Until 2020, addressable advertising on linear TV broadcasts wasn’t possible, due to decades-old laws which stated that every French household had to receive the same signal when watching live linear TV. But once those laws were repealed, French broadcasters quickly spun up new addressable offerings, hungry to capitalise on the opportunity.
Building a significant footprint for addressable TV advertising takes time. Deals have to be signed with the telcos, whose set-top boxes and data sets enable addressable ads. And consumers have to agree to the use of their data for targeted TV advertising.
But a new study from the SNPTV (France’s National Union of Television Advertising) shows that France’s addressable TV market is rapidly maturing.
The study found that addressable TV ad campaigns can now reach 6.7 million households – that is, 6.7 million households have set-top boxes which are technically able to run addressable campaigns, and have consented to receive targeted advertising. This is more than one fifth of all French households, and around a quarter of all metropolitan households.
It’s important to note, this is reach across all broadcasters and operators, not across one single broadcaster, meaning an advertiser might have to work with multiple vendors to reach all 6.7 million households. Nonetheless, this is significant growth in a short period of time.
Meanwhile advertisers are taking to the format enthusiastically. The SNPTV’s data found that last year 1,300 addressable TV campaigns were run across 700 advertisers, three times the number of campaigns run in 2021. The five brand sectors most active in addressable TV were automotive, tourism, retail, services, and banking.
Driving results
The study also provided insight into how advertisers are using addressable TV advertising, and how it’s delivering.
Unsurprisingly, the SNPTV says geographic targeting is most popular, with 49 percent of campaigns choosing a geographic target. But other data segments, for example specifying household make-up or interests, are also proving popular.
And the SNPTV says that analysis of addressable campaigns from six different advertisers showed that the format is proving effective in meeting KPIs. Campaigns were found to be effective in driving purchases for regional brands (delivering five percent growth for Brets crisps), in-store traffic (providing an 11 percent boost for decoration brand Gifi) and web visits (Deliveroo saw five percent growth in app visits and 11 percent growth in orders from targeted locations).
The SNPTV says the data shows that addressable TV advertising can be effective regardless of the size of the brand or sector, and whether it’s run as a standalone campaign or alongside a national TV campaign.
