Why You Need Purpose-Built Creative to Fuel Performance

4 Min Read

Television advertising has evolved from being a top-of-funnel, awareness-only tool into a powerful driver of performance goals, similar to paid search and social media ads. We know these changes have impacted our overall marketing strategies, but how are they affecting the way we think about video ad creative? 

During The State of TV Advertising, Danielle Moore, VP of Enterprise Sales at MNTN, joined Ad Age to discuss the future of TV advertising creative and how brands can create it strategically. Get a glimpse into the conversation: 

What is Purpose-Built Creative? 

Simply put, purpose-built creative is creative—in our case, video ads—built with a specific purpose, goal, or intention in mind. 

If you’re looking to reach an audience segment filled with solo travelers, for example, you’ll want to keep them in mind throughout the entire video production process. When you start with this key element, your viewers can see it in the finished product—they’ll know the videos were created for them.

Do I Really Need Purpose-Built Creative? 

To answer that, let’s zoom out a bit. We’re navigating an unprecedented time in TV advertising. Connected TV (CTV) and Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms offer brands an incredible opportunity for strategic engagement, growth, and conversions—all from the biggest screen in the house. 

CTV and OTT are performance channels, which means they have specific features that linear TV doesn’t, including: 

• Precision targeting 
• Automated optimization
• Attribution and measurement

But these performance tools, by nature, require ads to be specific for the audience an advertiser is trying to reach. Where awareness campaigns meant for broad audiences can get away with generality, performance marketing campaigns demand focus. Data collection requires parameters—in this case, your audience segments. In order to resonate with those segments, your brand needs to actually craft targeted video ads for them. 

Chances are, you’ve got some loyal customers who love your brand. They don’t need introductory-level content; in some cases, they might know it by heart. (Quick, finish this jingle: “Gimme a break/gimme a break/Break me off a piece of that ______.”) So, if you’re sending out awareness-level ads to your best customers, they’re going to get annoyed—no matter how much they love your brand. (Imagine the company behind the above jingle trying to explain candy to you.) 

Beyond all this, consider: with all the powerful, data-driven tools out there right now, what are the odds your competitors aren’t using this strategy?

What Does Purpose-Built Creative Look Like? 

Purpose-built creative can, and probably will, look different for every campaign, but in general, it’s about keeping your goal front and center. 

Let’s say your goal is to focus on a specific part of your audience to drive conversions. You’ve likely got several different segments you want to target, but each segment has different wants, needs, and (potentially) use cases for your product. 

To kick off your campaign, take everything you know about your chosen audience segment. You might have insights from previous video and static campaigns. You might even have first-party data available to help you out. With this information, you’ll want to create several different iterations of your initial video ad. 

Once you’ve created and launched your campaign video ads, you’ll want to test them against one another. This will tell you what elements are most effective with your viewers, including: 

• Featured talent 
• Opening hooks 
• Messaging 
• Value propositions 
• Calls to action (CTAs) 

Once you have these initial pieces in place, keep monitoring and analyzing your campaigns so you can optimize for the top-performing creative elements. When this process is set up, you’ll be able to continuously improve your video ads to drive performance. 

With purpose-built creative, you’re building an effective video marketing strategy that will capture and hold your audience’s attention. By keeping this goal in mind, you’ll be able to make the most of your objectives—without wasting money on creative that doesn’t cut it. 

Use Purpose to Power Your Performance Marketing Strategy

Thanks to CTV and OTT, advertisers can get more precision with television than ever before. With the right creative, you’ll be able to strategically connect with your audience segments, drive conversions, and zoom past your competitors. To learn more about purpose-built creative, watch the full webinar here.