Today’s media landscape presents a challenge for healthcare marketers. The expanding multiscreen landscape has dramatically altered the TV experience for audiences. For advertisers, this creates troubling impression fragmentation, preventing most campaigns from gathering a critical mass of viewer attention.
But there are solutions. In this podcast episode, produced by the American Hospital Association’s Society for Healthcare Strategy & Marketing Development (SHSMD), in partnership with Spectrum Reach, we share how you can rein in fragmentation—by simplifying audience aggregation and focusing on outcomes.
Learn more about how we support healthcare marketers.
A transcript of the episode is provided below.
Introduction: The following SHSMD Podcast is a production of DoctorPodcasting.com.
Bill Klaproth (Host): On this edition of the SHSMD Podcast, we talk about how to find the right patients when viewership is so fragmented when it comes to TV and streaming. With me is Jeanette Geer of Spectrum Reach, as we talk about where and how healthcare audiences consume content, and how to optimize marketing ROI and achieve results in a complex digital environment.
If you're looking to do TV or streaming, [and] you have questions, this is the episode for you. So let's get to Jeanette, right now. This is the SHSMD podcast, rapid insights for healthcare strategy professionals in planning, business development, marketing, communications, and public relations. I'm your host, Bill Klaproth.
In this episode, we talk with Jeanette Geer. She is the Senior Director of Category Sales Healthcare at Spectrum Reach. And we thank Spectrum Reach for sponsoring this episode. Jeanette, welcome.
Jeanette Geer: Hey, Bill. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm looking forward to this discussion.
Host: Well, I am, too. Thank you very much for your time today, Jeanette. It's a pleasure to have you on with us as we talk about harnessing the chaos as a healthcare marketer. So, Jeanette, let's just jump right into this. First off, how has the media landscape changed, and what does that mean for healthcare marketers?
Jeanette Geer: It's a great question. There's no doubt that there is a lot going on in this space. And when we look across the multiscreen landscape, it's been dramatically altered. The TV experience for users has changed. But for advertisers, it gets really interesting. This definitely has created troubling impression fragmentation.
It's preventing most campaigns from even gathering critical mass of viewer attention. The good news is there are solutions. You know, we can rein in this fragmentation by simplifying audience aggregation, increasing focus on outcomes, but this really starts with being where healthcare consumers are spending their time.
Host: Yeah, this certainly is challenging. So, Jeanette, where do you start then, as an advertiser trying to reach healthcare consumers as you mentioned, in this fragmented world we live in? How do you plan for this if you're caught in a perpetual game of kind of cat-and-mouse with fickle viewers, if you will?
Jeanette Geer: That's a really good question and one that we are thinking about constantly. We always have to start with what does the research tell us? And according to Nielsen, and this is a most recent study, audiences in the U.S. can now access content—this is a wild number—of more than 32,000 linear TV channels and nearly 90 unique streaming video sources, with each of those streaming services having hundreds of channels behind them. So, it's difficult as marketers to wrap your head around that growth and the scale of television that has been achieved, but it's true.
The headlines are definitely filled with stories of premium subscribers on services like Max, Hulu,[and] Apple TV, who are flocking to that must-watch latest series only to abandon those services when the novelty wears off, when they've gotten through whatever it is that they wanted to watch. But you know, I read something recently. The New York Times ran an article talking about how we as Americans are getting increasingly impulsive about hitting that cancellation button on our streaming services.
It went on to say that a quarter of paying streaming subscribers have canceled three or more services over the last two years, which creates obviously churn for advertisers who've kind of aligned their messages with those services. I think another really important point to make is the importance of understanding media consumption habits. They've changed quite a bit. For instance, audiences no longer make a distinction between broadcast, cable, or streaming. They're just watching TV. You know, they're switching back and forth between live and on-demand content. And that makes traditional television, linear television, coupled with streaming, very complementary.
There's something we say often in our organization, and it's media that moves. We need to be following that viewer with your ad spend, as they move between screens and devices. Does that kind of make sense?
Host: Yeah, it is, and it's interesting when you say that consumers are not making a distinction between traditional TV and streaming. It's just TV to them. Is that right?
