Downloading a new podcast for the walk to the park, watching a YouTube clip from the group text, and ordering your coffee on an app en route to the local coffee shop. At the heart of all these activities is your telecommunications provider, helping to ensure a smooth, speedy service. We might not realize how much of a role these brands play on a daily basis, powering our access to everything from self-care routines to social events and more. That is, until the connection is deemed to be too slow or we run out of data - then we reconsider the contract we have in place.
With the increase in time and dollars spent online this year, consumers have been more willing than ever to invest more in their telco plans to ensure the strongest connections as time spent with services are set to grow exponentially. In fact, since the coronavirus outbreak, a quarter of consumers have purchased new, more, or better goods and services.1 The potential to create meaningful brand engagement with customers and generate higher customer lifetime value has never been greater.
This opportunity presents a unique challenge as digital engagement and consumer spending in this category have been on the rise, while more traditional mediums like television experience steady declines in ratings. An industry that relies on television to reach potential customers and drive in-store foot traffic can no longer count on these traditional levers to drive the same impact this year. So how can telecommunication providers continue to provide access and utility, and encourage switching or upgrades to their current data plans in this new era?
Connected television, streaming, and digital platforms have proven to not only drive reach but ultimately drive sales and foot traffic to stores with YouTube. Building a full-funnel YouTube reach strategy, capturing demand as it rises with key audiences, and enabling frictionless conversion is key to driving business growth.
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Reach and engage your audience online to influence the entire shopping journey. The role of video has only increased in importance during the pandemic, with nearly one-third of people watching 10 hours of online video per day and 80% year-over-year increase in watch time of YouTube & YouTube TV on TV screens.2 YouTube is well positioned to reach your target audiences, reaching 80% of light TV viewers that saw an ad only on YouTube. Incremental reach is also possible for the medium and heavy TV viewers, with 25% of medium TV viewers and 37% of heavy TV viewers seeing an ad only on YouTube and not linear TV.3 Tap into YouTube's community of over two billion users to scale and engage with your key audiences.
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Anticipate consumer's wants and needs by identifying key moments. YouTube empowers brands and retailers to engage with audiences in key moments of intent. For telco brands, identifying these moments and personalizing creative messaging to needs is an essential planning tactic. We see three pivotal moments to breakthrough for telco brands:
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Moving is a key moment of high intent. Forty percent of home movers start researching with a provider already in mind, so there is no time to waste.4 Engaging with this audience through life events targeting to win a spot early on in this consideration set.
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Cord cutters and gamers are fully invested in the digital landscape. Offer the pricing and promotions to allow a fully immersive experience for the gamers or light TV viewers that may be hard to reach through traditional channels. With people home more often, offer insight into deals to upgrade their services or find a better plan than the competition.
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End of contract indicates high intent with a small window to convert. Most decisions are made in under one week. Personalize these valuable shopper needs, whether they are seeking contract details, pricing comparisons and promotions with a custom audience and those in-market for Internet Service Providers or mobile phone service providers.
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Be ready to convert the audience when they are in-market. The consideration set is small, with only an average of two providers considered and ~90% of new subscriptions are with providers considered at the start.5 A recent study with Heart+Mind Strategies revealed YouTube ads drive 133% higher spend, 61% more shopping trips and 28% increase in purchases for those consumers that recalled a YouTube ad in the past month. With more than half of shoppers reporting that online video has helped them decide which specific brand or product to buy and 70% of viewers reporting they bought a brand as a result of seeing it on YouTube,6 YouTube offers the ability to engage in key moments that matter. Be prepared to offer frictionless app and web experiences to convert a potential customer.
As telco providers play a greater role in our daily lives, it is even more important to highlight the frictionless, seamless experience these brands can offer at all stages of the consumer journey to drive customer lifetime value. Read more on the tech path to purchase here to show how Google can drive engagement across the full journey.
1Google commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 Tracker, US n=645 consumers who plan to shop for the holiday season 18+. July 30 - Aug
2Google Internal Data, US, March 2020 vs. March 2019
3Nielsen/Google, U.S., Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR) Meta Analysis commissioned by Google including 22 US YouTube campaigns for heavy, medium, light TV or non-TV viewers inclusive of YouTube in-app traffic-utilizing target audiences across desktop, mobile and TV, and 8 demos, target demo impressions, April 2019–Dec. 2019.
4Google/BCG, U.S. "Path to Purchase" study and consumer survey, n=434, 2020
5Google/BCG, U.S. "Path to Purchase" study and consumer survey, N=697 Wireless Service Carrier (Postpaid); N=825 Wireline/New Home Internet provider; N=330 Prepaid Wireless Service Carrier, 2020
6Google/Talkshoppe, US, whyVideo study, n=2000 A18-64 Genpop video users, Feb 2020