MNTN Performance TV versus Linear TV Creative

5 Min Read

When it comes to creating commercials for linear television, marketers are often tasked with the same requirements:

1. Spend a large budget on a limited number of ads
2. Spend significant time on the production of those ads (often months)
3. Design those ads to make an emotional connection with your consumer that drives brand awareness—and if you’re more aggressive, consideration and purchase intent

For many marketers, this has been the same game plan for decades. But as we face uncertain times and added pressures to justify advertising budgets up the ladder, those same marketers are being forced to reevaluate their creative strategies and ask themselves an important question—can TV ads be a more effective lever for driving measurable returns on ad spend?

The answer? A complicated yes. While commercials on linear television will always be limited by the channel’s singular focus on reach and awareness, TV ads gain a new life, set of best practices, and opportunities to drive more concrete results with MNTN Performance TV. When armed with a CTV platform that’s fully optimized to drive and measure conversion-based outcomes, marketers are freed from their historical constraints and given a new opportunity to make television ad creative that drives the revenue they need to defend and grow their budgets during volatile periods.

Here are three ways that marketers can adapt their TV creative strategies to drive better performance with MNTN Performance TV than what’s possible with linear TV:

Use Your Emotional Appeal to Drive Actual Purchases

Linear TV: While many brands design their linear TV ads to build an emotional connection with their audience, that connection is limited by the channel’s focus on driving reach and awareness. That’s the marketing equivalent of working up the courage to talk to that cute person at the bar, realizing you’re perfect for each other, then not asking for their number. Sure, they may remember you for a little while, but you won’t see how that relationship could grow into something more.

MNTN Performance TV: Brands build the same TV creatives that drive an emotional connection with their audiences—then leverage sequential, follow-up messaging to drive those audiences to make a purchase. For example, Reeds Jewelers activated an emotional Mother’s Day commercial using MNTN Performance TV, then served cross-device ads to those same audiences afterwards to offer up incentives like free shipping and returns in order to drive those audiences to make a purchase.

This resulted in the brand beating their ROAS goals by 39%—something they otherwise wouldn’t be able to measure with traditional television. The Atlanta Hawks took a similar approach. Their TV ad brought fans into the excitement of a Hawks game—then they kept the hype going by serving follow-up messaging with links to tickets for upcoming games. By doing so, they drove a 7x ROAS. When you meet your soulmate with MNTN, you always ask for their number, and if things work out, it could lead to a really special relationship you wouldn’t have otherwise had.

Add New Best Practices to Your Creative Toolkit That Drive Conversions and ROAS

Linear TV: With linear TV, the same rules have guided creative production for years—tell an engaging narrative, connect emotionally, make sure your brand’s voice remains consistent, etc. These rules are effective and absolutely necessary…for driving upper-funnel goals. But rarely do TV commercials implement best practices that drive towards consumers actually making a purchase.

MNTN Performance TV: When creating a Performance TV ad, the same rules of linear TV still apply, but now you get to add a few new ones to your repertoire. Since MNTN Performance TV allows you to maintain brand recognition while optimizing towards conversion and revenue goals, we recommend adding a few new layers onto your TV ad to drive action. On average, brands that implement these creative best practices and leverage MNTN Performance TV increase their conversion rates by over 100% and drive 48% more site visits.

Make Production Fast and Optimized Towards Improving Your Entire Marketing Budget’s ROI

Linear TV: Creative production typically follows the old Hollywood model, and that production process is time consuming, expensive, and limits marketers’ ability to A/B test creatives without a significant investment. In cases where budgets are allocated to multiple creatives, these investments are often substantial and eat into the budget available to place ads and drive performance. In uncertain times, that cuts into the overall ROI of your marketing spend and makes it more difficult to justify these investments.

MNTN Performance TV: With MNTN Performance TV, brands can tap into the industry’s first-ever Creative-as-a-Subscription™ (CaaS) offering and use our overhauled creative production process to drive better ROAS for your entire marketing budget. With CaaS, brands get a fresh batch of bespoke CTV ads produced for them in six weeks or less every quarter—with full control over messaging and at no additional cost. This opens up valuable new opportunities for brands to constantly A/B test, optimize, and drive more revenue with their creatives. Plus, all of the budget our marketers would have spent producing expensive linear TV ads can now get refocused on placing your message on premium TV networks and driving more ROAS. We’ve redefined the creative process to fully maximize your returns and help you tell a better ROI story for your entire marketing strategy.

Want to learn more about how you can transform TV and the creative process into a performance drive with MNTN? Reach out for a demo below.