Photo by Nicolas J. Leclercq

BrandTotal marketing data from July 4 - September 4, 2020, in the Connected TV category was analyzed to identify how brands are using paid social campaigns.

Background

With traditional forms of entertainment, such as movies and live events, being curtailed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the connected or smart TV has been in focus as a main alternative. With people forced to stay home, the connected TV has become a “must-have” item for many.

We’ll look at a selection of brands in this category, including Samsung, LG, and Sony – in terms of how these brands are using paid social campaigns.

BrandTotal Key Insights

In terms of spending, there were a number of peaks identified over the period analyzed. These coincided with:

Samsung’s “Shoot in 8K, Watch in 8K” Youtube campaign; LG’s “See the difference for yourself on an LG OLED TV”, a Facebook dark campaign; Vizio’s “SmartCast” Instagram dark campaign; and Samsung’s “Switchers Frame”, a Youtube dark campaign.

When it comes to demographics targeted, the age spread was relatively evenly distributed. Men were targeted with 69% of campaigns and married users with 40.5%.

Notable Campaigns

There were some notable campaigns by brands over the period analyzed – particularly when it comes to dark campaigns. These included:

Samsung

This ad is one of several where Samsung highlights their varied offering leveraging Labor Day sales.

LG

LG chose to highlight their technological features and design, including their OLED TV and ThinQ technology.

Sony

Sony showcased their smart TVs in the context of trending content. They also highlighted products available on Amazon, as well as accessories such as soundbars.

Brands using paid social campaigns

Brands promoted heavily around sales events such as Labor Day. Ads were generally either sales-oriented, highlighting deals; feature-focused, showcasing design and technology, or trend-driven, where brands used popular content to drive home their message.