New Sony Partnership Let’s Viewers Shop Directly From Their Smart TV

Why we’re all in on performance branding – and how it can transform your growth.

New Sony Partnership Let’s Viewers Shop Directly From Their Smart TV

Bryan Karas

October 5, 2018

We have self driving cars, space rockets that can came back to Earth and land safely and untraceable digital currencies but we’re still not at a time when I can just stick my hand into the television set and grab anything I want. I know…what a shame.

But Sony’s new partnership with Connekt is a step in the right direction – Connekt already has advertising partners in the space – LG, Hisense, Verizon and Roku just to name a few…

The Sony/Connekt partnership let’s viewers “shop products from hundreds of brands and retailers that include Macy’s, Best Buy and Fanatics, directly from the ShopTV app located in their smart TV’s app store.”

Move over Lori Greiner

Buying things from TV isn’t new – QVC has been selling us things for decades. But T-commerce brings us to a whole new level…

Imagine watching golf and Ricky Fowler steps up to the tee and crushes the ball 300 yards. Now imagine a little ad popping up in the left corner as our boy Ricky walks down the fairway. The ad is for a Puma hat…the same one Ricky’s wearing right there on live TV – and you can click that ad and buy that hat.

Or…you’re watching a primetime drama and your favorite actress is wearing a trendy new top. What if you could scroll over to an app store, right on the TV, search the show and buy that top? That would be pretty awesome, right?

Connekt Four Things

Connekt reported that “76 percent of viewers would purchase products they see in TV ads or TV shows in real time using their remote.”

But if you’re thinking about getting into this OTT game, you’ll need to know these four things:

The whole buying cycle is right in front of them. Taking your customer from awareness to purchase in one fell swoop entails more than just attention grabbing headlines and shock value.
Adding TV to your omni-channel sales presence means optimizing your website and user experience for the big screen – capitalizing on its high-impact, visual potential.
Buying from your TV is still kind of new – people aren’t used to it yet. But people are used to buying from their phones. So if someone isn’t ready to buy right from the TV you can still direct them to your site on mobile.
Just like other digital channels, you will need to get familiar with the data you’ll be getting access to and working with to measure ROI.

How to Optimize TV Ads to Drive Product Discovery

If you’re not ready to jump into the deep end with T-commerce and OTT but you are interested in driving product awareness and discovery through television then you’ll want to check out this blog post from Google. It covers everything from creating a hook, optimizing ads for mobile search, crafting the perfect CTA and analyzing all your new data.