When a business runs any form of advertising, they want to know how it’s working. Is it reaching the right audience? Is the audience responding? With certain forms of media, like digital banner ads, it’s more straightforward to measure a click. But what about television? Columbus-based startup Clarivoy is out to change how the effectiveness of television advertising is measured.
“Clarivoy utilizes actual TV viewership data and sales data from our clients to connect the dots between commercials and sales,” says CEO Steve White. Developed into software-as-a-service platform called TV Analytics, Clarivoy pinpoints the exact time a television ad runs then analyzes website traffic and other data to mathematically model what actions consumer would have taken once seeing the ad.
As Clarivoy Head of Product Matt Grover explains it, an ad runs then in the next five minutes there’s all these activities that happen with nothing else for them to respond to besides that TV ad in that moment.
“If there is digital advertising running, we automatically remove all that,” Grover adds. Removing all known sources of traffic allows them to properly attribute actions to TV.
Clarivoy collects all this data to help businesses make better advertising purchasing decisions in the future.
“We can create data-driven media plans for future campaigns based upon the performance of past campaigns,” White says. “We help clients target the consumers that have the highest probability of responding to their TV ads and becoming a customer by creating a detailed picture of their TV ad attribution by network, show, day of week and daypart. By combining our clients’ customer data with information about ad airings and TV watching behavior, we can provide a great deal of predictability.”
Several business have already leveraged predictability to results.
One of the largest car dealerships in Indiana used Clarivoy’s data to determine which was more effective, broadcast or cable advertising. Using TV Analytics they were able to determine which ads had the most response, and on what channel and during what timeframe. Broadcast proved not to be best. This resulted in a 15 percent budget savings, and better targeted cable ads.
M/I homes was disappointed by under performing TV ads. Because Clarivoy’s data also reveals insights on why an ad does or does not resonate with an audience, the builder realized they needed a stronger call to action. A tweak in the add equated to a 189 percent increase in web traffic attributed to TV advertising.
All of these results happened because of White’s can-do attitude when a client needed help solving a problem.
He started his own digital marketing agency, *clarity, in 2009. In 2012, one of his media agency clients came to him with a request.
“The task was to measure the effectiveness of an upcoming national TV media campaign,” White says. “Of course I said I could do it.” He rolled up his sleeves and the bones of TV Analytics was formed.
Partnering with Rev1 Ventures (formerly TechColumbus) would provide resources to further develop the service.
“Rev1 Ventures’ resources have been invaluable to us as a growing business,” White says. “Through our relationship with them, we’ve had access to specialists like accountants, human resource experts and industry veterans who are vetted and available to help us.” And it’s made a measurable impact. They’ve doubled their head count, office space, and in 2014, their revenue.
As a self-described TV ad-targeting and attribution company that’s trying to change how TV is bought, sold and measured, they have ambitious goals.
“We strive to have our products and services rapidly adopted in the marketplace, with an ultimate goal of a liquidity event for our investors in the next two to three years,” White says.
For more information, visit clarivoy.com.
