TV advertising today is a tangle of legacy and modern tech. For marketers, the biggest hurdle is measuring a campaign’s true impact across broadcast, cable, and streaming. The key to layering platforms and ad types is anchoring each campaign in an unmovable data point.
On a recent episode of the State of Streaming podcast, Shelley Stansfield, Co-Founder of media agency Centriply, walked us through her approach to layering linear and streaming. After 25+ years in the field, Stansfield believes that effective TV advertising needs to anchor every campaign to the household. "The households don't move. They're the common meeting point for data points like zip codes, billing addresses, and voter registration, making them a stable anchor for campaigns," she says.
Grounded in data-driven precision, she starts with mapping at the census block and census tract level. By treating the household as the foundational unit of measurement, campaigns can be aligned with stable, real-world data sets like sales territories, billing addresses, and voting districts. The method creates a unified yardstick for what has traditionally been a fragmented process, which opens the door for campaigns to be measured by tangible business needs.
Herding cats: Stansfield describes a complicated ecosystem of 210 different TV markets, each with its own ever-changing carriage agreements, sales reps, and data standards. "The market is fragmented and regional. Stations vary in coverage, market rules, and sales reps across 210 TV markets. It is like herding cats with a clipboard," she elaborates.
Fax it over: The technical foundation is so inconsistent with data often a mess of subjective, human-entered naming conventions. "How we receive inventory data is a major challenge. The data might come as an XML, a CSV, or an HTML file. Sometimes, it is still sent as a fax. The naming conventions aren't just inconsistent, they can be outright bewildering," she explains.
Instead of waiting for the industry to fix itself, Stansfield and her team built an engine to do it for them. They created a system that can ingest tens of thousands of lines of disparate inventory data and, with the hit of a button, standardize it all to meet a buyer's exact specifications in minutes. The technology enables a unique hybrid buying model they call "advanced TV," which gives clients the predictability of a direct buy combined with the data-rich reporting of a programmatic platform. "Our model works with business needs instead of TV needs. You can measure your mobile, CTV, and linear impressions all into the same area and start to understand the total impact," she outlines.
Once you have the technology to find the right audience, you need the right messaging. This audience's connection to sports is deeply personal and tied to their identity. Reaching them with generic creative is a massive wasted opportunity. The proof is in the numbers.
Champions, not consumers: Streaming-exclusive NFL games can deliver over 66% stronger ad effectiveness than the broadcast and cable TV average. The ad's context can be a primary driver, often outweighing the size of the budget. "Sports fans really want full-on identity. There's a reason team colors appear in email signatures. It's an audience that doesn't just consume, they champion," Stansfield stresses.
Beachfront real estate: With a clear view of the entire market, Centriply can identify undervalued opportunities others miss, including entirely new ad formats like on-screen overlays and split-screen integrations. The biggest opportunity she identifies, however, is women's sports. It's a high-demand, low-clutter environment where brands can achieve Super Bowl passion without the Super Bowl price tag. "Think of women's sports as pristine beachfront real estate: high demand, low clutter, and an opportunity to stake your claim way before anyone else shows up," she advises.
It's an insight embodied by the cultural movement surrounding Caitlin Clark, and a reminder of Stansfield's belief that the most powerful advertising echoes through communities and online chats, way beyond the final whistle. "It's not just good PR for a brand. It's an authentic alignment with the values today's consumers demand: inclusion, progress, and empowerment. That authentic passion quickly transforms into brand loyalty, turning a casual sponsor into a household name."
