Shop the Screen: Discover the Future of Streaming and Shopping with Peacock’s Shoppable TV

Have you ever experienced wanting to buy a product that you see on-screen as you stream your favorite movies and shows? What if I told you that this is now possible with just a click from your remote?

Sounds impossible?

NBCUniversal introduces Shoppable TV — taking product placement to a revolutionary next level. NBCU is enhancing its shoppable TV campaigns for Peacock by employing KERV Interactive’s technology to enable viewers to interact with and purchase items featured in videos. By using a remote, viewers can purchase the exact or comparable products from the One Platform Commerce Marketplace. The ultimate goal of Shoppable TV is to enable a true on-screen shopping experience.

This is a truly remarkable feat as it opens a world of opportunities for brands and marketers alike. Although understandably, being the first of its kind, it currently still has its limitations such as only being able to direct the viewer to products that are available on the One Platform Commerce Marketplace. However, looking at the big picture and the potential of Shoppable TV, a possible next step is being able to embed a brand’s own link so that viewers can be directed straight to the actual product on the brand’s website for purchase.

There are a few points as to why Shoppable TV can positively change the game for brands and marketers:

Measurable Success

Product placements can get very expensive but brands continue to do this because it’s a great tactic for exposure to achieve high reach. One of the biggest pitfalls of this, however, is that it’s difficult to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the ad. Once a movie or a show is released, the best a brand can do is to monitor how many viewers the video has and how many times it’s been seen. Although it is great for brand awareness, it may be difficult to justify such an investment with something that isn’t so concrete.

Shoppable TV fills this gap and opens up an opportunity that will allow brands to track the actual engagements of viewers with their product placement. With the help of tracking links, brands will finally be able to monitor the performance of their ad. Among other things, they will be able to see how many scanned their product, what video they scanned it from, and most importantly, who and how many have purchased their product through their placement. This is very exciting for marketers as this finally solves a decades-long issue with product placement.

Clearer Targeting

Another upside to using tracking links is the ability to gather data on viewers who engaged with the ads. This allows brands to gain a precise understanding of their target audience, their interests, and their movie or show preferences, allowing for more effective targeting.

Moreover, Shoppable TV is helpful when it comes to targeting because brands are able to do more targeted product placements. Especially for niche or smaller brands, there is more incentive to take advantage of product placements by putting them in genres that are relevant to their products. They can expand their reach, collect data, and encourage purchases all through one ad.

New Marketing Campaign Ideas

As someone who’s always enjoyed ideating on new marketing campaigns, having Shoppable TV is very exciting as it presents a new platform to include in the media mix. Videos are a great way to showcase products as they are staged in real-life situations, allowing viewers to see them in action.

For instance, a fashion brand can launch a new collection through a movie that viewers can scan and shop from. The brand can promote the movie and its collection together. The possibilities are limitless, and it’s exciting to see what marketers will create with this new platform.

Undivided Attention

A bonus advantage of Shoppable TV is that you’re advertising to an audience who chose to watch the movie or show. Since they are already engrossed in the content, placing a product on the screen will draw their attention. The audience’s attention is further captured by the option to purchase directly. This eliminates the need to compete for attention with other brands in the same space.

A Caveat

Putting everything together, the benefits of Shoppable TV all depend on one thing: the execution. At the end of the day, people are there because they want to watch a movie or show. The placement of these products and how a viewer can scan them must be extremely organic and should be non-intrusive — it should not ruin the viewing experience.

Overall, I’m very excited and curious to see how this will roll out. There are lots of great opportunities here and NBCUniversal is revolutionizing a marketing tactic — product placement — that’s been around for almost a century. There is still no exact timeline for the release of Shoppable TV but they are targeting to do so this 2023.

What are your thoughts on Shoppable TV? Yay or nay?

Thank you for reading this week’s blog post, and I’ll see you in the next one!