Tapping into Streaming TV Ads for Home Improvement and Hobby Brands

If, like most marketers, you’re concerned about the ongoing consumer data crunch, you’re likely looking for more contextually-relevant ways to get in front of the right folks. For home improvement and hobby brands, partnering with interest-based streaming networks is a great way to reach highly-engaged and inspired DIYers.

As TV becomes increasingly like the internet, shoppable streaming ads are becoming more common. Fashion, beauty, and home decor brands were naturally among the first to jump on the trend, letting consumers buy featured items directly from their smart TVs.

But brands in the home improvement and hobby space are also a natural fit to take advantage of the energy and inspiration viewers feel while watching their favorite DIY content. Recently, the Discovery+ streaming service (home to HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, and others) announced the launch of shoppable ads. “For the first time, Discovery will allow viewers to purchase products that align with its library of food and home programming through their TV screens.” (source)

These placements will provide a rich contextual opportunity for brands in the hardware and kitchen tool spaces, tapping into DIYers while they’re consuming their favorite inspirational shows.

The Case for Investing in High-Context Streaming

We know from our recent custom research (full report here), that DIYers are very influenced by their favorite how-to shows. The projects they see on-screen often inspire them to take on new, unexpected endeavors, and they also value product recommendations from the experts on these shows. Many DIYers want to achieve those professional-level results and want the best tools for the job.

We also believe that context matters in ad placements, especially for passion-based brands. It’s common sense that consumers are more likely to be excited and compelled by ads when they are in the right mindset for the message. And research reinforces the conventional wisdom: 69% of consumers are more likely to engage with ads contextually relevant to the content they are viewing (source), and contextually-aligned ads are 93% more memorable than misaligned ads (source).

You can inundate consumers with ham-fisted ads that follow them around the web on low-cost, low-quality sites, but to reach a DIYer when they are watching their favorite home improvement or cooking show just hits different. (That same ‘inspiring context’ effect is why you’ll drop $30 on olive oil at a vacation town cooking store, but bristle at the $12 bottle sitting on a jumbled shelf at the neighborhood Kroger.) These new ad products on Discovery+ and similar networks are one way to leverage premium, thematically-relevant content. Todd Alchin, CMO / Partner at leading independent Media company Noble People says, “The tradeoff for context is often scale. But as streaming platforms continue to provide new scalable options that preserve the value of context-rich placement, it provides potentially effective new avenues.”

How Your DIY Brand Can Leverage These New Opportunities

Magnify the Power of Product Placements

DIYers are devoted to their favorite on-screen personalities—from talented renovators to meticulous bakers—and brands have partnered with home improvement and cooking channels on product placements for years.

Shoppable ads are a great way to close the loop during shows featuring paid placements, offering an easy way to drive an immediate sale. This type of full-funnel experience was historically only available online, but the hybrid qualities of streaming TV bring conversion-driving units into the traditional living room viewing experience, too. Soon clicking your remote will be as easy and intuitive as clicking your mouse.

Look for hyper-contextual opportunities

While shopability is great for consumers who are poised to buy now, Discovery+’s new ad products also include the opportunity to run spots during commercial breaks when certain words and expressions appear in the show itself.

Since viewers often choose specific episodes of a given show based on their current interests (like landscaping, basement renovations, or holiday baking), your brand can reach them at a relevant time in their project-planning cycle. It’s the perfect chance to make an impression and play up your product’s features and benefits while consumers are still highly-inspired and motivated, but before they’ve stocked up on the necessary supplies.

If you’re selling battery-powered weed whackers, your ad is more likely to catch an interested eye during an episode focused on landscaping projects than one featuring bathroom rehabs.

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As Google and Apple continue to protect data privacy and further limit advertisers’ ability to behaviorally-target consumers online, marketers will need to find innovative ways to utilize other platforms to stay ahead of the curve. Streaming TV can be a highly-relevant, influential, and trusted place to showcase your home improvement or hobby brand for a category-engaged audience.