Reach, Frequency and Beyond. Insights from Comscore and YouTube.

With the attendance of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift at Kansas City Chiefs games, the NFL has proven itself one of the most innovative publishers in the U.S. in leveraging the story across platforms to grow its audiences.

On advertising’s biggest night, the Super Bowl, legions of Americans show up every year, for the game itself, the halftime show, events like viewing parties, or simply because it’s more fun eating wings with friends. For advertisers, adding YouTube CTV to their linear campaign strategy can give their reach a critical boost during the Big Game.

As streaming becomes more commonplace, with 81% of total homes (with Wifi) now streaming on CTV*, the way viewers are watching the Super Bowl is changing rapidly.

YouTube asked Comscore to examine 15 Super Bowl LVII campaigns and how they reached viewers who watched the ads exclusively on CTV. According to Comscore, during the Super Bowl time period, YouTube reached 88% of adults 18-49 with a Super Bowl ad vs. 68% on linear TV.

Source: Custom analysis of 15 Comscore Campaign Ratings Super Bowl LVII studies analyzing linear TV vs. YouTube CTV, desktop, and mobile delivery for 18-49 in the U.S. between 2/5/2023-2/19/2023; Analysis Time Period = 1 Week Pre and 1 Week Post Super Bowl; Advertisers randomly selected among those who expressed interest in participating in Google-funded meta analysis and among those who ran YouTube media in the week leading up to and after Super Bowl

Gen Z is a major part of why YouTube achieved that result. Based on their average viewing habits, the higher likelihood is that when Gen Z viewers see an ad, they won’t be seeing it on linear. This Super Bowl campaign analysis proves that trend — over 60% of adults 18-34 who saw an ad on YouTube never saw it on linear TV.

Source: Custom analysis of 15 Comscore Campaign Ratings Super Bowl LVII studies analyzing linear TV vs. YouTube CTV, desktop, and mobile delivery for 18-34 in the U.S. on 2/12/2023; Analysis Time Period = Day of the Super Bowl; Advertisers randomly selected among those who expressed interest in participating in YouTube-funded meta analysis and among those who ran YouTube media in the week leading up to and after the Super Bowl

Why was YouTube CTV such a pivotal part of these campaigns? As audience viewing habits continue to consolidate across screens, it’s not only what viewers are watching but also where and how they consume content that matters to a campaign’s success.

It comes as no surprise that, using the Comscore Campaign Ratings (CCR) measurement solution, we have confirmed that advertising on YouTube CTV can vastly increase a campaign’s reach when used in conjunction with linear TV. This follows research with Comscore in 2022, which surfaced similar trends that continue to accelerate.

Plus, the latest analysis from Comscore shows that CTV can generate equal or greater rates of incremental daily reach vs. linear TV.

This shift reflects the device penetration in households in the US with Wifi today. The average number of connected devices per household in the U.S. has risen quickly — from 10 to 12 — between January 2020 and January 2023. Over the same period, the number of households with Smart TV devices has increased by 67%, and we’ve seen a 64% spike in total hours watched on CTV. With this exponential increase of screens and content, advertisers and marketers need to swiftly adapt their campaigns to achieve the best ROI for their brands.

Looking at the performance of ads on the day of the championship game, amongst those aged 18-49 who saw a Super Bowl ad on YouTube, 56% saw it only on YouTube, and not on linear TV.

Source: Custom analysis of 15 Comscore Campaign Ratings Super Bowl LVII studies analyzing linear TV vs. YouTube CTV, desktop, and mobile delivery for viewers aged 18-49 in the U.S. on 2/12/2023; Analysis Time Period = Day of the Super Bowl; Advertisers randomly selected among those who expressed interest in participating in YouTube-funded meta analysis and among those who ran YouTube media in the week leading up to and after the Super Bowl.

YouTube & Comscore: Partners in Campaign Measurement

Expanding into newer platforms like CTV comes with weighty questions for advertisers. Brands and agencies needing to better understand, adapt and evolve their cross-platform advertising strategies, depend on granular insights into campaign reach, frequency, and effectiveness like those available with Comscore’s CCR.

Comscore’s analysis for YouTube provides actionable insights that demonstrate the importance of data-driven decision making with measurement solutions like CCR to unlock true ad effectiveness. Advertisers can leverage CCR to accurately measure performance and optimize their campaigns for better results across all screens with person-level cross-platform ad measurement.

As one of Ads Data Hub (ADH) measurement partners - a cloud-based, privacy-first measurement solution that enables customized analysis - Comscore was the first YouTube measurement partner to deliver deduplicated audience measurement across all devices, including CTV and co-viewing. Comscore’s integration unlocks cross-platform measurement across all devices for YouTube advertisers.

Powered by insights on reach, frequency and beyond, brands can find success by integrating CTV into existing campaigns to stay at the forefront of audiences’ dynamic, multi-device viewing habits.

* 2023 State of Streaming