Jeanette Geer: That's right. That's exactly right. So, when we talk about TV being TV, from an advertiser perspective, it's important to be advertising both on cable and broadcast. Which, this is a really fascinating stat—half of all television viewing is happening in traditional television, with another 40-plus percent happening in a streaming environment.
But what we are finding, and we've done a lot of studies, and I'll share some of those examples here in a minute: streaming and traditional TV work really well together. We analyzed almost 1,500 multiscreen campaigns to see what the impact would be when adding streaming to traditional TV. And then vice versa. And what was so interesting was on average, when streaming was added to that traditional TV that we've all grown up executing, we have clients utilizing it.
But when you add streaming, it extended the reach by 52%. Conversely, streaming-only campaigns where traditional TV was added saw an extended reach by 131%. So I think the lesson here for us as marketers [is] you really need to do both. It's not one or the other. And I also think it's going to be really important, and we work with hundreds of health systems around the United States, is to find an organization, find a partner that can aggregate those audiences across platforms, which is ultimately going to result in smarter multiscreen campaigns.
Host: Absolutely. So it sounds like you've kind of, you need to flood the zone or, or cover everything with traditional TV and streaming really to reach who you need to reach. So speaking of that, how do you know who you are reaching with your message then?
Jeanette Geer: I think that's the million dollar question we're all trying to answer, and I'll do my best to share my thoughts. This is a fundamental question for hospitals and health systems all across America. Healthcare marketers need to ensure that they are accessing high-quality data to target intended populations on the front end.
And we also need to be sure that the data is safe and reliable in order to measure the campaign results. My advice when you're working with a provider, and you're having those discussions about their audiences, I think it's important that we're looking at first-party viewership insights.
Also do we have the ability to put your data to work? Is it going to be privacy compliant? Is it focused that way? Do we have the ability to addressably reach and match a target population or an audience? I think the superpower that drives that one-to-one deterministic customer data match for our organization is our tremendous amount of first-party privacy-focused viewing data.
You know, we talked about this when we first started chatting, Bill. This data is collected from set top boxes and streaming devices across our 30 million households. Behind those 30 million households, there's another 92 million potential patients or consumers. They're consuming a ridiculous amount of content annually; I think the number is something like 16 billion hours of content across a half a billion devices. So it's a pretty incredible data set. And you know, if that isn't enough, I'm really excited to share that we have an exciting new announcement at Spectrum Reach, and that's a partnership with Amazon that's going to enhance the reach of our Spectrum Reach Total Universe.
Making us the number one streaming solution across our footprint in terms of audience finding capabilities. This will have a tremendous impact on how we plan and execute media strategies for our health system clients ahead of 2025 planning.
Host: Wow, that's really cool. Congrats on that partnership. I know that'll be a benefit to all of your healthcare clients. Really cool. So, Jeanette, you mentioned we need to put our data to work in a privacy focused way, and privacy and compliance, of course, is a huge issue right now in health care. Talk to us about the importance of privacy and compliance.
Jeanette Geer: You know, I don't think I'm going to say anything that the audience hasn’t dealt with and probably had a conversation about today. But there are many privacy and compliance considerations for the use of healthcare data. One question that I think is really important to ask your current partners, your future partners, is about TAG certification.
If you're not familiar, TAG stands for the Trustworthy Accountability Group. This is a leading global initiative working to create—it’s so important—transparency and brand safety in the digital ad supply chain. TAG's certified for transparency seal establishes that important shared truth on campaign data, so that all participants [are] across the supply chain. It allows us to validate that a company is implementing—your company is implementing the highest brand safety standards and industry best practices across all channels of digital ad inventory.
I am proud to share that at Spectrum Reach, we are TAG Platinum certified, meaning we have all four TAG certifications. So if I were doling out any advice, when talking to your partners, consider asking them where they sit in as it relates to TAG certification.
Host: Well, thanks for that, Jeanette. Like I said, privacy and compliance, very, very important. So with so many options then, how do you know which is the right healthcare advertising partner for you?
