With live sports, news and Spanish language programming on the upswing, there is a continuing loss in popularity of scripted entertainment programming, a one-time staple, on broadcast and cable networks. With audiences watching more scripted entertainment content on streaming platforms, we can expect at this time next year more than 9% of video ad dollars will be allocated to OTT. Forbes