NBCUniversal is Planning to Expand Their Shoppable TV Offering

Vincent Flood 29 October, 2019 

‘Shoppable TV’ – where viewers can buy the products featured in TV content has been touted for many years, to the point where one of the conference clichés – ‘one day you’ll be able to buy Jennifer Anniston’s jumper’ – now seems a little outdated. There have been many experiments over the years (for example, Brainient – acquired by Teads in 2016, were trialling shoppable video on YouTube back in 2016). However, so far it has struggled to scale, and companies like Delivery Agent who were the early forerunners in trying to provide ad tech solutions have since gone bankrupt trying to crack open the market.

But given the power of TV advertising, it makes perfect sense native ads weaved into the content could work if executed correctly. Perhaps the main challenges are around user experience/creative design and enabling the consumer to convert easily. NBCUniversal has been experimenting with its own “ShoppableTV” product across the company’s full portfolio. The ads are aiming to combine TV with mobile commerce via QR codes that consumer scan on the screen.

When it comes to engagement, NBCUniversal claim the average conversion rate is almost 30 percent higher than the industry benchmark for e-commerce conversion. They also say that the formats also drive fan acquisition in the double digits with advertisers seeing 10 percent growth rate on social media.

Now the company plans to deploy shoppable ads on lifestyle brands and Sunday Night Football for the first time. Since the initial launch, NBCUniversal has partnered with:

Lacoste during the French Open:

Lacoste

Walmart in partnership with TODAY:

Walmart Shoppable Video

Zwift for the Tour de France:

Tour De France

2019-10-29T17:11:42+01:00

About the Author:

Vincent Flood is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief at VideoWeek.
Go to Top