Jeanette Geer: That's another great question. We're not naive enough to think, and we certainly see it, there are a lot of vendors selling OTT. So it's challenging as marketers to figure out who to partner with, and to even know the difference between the partner data quality. As a provider, and as you're looking for partners, you should be looking for organizations that are comfortable transacting across programmatic, across managed service, and offer you those addressable solutions to ensure that you are finding and you're investing your marketing dollars to reach the intended population—that intended healthcare consumer across all platforms.
Because again, it doesn't matter. To a consumer, they're just watching video. They're consuming television. They are not making that separation. I think it's the choice—and that decision can be overwhelming. There's no doubt about that. I think finding a partner that understands interoperability, you know, this is a whole another industry buzzword.
And I do think I want to spend, if it's okay with you, Bill, just a minute talking about that because it really does matter.
So when we talk about interoperability, in television, the ad industry is referring to that seamless integration and communication between the various platforms and technologies that we use to transact. We also use these platforms to deliver and measure the performance of our video advertising campaigns. And what this brings to a strategy is the insurance that, okay, this is all working together. Finding that partner that is equally comfortable transacting across all of these different services really, truly does matter.
And oh, by the way, it isn't just national, [that] has access to this. This can be national, it can be regional, or it can be, and this is really a sweet spot for our organization, hyperlocal focused. I think we need to be willing as partners with our health systems to have that flexibility and that capability of putting your data to work, offering you multiple measurement opportunities. That really is, when we talk about interoperability, that's what we're referring to.
Host: Interoperability. Try to say that five times fast.
That's a tongue twister there. But that's really interesting what you're talking about. So, Jeanette, when you're talking about interoperability and the seamless communication between the platforms, is that then between traditional and streaming TV and all the other components you manage?
Jeanette Geer: That's exactly right.
Host: Got it. And I love the hyperlocal focus. I think that would be really, really important to hospital clients. Well, this has really been fascinating. You've certainly educated us. I know this is a whole new world out there with all of the options are available, and like you said earlier in the interview, this can be quite overwhelming, so it really is important to choose the right partner for sure, but thank you so much for your time. Any final thoughts, Jeanette, before we wrap up?
Jeanette Geer: Absolutely. So you mentioned overwhelming, and I think you hit the nail on the head. There are overwhelming content options for consumers. There's no question about that, and that's what's bringing the fragmentation and the chaos. It makes it very challenging and difficult for a health system to reach that critical mass of viewership.
You know, I've said this a lot in the last couple of years. It felt like it was much easier, you know, building out a marketing strategy a decade ago compared to now, because there are so many things that we have to take into consideration. That being said, focusing on outcomes and reaching patients where they are spending the most time with media, healthcare marketers can mitigate churn when they do that—and even take advantage of the fragmentation by partnering with the right type of advertising organizations. This is going to help them develop smart and efficient campaigns. Something else that we say, and we say [it] a lot at Spectrum Reach, but we're really built for what's now and what's next.
There is no grass growing under our organization's feet. We are always looking forward and reacting to the changes within the media landscape. We have found a way to harness this chaos of the marketing landscape by aggregating audiences across all of those platforms that we talked about, which helps you identify needs, [and] create smart custom campaigns. It offers a tremendous amount of choice and flexibility regardless of the audience and wherever they're consuming media. It's really that easy.
Host: Absolutely. Stop the fragmentation and chaos. I like it, Jeanette. That's good.
Jeanette Geer: Absolutely.
Host: I like how you also say we're built for what's now and what's next, so I think that's really important. Jeanette, this has really been a lot of fun. Thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.
Jeanette Geer: Thank you for having me.
Host: You bet.
And once again, that is Jeanette Geer, and you can learn more and engage with Spectrum Reach by visiting SpectrumReach.com/healthcare. Once again, that's SpectrumReach.com/healthcare. And if you found this podcast helpful, and please, when you have guests like Jeanette, how can you not find this podcast helpful, people? Come on now. Please make sure you share it on all of your social media channels. We would appreciate it. And make sure you hit subscribe or the follow button to get every episode. This has been a production of Doctor Podcasting. I'm Bill Klaproth. See ya!