7M Discovery has gone live, providing brands with data-driven insight on when they and their industry are discussed on TV to enable tactical planning for marketing strategies.
Launched by contextual data company 7th Minute, the tool uses transcription technologies to identify and analyse every word spoken on TV and determine whether it is an ad or occurs as part of a broadcast programme.
Sign-up to the self-service platform is free and straightforward, after which users can search the resulting database for relevant terms (such as brand, product and competitor information); these ‘TV mentions’ are presented via a dashboard and a series of easy-to-read charts.
Results are granular, providing details of the day, time, TV channel and TV programme where the TV mention occurred. Using data to understand how and when they are discussed on TV gives brands new empirical data to underpin marketing strategies and differentiate between paid content (advertising) and earned content (mentions during broadcast programmes).
Users can also link sales and search data to see the specific TV content that influences consumer behaviour and engagement. They can also track content trends over time and link marketing activity to relevant themes while also monitoring competitors’ activity and mentions.
Additional features currently planned include sentiment analysis to further understand the context of a mention and identify the potential opportunities arising from it, as well as any threats (such as a negative news story), with follow-up actions planned accordingly.
More future plans for the tool include audience reach and demographic data, real-time notifications, contextual information and increased personalisation of the client’s brand workspace.
Ed French, managing director at 7th Minute, said: “TV is a hugely powerful channel – but it can be impossible to know which parts are working best; our new platform opens the black box that is TV content to deliver TV mentions, which we see as the new frontier of media planning.”
“Brand managers and their teams no longer need to make decisions based on gut instinct; 7M Discovery finds the relevant data, laying it out clearly to show what works, and what doesn’t. Taking the mystery out of TV data enables confident, informed decision-making.” The new 7M Discovery follows the beta version preview made available in March this year.
A self-service tool, it offers a free option, with pricing starting at £199 per month (+ VAT) for the ability to add additional search terms and use TV data from the previous 12 months.