Anatomy of An Ad Break: X Factor and Im A Celebrity

X Factor

December is probably the biggest month of the year for TV advertisers. The cold dark nights and big name shows ensure a captive audience, while Christmas means that audience is more than likely looking to spend money.

With that in mind, I spent an hour of Sunday night primetime with two of ITVs reality TV juggernauts: the final of Im A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, and the X Factor semi-final results show. I wasnt watching for the programmes themselves, luckily, but for the commercial breaks.

This was doubtless some of the years most expensive ad inventory in any medium, and plenty of big brands were represented, including Microsoft, Morrisons and, memorably, Sainsburys – more on which later. But were they taking full advantage of the second screen opportunities available in the official X Factor app, or the tagging capabilities of Shazam for TV?

Tagging troubles
The hour included five sets of ads: two during each programme, plus the break in-between.

In that whole time, I saw just one Shazamable ad, for Microsofts Xbox One console.

An animated Shazam icon flashed up in the corner of the screen, encouraging viewers to dig out their phones and tag the ad to access extra content. Unfortunately, by the time Id found the app in my phones menu, skipped through the sign-in screens and pressed the big Shazam button, the ad was over. Its worth noting that I was looking out for this prompt and, when the ad began, already had the phone in my hand – and still didnt manage it.

While Shazam for TV is a great idea, and one which very sensibly extends the apps potential for monetisation, this is definitely an issue. After all, theres much less margin for error with a 30-second ad than the three minute duration of your average pop song.

X Factor 2Judge, jury and app user
I had more luck with the official X Factor tie-in app, which is sponsored by Dominos Pizza. This manifests in a small Hungry for more? Tap me prompt, linking to a mobile-optimised micro site, which pops up when the app is loaded.

Overall, its an impressively complete offering. The app features news updates, videos of auditions and performances, and sponsored content presented by Samsung, Mars, and TRESemmé. Votes are also available to users as an in-app purchase – though as this is iOS only, so my Android handset just offered click-to-call functionality.

But the real meat of the app lies in its Fifth Judge feature, which focuses on second screen engagement. Users can rate performances live, answer quiz questions and fill out polls, and then see how other users responded. This is all gamified with a scoring system, tied into Facebook, which rewards users for interacting more.

During the breaks, this section is taken over by a single multi-page ad. In the examples I saw – one for Skys NowTV and another encouraging me to buy a Percy Jackson DVD at Tesco – there was a definite focus on direct response, though the Tesco ad did incorporate some rich video and social content too.

Missed opportunities
Its a brilliant way of combating second screen viewers tendency to pay attention to their phone instead of the ads, but the content didnt line up with what was on screen.

One break featured multiple short PS3 spots, while another was entirely taken up by a long-form Sainsburys ad, but the app was pushing completely different products. Similarly, while TalkTalk, which sponsors the programme, has its own branded tie-in app for the programme, I didnt see a single link to to download it. With such a sophisticated and varied app in place, not synchronising ad content in this way feels like a missed opportunity.

While its definitely a good thing that brands like Tesco and Sky are willing to put ad dollars behind the shows mobile offering, its hard not to ask why Sainsburys – which will have spent a tidy sum on its ad break takeover – didnt spend a little extra to own the entire experience, whether youre little at the big screen across the room or the small screen in your hands.